Brave Sir Bradley Wiggins speaks about the heinous sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of an elderly cycling coach

SIR Bradley Wiggins has spoken about the abhorrent sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of an elderly cycling coach.

The eight-time Olympic medalist and Tour de France winner bravely told his story to podcast host Smithy from Under the Surface.

Wiggins, 44, claimed he was sexually abused by a 72-year-old trainer over a three-year period between the ages of 13 and 16.

His alleged tormentor, who has since died, quickly enrolled the youth in a cycling club called Archie Roe’s after training on the Hayes Bypass.

The legendary athlete’s father was a member of the same club that 12-year-old Wiggins was admitted to.

“I never really loved cycling, I was just obsessed with it. It was the closest thing to me, to my father,” revealed the former Olympian.

However, shortly after he joined the club, there were said to have been many “very shitty” incidents.

“The thing that has had the biggest impact on my life and what I have come to terms with is the sexual abuse I suffered at the age of 13 from my first coach,” Wiggins told podcast host Smithy.

“I met my first coach when I was 12. I watched the Barcelona Olympics on TV. Chris Boardman won on the Lotus bike. I watched it and that was the day I started cycling.”

“My mom made me watch it. I was inspired and just thought that’s what I’d like to do. Twelve years later, I won that competition with Chris Boardman on the track in Athens. My first Olympic gold medal.”

After being poached from his father’s former club, Wiggins was introduced to the coach.

“That night I was introduced to a guy who was the coach of the club, so I joined the club that same night. Nobody asked if I wanted to. They said, ‘This guy is the coach, he will take care of you,'” he claimed.

“He was a 72-year-old former military policeman and he felt my pulse. He had this specialty of feeling children’s pulses. He said he had never felt a pulse rate as strong as mine before.

“I realise now that it was all manipulation, but he said I would be the best cyclist this country has ever produced.

“And I believed him, he always told everyone that, wherever we went.

“The contradiction is that he was the one who made me fall in love with myself, but also sexually abused me for three years between the ages of 13 and 16.

“And because of what he said, he got away with it.

“Because I didn’t have a father, because I was at this club where he was the coach, and because I was following in my father’s footsteps and everything revolved around ‘Wiggo’s Boy’, I felt like I could never tell anyone.

“This is a very strange thing. It really messed me up.”

The legendary cyclist claimed that he was abused along with other boys.

“It’s insidious,” he claimed.

“Another incident, this is the only one I will talk about because there are so many, I had 36 incidents.

“But the other, smaller problem started there and escalated very quickly.

“He had us both take a shower and showed us how to clean our testicles, because that’s a pretty important area when cycling because you can get pressure points and saddle sores there.

“As a professional cyclist, you had to look up, but he held our testicles and showed us the special scrubbing method.”

Bradley continued, “There were many incidents. I would wake up naked and go to bed without my pajamas. I would wake up naked but couldn’t remember waking up in the night and taking my pajamas off.

“But you know, there was a lot of… It’s very, very, very shitty.”

The Tour de France winner spoke about his journey to healing and how the search for other alleged victims has changed him.

He said: “For the first time in my life, someone really acknowledged me.

“From that perspective, it’s something I can share now because I’m already further along my path thanks to the validation of another person.”

Wiggins also believes they were drugged.

“I think I was on drugs with that guy. I know we were on drugs,” he claimed.

Regarding the impact his alleged abuser had on him, the former athlete said it was “the thing that held him back the most” and was the root of “all my self-esteem issues.”

“I wish I had never started cycling because then I would never have met this guy,” he said.

“But now I would never change anything, it has made me the person I am today and I am happy to be who I am today.”

He added that he hoped his comments would encourage victims to talk to each other because that was what helped him the most.

This came after the court declared the gold medalist bankrupt last month.

Bradley’s house was foreclosed and sold, and trustees were appointed to seize his assets, including his medals and trophies.

But now he has a new job: he hosts a Tour de France podcast with disgraced cycling star Lance Armstrong.

Previously, the Olympic cyclist had to contend with numerous financial problems in connection with his business ventures.

Bradley’s lawyer Alan Sellers said his £975,000 converted barn in the north Lancashire countryside had been foreclosed on and sold.

His company, Wiggins Rights Limited, went into liquidation in 2020 with debts of £650,000, including £313,447 to HM Revenue & Customs.

The liquidators made a claim against Bradley for £1 million, which he denied.

A claim of £760,373 made the year before had been overstated. The liquidators, who were demanding money to repay an overdrawn loan to a director, “reviewed the company’s books and records”.

In September of that year, liquidators’ documents showed that Sir Bradley had entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to avoid bankruptcy.

Sir Bradley had previously stated that the financial difficulties were a “very historic matter” involving “professional negligence” by others and that they had “left a pile of crap with my name on it”.

He continued: “This happens to many athletes while undergoing transplants and my lawyers will be filing a number of lawsuits in this regard.”