Bradley Wiggins Retirement

Daroxtar

From his Instagram page

I have been lucky enough to live a dream and fulfil my childhood aspiration of making a living and a career out of the sport I fell in love with at the age of 12. I've met my idols and ridden with and alongside the best for 20 years. I have worked with the world’s best coaches and managers who I will always be grateful to for their support.

What will stick with me forever is the support and love from the public though thick and thin, all as a result of riding a pushbike for a living. 2012 blew my mind and was a gas. Cycling has given me everything and I couldn't have done it without the support of my wonderful wife Cath and our amazing kids.

2016 is the end of the road for this chapter, onwards and upwards, "feet on the ground, head in the clouds" kids from Kilburn don't win Olympic Golds and Tour de Frances'! They do now.

https://twitter.com/Karl_PT/status/814122826064138240

ednwireland

yawn -much as i loved the guy as a cyclist i'm bored of his 'retirement' now.

Bristolscale7

I hear he's moving to a dry climate for his various allergies and such.

godtabh

i've seen a photo like that before. I wonder will time be good on Brad?

velo.2010

Maybe if he gave up the fags he wouldn't have needed the cough bottle?

irishrover99

godtabh wrote: »

i've seen a photo like that before. I wonder will time be good on Brad?

Brad seems more teflon than lance. His team sky boss has already been in front of of a parliamentary committee while brad is still been lauded.

Mr.Crinklewood

"The Verve " should re-release one of their songs in his honour.

JK.BMC

Mr.Crinklewood wrote: »

"The Verve " should re-release one of their songs in his honour.

Lucky Man? I agree with that. He has had a fair slice of luck in life.

Or is it Bittersweet Symphony????

Am I missing something here??????

judeboy101

Shares in asthma medicine companies have nosedived

Spanish Eyes

Went before he was pushed.

Allergies indeed. WTAF.

They must really think we are all stooopid.

Still, he will not see a poor day again.

ninoon

He helped to bring British Cycling forward in my opinion and he has not been charged or convicted of any offence that I know of, so innocent until proved guilty of wrongdoing , I say.

judeboy101

ninoon wrote: »

He helped to bring British Cycling forward in my opinion and he has not been charged or convicted of any offence that I know of, so innocent until proved guilty of wrongdoing , I say.

Lance retired without being charged or convicted.

NIMAN

I have my own thoughts on this guy, and would be delighted if he comes a cropper a la Lance.

RobFowl

Some very negative vibes here !

Personally wish the guy well, possibly the best every track cyclist and won his tour well beating everyone else and taking nothing his team mate wasn't any-ways ...

NIMAN

Win his tour well?

But did he win any of his top competitions fairly?

RobFowl

NIMAN wrote: »

Win his tour well?

But did he win any of his top competitions fairly?

As it stands he won them all with in the rules so, yes fairly

flutered

funny that when the questions begin to mount up and become very pointed he retired, wishing him well in the future, is the old there is no smoke without a fire raises questions in my cynical head

Brian?

RobFowl wrote: »

Some very negative vibes here !

Personally wish the guy well, possibly the best every track cyclist and won his tour well beating everyone else and taking nothing his team mate wasn't any-ways ...

He won the most boring Tour ever.

He was a seriously boring rider and I certainly won't miss him. He maximised his talent and is not guilty of any rule breach.

Don't Chute!

flutered wrote: »

funny that when the questions begin to mount up and become very pointed he retired, wishing him well in the future, is the old there is no smoke without a fire raises questions in my cynical head

He's 36 years old. How long do you expect him to go on for?

Bristolscale7

ninoon wrote: »

He helped to bring British Cycling forward in my opinion and he has not been charged or convicted of any offence that I know of, so innocent until proved guilty of wrongdoing , I say.

He's not guilty of anything other than having a weak constitution that requires sustained use of asthma medicine and other remedies. I think we all accept that the drug use he did was 'legal.' He didn't break the law. He's just an asshole.

76544567

Cycling. Where the rule is Guilty until proven innocent - and with good reason.

i dont watch it anymore. Cycling should just be banned as a sport at this stage.

Doc07

RobFowl wrote: »

Some very negative vibes here !

Personally wish the guy well, possibly the best every track cyclist and won his tour well beating everyone else and taking nothing his team mate wasn't any-ways ...

I always liked Wiggins. I got interested in cycling for first time in years after 2012 tour and watching his final time trial and then the Olympic TT.

