The Curious Case of Bradley Wiggins
Brad Wiggins is an enigma. There is a lot about him that makes him easy to dislike. That mopey, Pete Townshend look on his face and mop hairdo are the low-hanging fruit in this case, with the length of his socks being there to round out the podium in a close third. Also, he dropped Bont for Giro, which is unacceptable mostly because the Giros make his feet look like dolphin flippers. And don’t get me started on the beard.
His Tour de France win in 2012 was probably the least interesting of this century; the standout memory from that event being the rumours of back-of-the-bus catfights between him and Chris Froome. I’m picturing something out of the broom scene in Fantasia, which almost makes up for how crap the actual race was.
When he targeted Paris-Roubaix this year I was haunted by visions of him sitting on some hideous throne while trying to hoist that beautiful cobble over his head. Fans at the roadside were waving WIGGO flags around that had a cobblestone on it, which made me want to stop and start drinking simultaneously.
I’ve never been a fan, but somehow I’ve always found him to be one of the most interesting characters in the peloton and one who I continue to have my eye on, watching for his next move.
I feel strongly that when someone is at the top of the sport, there comes with that a responsibility to lead and to be an ambassador. At the same time, I’ve always appreciated his unapologetic uneasiness with leadership and with being in the spotlight. He was also the first person in history to call the whole of the Cycling public both cunts and wankers in a single press conference, which is so wildly offensive that it kind of goes full circle to being funny.
He was born in Belgium. You have to love that. And he’s the only Grand Tour contender to target a cobbled classic since Greg LeMond, albeit not in the same year. Finally, he has a deep respect for the sport’s history, to the extent that he raced up the Ventoux with a photo of Tom Simpson in his jersey pocket in honor of his fallen countryman. Not to mention that he’s a bit of a fashion hound, striving to look as Fantastic off the bike as on it. Our personal tastes may differ, but at least he’s a Velominatus.
Finally, he’s the only one of the Time Trial Triumvirate of Faboo, Wiggins, and Der Panzerwagon to stake out the Hour Record as a goal immediately after the UCI modified the regulations, and went on to crush it, restoring honor to what was once one of the coolest events in Cycling.
In a modern Cycling model where the principle objective appears to be repeating the same feats as many times as possible, I find it incredibly refreshing that Wiggo seems satisfied with achieving a goal once and moving on to the next challenge with little thought of repeating. What’s next for Brad Wiggins? Sounds like he’s hoping for some Olympic shenanigans but who knows. He’s done that before.
@ped
Hah. Absolute classic. We are just getting warmed up here.
https://youtu.be/6QftnPNjQXs.
@frank
And here’s the Fall on cadElephant
https://youtu.be/kJTMoM3Btoo
@Ron
Jesus, Ron.
@Ron
People get tattoos for different reasons, not necessarily because they want to look like tough bikers – and there are plenty of leather-clad inked-up guys on Harleys who would be unable to defend themselves against someone armed with a wet lettuce.
They’re like bikes in many ways – you can get a great bike because you like the beauty and artistry of it, not because you’re a great rider. I think to many people tattoos are about being in control of your own body and for some it’s about taking pride in it.
Having said that I agree Wiggo’s are pretty rubbish – not the execution but the design is all over the place and the names with the stars are just tacky.
@The Grande Fondue
This! The thing I dig about Wiggo is that he is clearly a fan and student of the history of sport, both the people and the machines. I don’t really get that feeling so much from the other notable high profile pros currently. I’d have a beer with the guy and happily check out his stable of bikes
@Nate
Oh yes we are! I was going to post Mr Pharmacist but we’re talking Wiggo, not COTHO or a host of other incandescent riders.
Here’s my fave Fall track:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHdsJz6EetE
You know, I could see Wiggo and Mark E. Smith getting on. Both like the beer, and have an ornery, bloody-minded streak to them. Sky was built around Wiggo, and The Fall have always, always been about one man: Mr Smith.
@wiscot
British People in Hot Weather + Mr Pharmacist = Tommy Simpson?
