Bradley Wiggins’ tragic fall from Olympic cycling hero is now complete

With news he’s blown through his £13m fortune and is considering selling his medals to survive, Bradley Wiggins is having a tough time. Jim White looks at how the sporting legend once known as Le Gentleman has hit rock bottom

‘He’s lost absolutely everything’: The sportsman’s many achiements have been overshadowed in recent years (Getty)

Le Gentleman is what the local press used to call Bradley Wiggins, back in the time when he was dominating the Tour de France. Fluent in French, always stylishly dressed, sparkling in interviews, the first Briton to win the world’s greatest cycling race was embraced in the country like few others before or since. So beloved was the then stick-thin Englishman, he almost became one of their own. 

“My God they loved him,” recalls Ned Boulting, the veteran cycling commentator. “I remember him holding court at press conferences, turning them into a stand-up routine. On form, he was just the best interviewee. He was completely unfiltered, he would tell you exactly what he felt. And he could be so funny. A brilliant mimic, he would have everyone in stitches doing his impressions. That was on a good day. On a bad day, he could be cruel, bitter, really, really horrible.”

For Wiggins, sadly, the bad days have become ever more frequent. When the race he once dominated begins its annual national circuit on 29 June, he will not be at its heart. There will be no civic receptions, no waving from balconies, no heroic grandstanding for Le Gentleman. Declared bankrupt, his family home repossessed, last heard of living in a borrowed camper van in a municipal car park in Manchester, his financial life is in tatters.