However he deserves all the negative vibes and more. He and his team consciously , deliberately, in a very calculated fashion, chose to treat his aliments or potential ailments/allergies with the most famous performance enhancing drug (kenacort) in cycling outside of EPO/blood transfusions.

Yes the system 'allowed' it but he still made the ultimate decision to take it.

Lumen

I like Wiggo. He's an interesting personality, has an amazing position on the bike, and rode a smart TdF to win. It's not his fault he was born with a very flat power profile and can't hack steep climbs.

He was very thin for that race in 2012. Doesn't cortisone cause fluid retention?

I don't doubt the asthma was real, and I can see how a "captured" doctor could view the cortisone injections as a win-win. Pro cycling isn't healthy even without injections. In some ways the tramadol abuse is worse, riders flying along at 50kph half asleep gets people killed.

Lying about the no needles was totally wrong.

Can't help thinking we haven't reached the end of revelations about drug abuse in the current peloton, but it does feel quantitatively different to the EPO era. It's tricky with Sky to separate the effects of money from the possible effects of cheating (I'm not speculating).

Brian?

Weepsie wrote: »

I'd be thinking along the same lines as RobFowl.

He was a brilliant track cyclist before any of the team sky nonsense.

And as has been said, he didn't seemingly break any rules. Unethical maybe, but illegal no. I expect there's a hell of a lot more at it too

Its the system that's broken.

He's a long way from Lance Armstrong who created an entirely new systematic way of breaking the rules.

There's also been plenty of dull grand tours before 2012, and there'll be plenty more after. Its as if the people most vocal in their complaints tune in only those few weeks a year

I agree with the majority of this post. However the 2012 Tour took the biscuit when it came to boredom. I didn't even watch the last 2 mountain stages it was so predictable. This isn't Wiggins fault, it was the only way he could win. I just don't like him.

JK.BMC

76544567 wrote: »

Cycling. Where the rule is Guilty until proven innocent - and with good reason.

i dont watch it anymore. Cycling should just be banned as a sport at this stage.

So you just comment on cycling forums instead?

For me, Wiggins always was an incredibly stylish and tactical rider- bucket loads of class on the bike and he deserves every plaudit he gets.
Trouble is, the whole Sky thing is imploding, notwithstanding the fact that they have had their detractors since day 1. Plus Wiggins is not necessarily the best guy from a media point of view- perhaps he is an a..hole in real life but since I don't have to live with him I can overlook that.

Comparisons with LA are out of place if you ask me. That narrative just suits people with an agenda, a desire to see Sky fail, or just plain old irish begrudgery. Even if the asthma thing is a bit ridiculous

Brian?

JK.BMC wrote: »

So you just comment on cycling forums instead?

For me, Wiggins always was an incredibly stylish and tactical rider- bucket loads of class on the bike and he deserves every plaudit he gets.
Trouble is, the whole Sky thing is imploding, notwithstanding the fact that they have had their detractors since day 1. Plus Wiggins is not necessarily the best guy from a media point of view- perhaps he is an a..hole in real life but since I don't have to live with him I can overlook that.

Comparisons with LA are out of place if you ask me. That narrative just suits people with an agenda, a desire to see Sky fail, or just plain old irish begrudgery. Even if the asthma thing is a bit ridiculous

Wiggins was a stylish rider? I found him to be very mechanical.

JK.BMC

Brian? wrote: »

Wiggins was a stylish rider? I found him to be very mechanical.

I mean his technique, his cadence, his TT prowess, his tactical awareness and general bad ass coolness on the bike.
Ok, he ain't a Nibali or a Sagan or a Boonen but you can't take that from him

Harrybelafonte

RobFowl wrote: »

Some very negative vibes here !

Personally wish the guy well, possibly the best every track cyclist and won his tour well beating everyone else and taking nothing his team mate wasn't any-ways ...

Best ever track cyclist? Not a chance. Rest I'd be on side with.

pelevin

I'd certainly not be describing winning with the use of substances with big known history as ped's like corticosteroids as winning "fairly." Getting away with doping would be more how I'd see it, and would be more in tune with Tom Dumoulin's decription of seeing his fellow competitors behave in this manner as "It stinks." Someone could be swindled out of their savings but within the law. It doesn't mean it was fair.

And to add, that Wiggins was blatantly lying in his book about he & Sky being vehemently anti-needles in the midst of actively getting behind-the-scenes corticosteroid injections suggests he had a pretty good idea of how fairly these actions would be viewed by others.