@Ron
What the fuck are you talking about? I’ve got about 24 hours worth of tattooing on my body and I’ve never been in a motorcycle gang. I didn’t get tattoos to look tough. As @ChrisO pointed out, people get tattoos for different reasons. And at 1.6 meters and 54 kg’s, no one would peg me for anything but a skinny nerd, which is actually what a lot of cyclists look like. However, if you’ve gotten more than one or two trite tattoos in your life, you know that they can really hurt. Have you sat through a 5 hour tattoo session? There’s a certain level of ‘ruff’ness that’s necessary, similar to being a cyclist. To take it a step further, I know a good handful of punkers, who, after maturing some, kept the tattoos but manage to grow into professionals who dress the part when necessary.
To the point of the post, I like Wiggins. He’s no Boonen or Gilbert, but he’s a genuine cyclist who’s put in the work. Maybe not the most interesting and uses data more than raw power, but he wouldn’t win if the power wasn’t there to back it up.
We’re all talking opinions here, since none of us are pals with him. (someone here has probably met him though) My opinion is that his tattoos and his bad haircut look stupid.
I like nice tattoos! I don’t like manufactured edginess, and that is how I read most folks these days with their entire arms and legs covered. It used to be a sign of an outcast (or at least outside the bell curve) and now, like so much, has been mostly co-opted. And that is what rubs me the wrong way.
I like genuine character and substance. Take Sagan. That guy seems genuinely like a loon, nothing fake about him, in my opinion. I’m definitely far from normal but, I like to let my behavior speak for itself…
Bradley Wiggins is a strange one. Hes adored by the British public for winning the most boring Tour de France in the modern era, which frankly his team mate Chris Froome was the better rider, having a Mod and old fashioned lifestyle which is dominated by long sideburns, rock music, and motorbikes, and finally being a multiple Olympic medalist, for which I would admire him for.
Im a young British cyclist so I would be lying to you if Id said I havent admired him in the past. Since Chris Froome’s Tour de France succes, I have learnt how to win a grand tour. His racing style was the complete oposite to that of Wiggins, it was agressive and majestic, unlike the monotonous circles and power meter calculations which Wiggns used to his succes. The Belgian born Brit also had no opponents whom couldve taken his crown, except for his own team mate of cause!
In 2014 he won the time trial worlds, the first time in his a carear and as he calles it, “a life-time goal”. He wore the rainbow stripes competitvely twice. This is meerly honouring jersey.
For me, I believe Bradley Wiggins is a strange figure. I strongly deteste his road riding style but im sure my overal opinions will change if he gets more gold medals for Team GB in the Rio olympics!
Met an elderly Scottish Lady (a real one with a title), today –
Tattoos – they’re for Sailors and tarts!
@SamV
I’m sure no personal reflections were intended… nipple lube.
@Ron
I’ve had tattoos for a long time but until recently small-ish and not visible and I sort of forget about it.
I was in the gym just yesterday – I go down most days to do a 15 minute walk as part of the physio for my hip and the only thing I do is a brisk walk on the treadmill (it’s 45C outside).
As I enter I see someone getting on the last free treadmill. Damn. But I’m in no rush and it doesn’t usually take long for one to free up.
But before I settle down the guy who’d just got on sees me and hops off to offer up the treadmill. I’ve seen him there before, usually around the weights and machines, but never spoken to him. I say I’m happy to wait but he says No it’s OK, he can do something else and he knows I only ever use the treadmill.
I thank him but then while I’m walking I’m thinking ‘That’s odd.’ I mean I don’t always wear the same kit, I’m only there for 15 minutes, not always at the same time either, and the treadmills face the wall away from the weights and machines. I recognised his face but how could he notice me specifically enough to know I only use the treadmills.
It wasn’t until I was going back up in the lift that I caught sight of my leg and remembered I have a bloody great kirin (like a dragon) tattoo up the back of my calf, which would stand out like a tomcat’s bollocks.
@Josh Ustaran-Anderegg
As Master Yoda might say, you must unlearn what you have learned.
@Nate
You, Sir, have a cruel and strange sense of humor. No wonder you fit in so well on this site!
@Ron
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion. I’ve got no personal feelings on his overall sense of style. I do have some rather large sideburns, but don’t care who else does or doesn’t. Like they say, there’s no accounting for taste.
