Bradley Wiggins

Athlete

92 Quotes

I know the freedom that cycling gives you in terms of being able to just jump on and go.

When I won gold in Athens, I said to my wife Cath, who was pregnant, 'This baby of ours will never want for anything.' There was real pride in that - but it just didn't happen.

That's the great thing about the Tour. There's always next year and the chance to rectify everything.

I wanted to put a really good kids' racing bike out there for kids under 14: 10-year-olds, eight-year-olds, right down to balance bikes for kids.

People think sport is life and death - it's not.

In my eyes, I will never be up there with the Sir Steve Redgraves and the Sir Chris Hoys of this world. It's not something that drives me; I just enjoy going to the Olympic Games. Just to be mentioned in the same breath as those people is an honour for me. I don't ever think about those kind of things.

I'm not really a computer man, to be honest. I check my emails every couple of weeks.

I always compare myself to the best.

I was a fan of Lance Armstrong, and I remember watching him win the Worlds in '93 in Oslo.

It's still the height of every four years for me, regardless of Tours de France and everything: it's all about the Olympics.

Everything I achieve affects my family as well, and suddenly, my kids' dad became the most famous man in the country for a couple of weeks.

It was what I've always wanted, more than anything: to be an Olympic hero rather than a Tour de France star, something I had from childhood.

I began cycling round the Serpentine because it was the only closed route in London where I could ride traffic-free.

One of my all-time favourite guitarists is, in fact, a bassist - John Entwistle from The Who. He's one of my all-time favourites, the way he kind of expanded. I mean, he could have been a lead guitarist and been one of the best guitarists in the world. He wasn't even bass player; he was a bass guitarist, and he took the bass to another level.

I was born in Belgium, but we moved to Kilburn when I was one, so 'Time Out' has always been in the background of my life.

I wanted to give an honest insight into a consuming Tour. It's turned out pretty interesting because there aren't many books out there documenting someone's failure.

Things change; your priorities change in life. So I'd never think of riding 100 miles on Christmas Day now, because I've got two kids, and it's selfish.

If I can win the Tour de France, there is hope for everybody.

You think if you win the Olympics, you'll become a millionaire overnight. But I was still scraping the barrel, looking down the back of the settee for pound coins to buy a pint of milk.

Part of me worries about upsetting people, because we all have perceptions about Olympic champions.

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