RobFowl

Pretty much all the Indurain tours were as dull as ditchwater
Would say they were all substantially worse than 2012

Brian?

JK.BMC wrote: »

I mean his technique, his cadence, his TT prowess, his tactical awareness and general bad ass coolness on the bike.
Ok, he ain't a Nibali or a Sagan or a Boonen but you can't take that from him

He was a great TT rider. His tactical awareness was controlled completely by the team, if anything went contrary to plan A he was done for.

Bad ass coolness? Like throwing a strop when Froome rode away from him and nearly abandoning? He was very far from a cool bad ass.

Brian?

RobFowl wrote: »

Pretty much all the Indurain tours were as dull as ditchwater
Would say they were all substantially worse than 2012

No they weren't.

RobFowl

Brian? wrote: »

No they weren't.

Sprint, sprint, sprint then long TT where Big Mig takes yellow then roll on Paris...

Repeat in 92/93/94/95...

Brian?

RobFowl wrote: »

Sprint, sprint, sprint then long TT where Big Mig takes yellow then roll on Paris...

Repeat in 92/93/94/95...

Chiapucci goes on a long one in the Alps, takes 10 minutes. Indurain attacks on a descent on an intermediate stage with Bruyneel. Just 2 exciting stages I can think of without much effort.

Indurain strangled strangled the life from Tours, but he was occasionally exciting. What did Wiggins ever do that was exciting? A pointless attack with 100km to go on the final mountain stage?

I can't believe I'm standing up for Indurain, but jaysus Wiggins is boring. He had tattoos though, does that make him edgy?

Inquitus

Came across this amusing outtake allegedly of dear Brad.

https://twitter.com/LamiraudF/status/814173519944830977

JK.BMC

Inquitus wrote: »

Came across this amusing outtake allegedly of dear Brad.

https://twitter.com/LamiraudF/status/814173519944830977

I remember seeing that; it's brilliant. We all end up on our arse at some stage.
Sure, Wiggins may not be everybody's cup of tea but something tells that if he were Irish, from somewhere like Ballymun or Ballyfermot, we would be lauding him as one of the greats. One who achieved great things, in a corrupt and tainted environment, despite all sorts of allegations and detractors. And maybe he ain't one of the real bad guys after all. He ain't Lance Armstrong either- not by a long shot.
Is there not a touch of the anti-British about this here? Perhaps that is shortsighted but I will say again that whatever one thinks of Wiggins as a person, one cannot deny his brilliance and class on two wheels. He will be remembered as a legend regardless.

Brian?

JK.BMC wrote: »

I remember seeing that; it's brilliant. We all end up on our arse at some stage.
Sure, Wiggins may not be everybody's cup of tea but something tells that if he were Irish, from somewhere like Ballymun or Ballyfermot, we would be lauding him as one of the greats. One who achieved great things, in a corrupt and tainted environment, despite all sorts of allegations and detractors. And maybe he ain't one of the real bad guys after all. He ain't Lance Armstrong either- not by a long shot.
Is there not a touch of the anti-British about this here? Perhaps that is shortsighted but I will say again that whatever one thinks of Wiggins as a person, one cannot deny his brilliance and class on two wheels. He will be remembered as a legend regardless.

It's nothing to do with being anti British. I'm not a fan of of track cycling, so it seems like a lot of this greatness is lost on me. He won the Tour, which was fantastic, but the way he won it was boring. I don't have a view on his personality, I don't really care.

JK.BMC

Brian? wrote: »

It's nothing to do with being anti British. I'm not a fan of of track cycling, so it seems like a lot of this greatness is lost on me. He won the Tour, which was fantastic, but the way he won it was boring. I don't have a view on his personality, I don't really care.

Fair enough point. I don't like BMX so I couldn't care less who won the Olympics. The same point, in principle.

pelevin

JK.BMC wrote: »

I remember seeing that; it's brilliant. We all end up on our arse at some stage.
Sure, Wiggins may not be everybody's cup of tea but something tells that if he were Irish, from somewhere like Ballymun or Ballyfermot, we would be lauding him as one of the greats. One who achieved great things, in a corrupt and tainted environment, despite all sorts of allegations and detractors. And maybe he ain't one of the real bad guys after all. He ain't Lance Armstrong either- not by a long shot.
Is there not a touch of the anti-British about this here? Perhaps that is shortsighted but I will say again that whatever one thinks of Wiggins as a person, one cannot deny his brilliance and class on two wheels. He will be remembered as a legend regardless.