I obviously disagree with you on the ‘manufactured edginess’ angle. Maybe that’s why some people do it, but the amount of work Wiggo has, I’m estimating at least 35-40 hours worth from what’s visible, that’s a lot of time and pain to manufacture an image. Yes, tattoos have certainly been co-opted, but that’s the way of things isn’t it?
Don’t mistake quiet or aloof for disingenuousness. Some people have big personalities (Sagan), some seem almost entirely ‘normal’ (Froome) and some are something different entirely (Wiggins). I’ve been accused of being aloof, cocky and/or snobby at one point or another. Really I’m just not great at social interaction (groups of people make me anxious) so I stay pretty quiet. Maybe Sir Brad isn’t either. Calling a reporter a cunt strikes me as a poorly conducted, yet entirely genuine social interaction.
@wiscot
I worried a little about this being off color (or should I say off colour) but figured that the odds that a cycling fan would (a) be obsessed with The Fall and (b) find this offensive were pretty much nil.
Another +1: he owns and hopefully rides a Lambretta SX200. I rebuilt and rode a TV200 for a while, and would love to chat with him about gearbox ratios.
<blockquote class=”instagram-media” data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version=”4″ style=” background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% – 2px); width:calc(100% – 2px);”><div style=”padding:8px;”> <div style=” background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;”> <div style=” background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAAGFBMVEUiIiI9PT0eHh4gIB4hIBkcHBwcHBwcHBydr+JQAAAACHRSTlMABA4YHyQsM5jtaMwAAADfSURBVDjL7ZVBEgMhCAQBAf//42xcNbpAqakcM0ftUmFAAIBE81IqBJdS3lS6zs3bIpB9WED3YYXFPmHRfT8sgyrCP1x8uEUxLMzNWElFOYCV6mHWWwMzdPEKHlhLw7NWJqkHc4uIZphavDzA2JPzUDsBZziNae2S6owH8xPmX8G7zzgKEOPUoYHvGz1TBCxMkd3kwNVbU0gKHkx+iZILf77IofhrY1nYFnB/lQPb79drWOyJVa/DAvg9B/rLB4cC+Nqgdz/TvBbBnr6GBReqn/nRmDgaQEej7WhonozjF+Y2I/fZou/qAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;”></div></div> <p style=” margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;”> <a href=”https://instagram.com/p/hQZquhzL7O/” style=” color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;” target=”_top”>Taken delivery this morning, thank you Fred Perry and Gran Sport</a></p> <p style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;”>A photo posted by Sir Wiggo (@bradwiggins) on <time style=” font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;” datetime=”2013-11-28T11:15:10+00:00″>Nov 28, 2013 at 3:15am PST</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async defer src=”//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”></script>
@John Irvine
So much for my mad Instagram embed skillz. https://instagram.com/p/hQZquhzL7O/
Whatever the case of Bradley Wiggins, I’ll experiment with a Mahou mini-beer in my jersey pocket.
@Nate
I love The Fall. Anyone whose sense of humo(u)r sits within narrow parameters wouldn’t like The Fall. I believe they are what is commonly termed “an acquired taste.”
Wouldn’t see this on MTV these days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDq5KKNVbA
And for those kurious why all the Fall love,
https://youtu.be/GuKXYeRCUzI
@ped
Not curious.
I love Wiggo. No apologies. For those of you who think his Mod looks are an affectation, I guess you’d be right except *most subcultures* are a bit of playing dress-up (punks, skins, goths, rockabillies, you name it). Not gonna lie, part of this is that I was a scooterist like John Irvine and have been there, done that. It’s not inauthentic to dress fancy or ‘weird’ if it’s pretty much one of your main interests, and even the original Mods dressed up on purpose to rile people.
I also loved how he seemed to be relishing being skipped for the Tour and was just like ‘posting cool bikes on Twitter nbd’ when slighted in favor of Froome.
The pic of him giving his kid his first track bike for Christmas, also on Twitter (stalker? who me?) is 100 percent perfect. Dude’s a cyclist, who cares about his beard length or the tightness of his suits?
Wiggo is most certainly a Velominatus, and of a quite high order. That’s good enough for me. @ped beat me to the Normandie sprint. That was pure panache. Doesn’t seem like his head has ever been anyplace near his ass. I really started liking him when he started eating up the stones. Cycling would get back to it’s former glory if more riders, like Sir Wiggo, would work on being complete riders. I’d go as far as to say that he’s one of my most favorite riders and personalities to watch in the peloton in recent times.
