Sir Bradley Wiggins says he is “indebted” to Lance Armstrong, describing the controversial Texan as a “source of inspiration and constant help” during his post-retirement struggles with drug addiction.
In an interview with the Observer last month, 2012 Tour de France winner Wiggins detailed the addiction to cocaine that he battled since retiring from professional cycling in 2016, admitting that he “had a really bad problem” and was a “functioning addict”, and that it had got to the point where his kids were “going to put me in rehab”.
And speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live on Friday morning, Wiggins praised Armstrong – who was stripped of his seven Tour titles in 2012 following USADA’s investigation into his team’s doping programme – for playing a key role in his recent recovery.
Sir Bradley Wiggins with his fifth Olympic gold medal (credit: SWpix.com)“He’s been a great strength to me and a great inspiration to me, and it’s on a human level,” the 45-year-old, who said he was able to quit cocaine last year, told 5 Live’s Rick Edwards.
“Lance has been very, very good to me. That’s not something everyone wants to hear because people only like to hear the bad stuff.
“You can only take someone how they treat you, and Lance has been a source of inspiration to me and a constant source of help towards me and is one of the main factors why I’m in the position I am today mentally and physically, so, I’m indebted to him for that.”
The five-time Olympic gold medallist joined Armstrong and his former Team Columbia colleague George Hincapie in Colorado during the 2024 Tour de France to appear on Armstrong’s The Move podcast, two years after meeting up with the ex-US Postal duo, along with Mark Cavendish and Jan Ullrich, for a series of group rides and podcast recordings in Mallorca.
Wiggins confirmed that he will once again be covering this year’s Tour alongside Armstrong for The Move. When asked how often he speaks to the former world champion, he said: “I won’t say every day, but I work for him.”
The Move podcast panel, Mallorca (credit: Elizabeth Kreutz)Last month, Wiggins revealed that he, Armstrong, and 1997 Tour de France winner Ullrich, who has also faced a high-profile struggle with addiction since retirement, have bonded as they created their own quasi-support group.
Armstrong was “worried about” Wiggins “for a long time”, the 2012 Tour winner said, having “been through a similar thing with Jan”.
“They’d try and get hold of me, but couldn’t find where I was,” he continued. “My son speaks to Lance a lot. He’d ask my son, ‘How’s your Dad?’ Ben would say, ‘I’ve not heard from him for a couple of weeks, I know he’s living in a hotel.’ They wouldn’t hear from me for days on end.”
Elsewhere in this week’s interview, Wiggins repeated his assertion that life as a professional cyclist was a “distraction” for him, and that after retirement he was forced to confront a number of issues, such as the death of his estranged father and the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a coach as a child.
Bradley Wiggins launches NSPCC campaign (credit: NSPCC)“I want to be the teller of my story,” Wiggins, whose latest autobiography ‘The Chain’ is expected to be published later this year, told the BBC.
“We are all humans at the end of the day. And I’ve had lots of events in my life that informed the problems I had post-cycling.
“Cycling was a great distraction for me. But when cycling left me and I was left to my own devices, I suddenly had to deal with things people normally take a lot of time to deal with, like onset grief and things like that.
“I’d never had therapy or counselling during my time as a cyclist because you’re perceived as a cyclist – or certainly when you’re an Olympic champion or a Tour de France winner – to be incredibly mentally strong.”
“I was one for not taking on help as well or asking for help,” the former Team Sky leader, who was declared bankrupt last June, continued.
Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, 2012 Tour de France (credit: ASO)“No-one is any different to cyclists or elite athletes, and I couldn’t really care less what the newspapers want to sensationalise or twist.
“I’m never going to make the same mistake twice, so I’ve sort of vowed that to myself. I’ve learned from the past.
“I’m coming up to 10 years to retirement and I knew nothing else other than cycling really, and having everything done for you on a daily basis.
“It took me a long time to adapt to normal life, as it were, and all the things that contribute to keeping me in a steady place.”
Last month, Wiggins publicly admitted the extent of his battle with cocaine addiction for the first time, explaining that there were times his son Ben, who is now pursuing his own career in cycling with UCI Continental outfit Hagens Berman Jayco, feared he was going to find his father dead in the morning.
Ben Wiggins and Bradley Wiggins, 2022 British Track Championships (credit: Will Palmer/SWpix.com)“I was a functioning addict,” he told the Observer. “People wouldn’t realise. I was high most of the time for many years. I was doing shitloads of cocaine. I had a really bad problem. My kids were going to put me in rehab. I was walking a tightrope.
“I realised I had a huge problem. I had to stop. I’m lucky to be here. I was a victim of all my own choices, for many years. I already had a lot of self-hatred, but I was amplifying it.
“It was a form of self-harm and self-sabotage. It was not the person I wanted to be. I realised I was hurting a lot of people around me.”
This isn’t the first time, however, that Wiggins has praised Armstrong – who he famously called a “lying bastard” in the wake of the Texan’s belated doping confession and lifetime ban from cycling – for his role in his recovery over the past year.
“Lance has helped me a lot in recent years, more so this year,” Wiggins told Jake Humphrey’s High Performance Podcast in December.
“Talking about therapy, he wants to pay for me to go to this big place in Atlanta, where you stay for a week, they take your phone off you. Lance was going to fund that for me. He’s a good man.
“That’s not to condone what he did, we all know that, but it’s a bit disproportionate to what some people get away with in this world. He’s got a heart under there somewhere.
“He’s also got an ego the size of a house. It’s why he won seven Tours… well he didn’t.”