Tobh I can hardly believe what you're coming out with. That he doesn't compare to Lance - that's the bench-mark, is it? And you'd better start accusing a hell of alot of the British media of being anti-British as I've seen a hell of alot more stinging criticism there than on this site - including even from former huge Wiggins fan like Will Fotheringham, co-author of 'Bradley Wiggins - My Time' & David Walsh , author of 'Inside Team Sky' & who practically staked his reputation on Sky's virtues. Matt Lawton from The Daily Mail, & various writers from The Telegraph, The Times & The Guardian have all been damning about this stuff. Then David Millar from Britain saying the drugs Wiggins took were the most powerful ped's he himself ever took.

JK.BMC

pelevin wrote: »

Tobh I can hardly believe what you're coming out with. That he doesn't compare to Lance - that's the bench-mark, is it? And you'd better start accusing a hell of alot of the British media of being anti-British as I've seen a hell of alot more stinging criticism there than on this site - including from former huge Wiggins fan like Will Fotheringham & David Walsh who practically staked his reputation on Sky's virtues. Matt Lawton from The Daily Mail, & various writers from The Telegraph, The Times & The Guardian have all been damning about this stuff.

No- my view that Wiggins is a very classy, stylish cyclist isn't garbage. And as far as cheating/doping is concerned, yes Armstrong is very much the benchmark. Agreed?
I think it's inevitable that Wiggo's victories are seen in comparison to other tour winners. But I believe the world in which he operated is not the same as the LA era; I'm not saying it's perfect but to put it another way: if I was a betting man and I put 2 cyclists on a track like Mondello and wanted to put my tenner on who would win a race I'd fancy Wiggins to have the brains and class to outwit nearly anybody every time. That's my view, simple and all as it is. That he won the greatest of all races- the TDF- is an amazing achievement in itself.

pelevin

JK.BMC wrote: »

No- my view that Wiggins is a very classy, stylish cyclist isn't garbage. And as far as cheating/doping is concerned, yes Armstrong is very much the benchmark. Agreed?
I think it's inevitable that Wiggo's victories are seen in comparison to other tour winners. But I believe the world in which he operated is not the same as the LA era; I'm not saying it's perfect but to put it another way: if I was a betting man and I put 2 cyclists on a track like Mondello and wanted to put my tenner on who would win a race I'd fancy Wiggins to have the brains and class to outwit nearly anybody every time. That's my view, simple and all as it is. That he won the greatest of all races- the TDF- is an amazing achievement in itself.

If being not as bad as Armstrong is some kind of Get Out of Jail card, fair enough, Wiggins goes free. Armstrong was of a different level but Armstrong was dirty in a dirty era. Wiggins & Sky/Brailsford were letting on to be very pure & transparent in an already much cleaner era. I think they've been shown up to be essentially liars & hypocrites considering the gap between the public claims & the private actions. As David Walsh recently said, if Brailsford had been open about Wiggins' coriticosteroid use, there's no way Walsh would have gotten involved with the team, & that he considers this intentional doping. I don't consider these as small little matters that get brushed away.

pelevin

Weepsie, I think you should suggest to Team Sky they accuse the current British parliamentary enquiry into their goings on of inherently anti-English sentiments. That'll frighten them off surely.

P2C

JK.BMC wrote: »

Yes, this is a relevant point of view. I know exactly what you mean. Mark Scanlon cud very much have been the Wiggins character. I know lads who rode with/against him. Every one of them says the same. Scanlon beat Cancellara/Pozzato et al when he was champion; that is beyond dispute. Does this negate Wiggins achievements, I don't think so

Bradley was an outstanding TT and track specialist and if you tracked both his and Mark's junior and senior carrers on the road they were both unremarkable. In fact I would say mark was probably the better road rider based on outright wins and podiums until he retired at 25. They were both at French teams. The transformation after that point was simply in my opinion to good to be true. It's hard to understand that you go from winning very little as a pro rider and then all of a sudden your 4th in the tour. Your a world class climber one year and when your with the wagon the year before.

pelevin

For what it's worth I'd consider Brailsford much more in the wrong. I'd also not be interested in despising anyone! I don't think any of us are so wonderful that that's a good road to be going down, and if we were that good they're not the kind of emotions we'd be feeling anyway!

irishrover99

JK.BMC wrote: »

I remember seeing that; it's brilliant. We all end up on our arse at some stage.
Sure, Wiggins may not be everybody's cup of tea but something tells that if he were Irish, from somewhere like Ballymun or Ballyfermot, we would be lauding him as one of the greats.