YEEEAH
Can someone explain the sock height hate?
He’s long and lean – of course he’s going to wear long sock height…anything less will make him look longer.
Material is another matter: some of those Sky socks on Paris Roubaix looked like stockings.
@Spider
There’s a right and a wrong way to do everything, including choosing sock length. Plus long socks make you look more like that COTHO, which is never a good thing.
Not a Wiggins fan, mainly because everyone else and the media is, but that’s just me. On a side note, the title picture, is he trying to look like Dali or is that just coincidence ?
I love him.
I think he’s just an ordinary bloke with immense talent and application, he’s achieved a lot, got famous, and is a bit uncomfortable with it all.
That interview at the ’12 TdF was pure gold, the stuff of legend. A heartfelt message delivered with passion and a few proper expletives. The perfect antidote to all the vacuous, media-trained platitudes we hear all the time.
He is an deffinitly an enigmatic fellow, also one hell of a bike rider, as you said. He has been one the riders I’ve wanted to succeed over the last 5-6 years( i kinda have a crush on him). Bradley is a bad ass, might be a bit of Jack-ass too but at least he is a funny one, and one the great one
@Nate
Sorry, still mining gold from the old thread-pits around here but this fucking killed me. Both the original comment and Nate’s response.
Granted the original poster said he was a young cyclist but there is much, much work to be done here if he thinks that any Froome victory “was agressive and majestic, unlike the monotonous circles and power meter calculations ….” Brother, we need to chain this lad down and make him watch Merckx or Le Blaireau or Fignon and LeMan battling it out in TDF’s past. Not demeaning him, just pointing out that there is so much that he needs to see.
Love or hate his personality, he’s a legend through and through. It’s worth mentioning that his arrogance since 2012 has mellowed considerably and appears to be quite a good guy to be around judging by comments about him among the pro peloton. Let’s not forget Nibali was there at the 2012 TdF and Cadel Evans wasn’t lying down so the competition wasn’t as sparse as everyone makes it out to be and while Froome is better in the mountains, Wiggins still gashed him by 20+ seconds and then over a minute in the TT stages. No mention of leading out the rainbow jersey to victory in the last few stages including the Champs-Elysees? I don’t think we’ll ever see that done again.
There’s something to be said for TT specialists who can dominate the field against the clock and then hold onto the lead. Doesn’t make for exciting entertainment but as an athlete, that’s something to be well respected. Then to be up there with Tony Martin and Spartacus while also being a GC contender at the same time, something the other two couldn’t dream of doing…
It’s great that he’s always targeted a single thing and then moved onto the next. Rainbow jersies and Olympic gold on the track, won a grand tour, podium on another, won a bunch sprint, won a one day road race (national road race in 2011 and yes, Froome was there too along with Kennaugh, G, and Stannard), rainbow jersey and Olympic gold on the road, placed well in Roubaix, hour record, and now back to the track to bring it full circle.
@Billy Whitmore
Well said, I agree. I thoroughly enjoyed his win in the Tour and all his other amazing performances – as you say, when will we ever see the Tour winner leading out on the Champs again? He’s a class act and it’s a great shame he’s been so dismissed.
i like Wiggins. his looks, his ink, his track-honed pedal strone. ain’t a fan of the socks, but who cares? i’m old and slow. and i couldn’t care less about his TUE scandal.
@Cary
I like Wiggo too but if he is a doper, which I now believe is probable, I like him considerably less. What would make him different than whats his name from Texas?
@Rick
that’s obvious. Wiggo only won one tour.
@Cary
But if he won by doping, he is as guilty as that other guy.
..and the rest of the peloton, too. even after all these scandals, i understand the tendency to assume there are still “clean” riders. (whatever that means) but c’mon man, how many times are you going to be let down before you realize that the pharmacy is, and has been, a decade-plus ahead of the testing labs. and even that is taking on the now naive belief that testing labs will be used to out dirty athletes, as opposed to protecting them.
Descubre los mejores organizadores de maquillaje en organizador de maquillaje no dudes en visitarnos.