How Bradley Wiggins’ post-cycling career sped downhill: Olympic and Tour de France hero is declared bankrupt after his marriage ended, doping row and rift with his old Sky teammates

Sir Bradley Wiggins was once a national hero and Britain’s most decorated Olympian, but in the past decade his life and career have plummeted to a new low as the former cyclist is declared bankrupt. But where did it all go so wrong?

The future champion, born in 1980 in Belgium, had a tough childhood. His father, Gary, was an Australian track cyclist who drank hard and used drugs had persuaded Wiggins’ mother, Linda, then only 17 and pregnant, to move to Ghent.

But Wiggins Senior was violent and cruel. His litany of appalling behavior included beating Linda and smuggling a stash of amphetamines from Australia to Belgium in Bradley’s nappy.

Within two years he had found a new wife, packed his wife and son’s belongings in bin bags and sent them back to Kilburn, North. Londonwhere they lived with Wiggins’ grandparents.

He was educated at St Augustine’s Church of England High School in Kilburn, where his path to cycling stardom began when he was 12, using £1,000 in accident compensation to buy his first real racing bike.

However, his struggles continued into his teenage years, when it emerged that he had been sexually abused by his coach at Archer Road Club in west London over a three-year period.

Wiggins won five Olympic gold medals during a stellar career on the road and track

Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain during training at the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing, China.

Wiggins was at the peak of his powers in 2012 and became the first Briton to win the Tour de France

Later appointed coach Stan Knight, he would take the sporting protégé away from home for training camps and stay in a youth hostel in Litton Cheney, Dorset. But his abuser insisted on sleeping in his bed and groped him in the shower.

He met his wife Cath at the age of 15, when they competed in the same competitions; They then began a romance in 2002, when they were in their early twenties.

Fast forward to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and Wiggins won gold, silver and bronze.

The achievement made Wiggins the first British athlete to win three medals at the same Olympic Games in forty years.

What followed were undoubtedly his glory years; win after win, high-profile partnerships and sponsorship, and was even named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2012.

The same year, a curious incident occurred at Sky Sports’ headquarters in Isleworth, West London, not far from where he grew up, causing a rift between him and his former team.

A precise date is unknown, but it was in the glorious afterglow of a summer in which Wiggins won the Tour de France and just ten days later the time trial at the London Olympics.

At the time, the broadcaster had a tradition of asking high-profile guests to sign a white wall in the hospitality green room. However, when Wiggins accepted the pen, he chose to sign as ‘Jimmy Savile’.

Prompting a senior staff member to sum up his visitor as ‘a total p****’ and it also necessitated a hasty cleaning of that wall.

Sir Bradley and his then wife Catherine pose for photos after the medal ceremony for the men’s team pursuit final for gold on Day 7 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Sir Bradley Wiggins attends the Maserati Drives the City cocktail event at Sessions Arts Club on November 1, 2022

Sir Bradley Wiggins CBE receives his knighthood award after it was presented to him by Queen Elizabeth II during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on December 10, 2013

Bradley Wiggins kisses his trophy at the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards

In 2016 things started to go from bad to worse; when Russian hackers leaked Fancy Bears Wiggins’ medical information, in what is believed to be a Russian attempt to undermine anti-doping regimes in retaliation after the track and field athletes were banned from the Rio Olympics.

However, Wiggins’ data was immediately suspect due to the timing of three triamcinolone injections.

Triamcinolone is a prescription drug for asthma and Wiggins’ records show that he had a number of Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) for asthma inhalers as early as 2008.

But just days before the 2011 and 2012 Tours, and again just days before the 2013 Giro d’Italia, Wiggins received injections of triamcinolone that required a TUE because the drug is banned in competition.

Cyclists have been accused of using the drug to gain physical advantage because it is a slow-release steroid that helps with weight loss – something that can be important for riders when tackling the climbs of the Grand Tours.

UK Anti-Doping investigated the allegations, but the 14-month investigation was eventually closed after they could not find enough evidence about what was in a Jiffy bag sent to Sir Bradley’s tour bus.

The yellow jersey of the overall leader, Britain’s Bradley Wiggins (C), celebrates with teammates and team members of the British Sky cycling team during his parade in front of the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the 120 km and final stage of the Tour de France 2012

Since retiring from all forms of professional cycling in December 2016, there has been a dark story for Wiggins, one involving Supreme Court appearances, divorce and bankruptcy

Bradley Wiggins poses for a portrait during a media day ahead of the Giro de Italia at the Kilhey Court Hotel on April 29, 2013

Since retiring from all forms of professional cycling in December 2016, Wiggins has had a dark saga, one of Supreme Court appearances, divorce and bankruptcy.

In 2018, an investigation into Wiggins by the Digital Culture, Media and Sport Committee found that he had used the controversial drug triamcinolone to improve his performance and not for medical reasons.

Following this devastating report, he said: ‘You see your family suffering, and it’s terrible. It almost killed my wife. She ended up in rehab for that. I sit at home and deal with it.

‘Because she is bipolar, she has a fear of embarrassment because people are watching her all the time.

‘You couldn’t say that at the time because you asked for it, because you won the Tour de France. No, I didn’t actually ask for that. I only asked for a fair trial.’

He added: ‘What I should have done is killed someone because then I would have had the right rights. As a murderer I would have had more rights.’

In 2020, Wiggins and his wife Cath announced their separation in a tweet, writing: “It is with great sadness that my wife Cath and I have decided to part ways. Our two children remain our priority and we ask for privacy at this time. Brad & Cath.’

This week Sir Bradley Wiggins was declared bankrupt and could be forced to hand over his medals and trophies after falling into financial difficulties.

The eight-time Olympic medalist was declared bankrupt at Lancaster District Court on June 3, according to The Times, after years of money troubles with numerous business ventures over the years.

Wiggins Rights Limited, a company owned by Wiggins, his ex-wife Cath and his mother Linda, went into voluntary administration in 2020 with debts of £650,000.

These debts later rose to just under £1 million in 2022 and in November 2023 creditors claimed this had not been paid, which they warned was likely to result in him being declared bankrupt.

Trustees could now be appointed to seize Wiggins’ assets amid fears his Olympic and Tour de France medals and even his Sports Personality of the Year trophy could be taken from him.