You mean like the ledge that is Conor McGregor. Who goes up and down weight divisions without batting a eyelid and grows a chin without ever looking fat. Talks nothing but nonsense every time a mic is put in front of him but if you slag him off to the Irish you get baratted.

DirkVoodoo

JK.BMC wrote: »

Seriously though, given that Wiggins only focused on GC once he matured, is it not perfectly reasonable to assume that a rider gets better and more adaptable with age and experience? And I'm not talking about having treatment for cancer here just to be clear!

Ah come on! You can't actually believe that!

I remember guys in college who were nearly failing every class in the early years, then turning around and saying "time to cop on and work!" before walking out with a first class honors degree. Difficult, but not impossible.

What you're suggesting is more like a good will hunting scenario, and it's one pedaled by SKY over and over. Yes, Froome used to be a janitor, but Brailsford caught him solving impossible differential equations and knew he was just a "rough diamond".

And even that analogy is flawed because Matt Damon's character was always prodigious just troubled, these guys couldn't even do basic arithmetic until they were in their 20s and then suddenly were humiliating maths professors for fun.

I'm all for "incredible transformations", but they tend to be tightly bounded. Either they were always brilliant and just lazy, or they took their talents as far as they possibly could. In Wiggins/Froome's case, their domination of cycling can't be explained by application or maturity alone.

Brian?

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Ah come on! You can't actually believe that!

I remember guys in college who were nearly failing every class in the early years, then turning around and saying "time to cop on and work!" before walking out with a first class honors degree. Difficult, but not impossible.

What you're suggesting is more like a good will hunting scenario, and it's one pedaled by SKY over and over. Yes, Froome used to be a janitor, but Brailsford caught him solving impossible differential equations and knew he was just a "rough diamond".

And even that analogy is flawed because Matt Damon's character was always prodigious just troubled, these guys couldn't even do basic arithmetic until they were in their 20s and then suddenly were humiliating maths professors for fun.

I'm all for "incredible transformations", but they tend to be tightly bounded. Either they were always brilliant and just lazy, or they took their talents as far as they possibly could. In Wiggins/Froome's case, their domination of cycling can't be explained by application or maturity alone.

There was nothing incredible about Wiggins change in form on the road. It wasn't even a "transformation". It was a change of focus that yielded results.

He went from being an elite track rider to being an elite road rider in about 3 years. Hardly an incredible transformation given he started on the road.

Shaungoater

The problem is that now we question and will continue to question the legitimacy of every successful cyclist who retires. Lance et al has ruined it for us. Paul Kimage et al has ruined it for us by making us question everything that happens in the sport. I am not sure there is a fix.

I love the sport but that love dwindled significantly over the past few years. I now feel everyone was cheating to some extent, but mostly the ones being persecuted in the media are only the successful ones but who cares about the rest who still couldn't win when they cheated, right?

Lumen

Weepsie wrote: »

I agree with JK.BMC. There is an an inherent anti-English/British sentiment.

Yeah, well 700 years blah blah. A bit of sporting bias is hardly an unreasonable response. :pac:

Weepsie wrote: »

Ireland has it's own Sacred Cows who have shady pasts, but they're given a free pass. Pantani and Contadaor are lauded as greats due to being exciting, attacking cyclists, but their doping is simply looked over.

Dunno about that. Contador has got a lot of stick on this forum, as has Roche senior (although I think that's partly cos it was perceived that he rejected Ireland in favour of France after he made it). Kelly is still loved but time heals a lot. Pantani is dead and that tends to take the heat out of criticism.

Froome is an interesting case. He's sort of British, not a boring rider (although looks terrible on the bike), has gone from donkey to racehorse and yet nothing has stuck.

Lumen

Shaungoater wrote: »

Paul Kimmage et al has ruined it for us by making us question everything that happens in the sport

Yeah, well that might be a valid criticism if he stopped being proven right on a regular basis.

Lumen

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

What you're suggesting is more like a good will hunting scenario, and it's one pedaled by SKY over and over. Yes, Froome used to be a janitor, but Brailsford caught him solving impossible differential equations and knew he was just a "rough diamond".

And even that analogy is flawed because Matt Damon's character was always prodigious just troubled, these guys couldn't even do basic arithmetic until they were in their 20s and then suddenly were humiliating maths professors for fun

I have absolutely no idea what you're on about. :pac: