So glad I got to see him at 6-day London this year 🙂

http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/38451926

i am very much a Wiggo fan but his reputation has been damaged by the Team Sky stuff and the absence of a properly credible explanation either from him or the team hierarchy.

Out before the ban.

Out before the ban.

It’s a sad indictment of the sport but that was my first thought too.

He’s a legend, a hero to many (myself included), I really hope we’re not about to have another Armstrong moment.

He’s a legend, a hero to many (myself included), I really hope we’re not about to have another Armstrong moment.

Quite!

It is very said that first thoughts are that he’s about to be outed as some serial doping offender isn’t it. If something like that is proven than it won’t just be Wiggins will it.

It is very said that first thoughts are that he’s about to be outed as some serial doping offender isn’t it. If something like that is proven than it won’t just be Wiggins will it.

If, and it is a big if, he’s outed as a doper that all of Team Sky, all of British Cycling, and likely all of cycling in the UK in general, is stuffed.

But, in the absence of any evidence that this is the case, lets celebrate a wonderful cyclist who charmed a nation and who is rightly seen as one of the best that there ever has been.

Unfortunately mud tends to stick

Especially when it’s applied by the Russian state to shift focus away from their vile cheating program

i am very much a Wiggo fan but his reputation has been damaged by the Team Sky stuff and the absence of a properly credible explanation either from him or the team hierarchy.

+1.

I’m also a huge fan, I think Wiggo and Cav have done so much to raise the profile of cycling in the UK.
It is now pretty obvious Team Sky been sailing very close to the wind with the TUE certificates etc.

I’m actually heartened that we are now talking about abuse of the TUE system rather than “proper” doping – shows we have come a long way in the last 10 years when I was sitting on the mountain above Morzine watching Floyd Landis make an amazing recovery to win the Tour de France.

We’ve already had his Armstrong moment. We know for sure he took drugs normal doctors don’t prescribe to normal patients just before big races which he won. Whether he gets banned for it is neither here nor there.

That said, in my lifetime the only variable to do with drugs and winning big bike races is the length of time before doping was exposed. It’s pro sport. So as far as heroes on a bike go, he’s right up there.

That photo of Wiggins in yellow leading out Cavendish in the world championship bands next to the Arc de Triomphe sums up everything about both his career and the resurgence of GB/Sky. Well done Wiggo, fantastic career.

It’s a sad indictment of the sport but that was my first thought too.

And mine

Especially when it’s applied by the Russian state to shift focus away from their vile cheating program

What’s this? Have I missed something? 🙂

That landis comeback was amazing though wasn’t it? One of the greatest things I’ve seen on a bike. The doping version of go big or go home.

As for wiggins His garmin 4th was a revelation and we will always have 2012. If I’m being picky I wish he had given the classics more of a stab he always seemed more of a natural Rouleur.

Again?

Proper Lad Bradderz, sadly because of recent events he would have had a tortured time in any event he took part in.
But, through sheer will and determination he achieved way more than most TdF contenders and threw some monumental strops along the way.

I like him, a lot.

TBF he’s been talking about retirement for the last couple of years, so it’s not really a big suprise is it.

I hope nothing more comes out on the doping front, he’s still a legend at the moment. I hope he stays a legend.

We’ve already had his Armstrong moment. We know for sure he took drugs normal doctors don’t prescribe to normal patients just before big races which he won. Whether he gets banned for it is neither here nor there.

I don’t agree.

If (big if) Wiggo gets pinged then it’s one Tour, not 7 like Armstrong. If Sky as a whole get pinged then it’s 4 across a whole team. Hardly ideal and very damaging but still not Armstrong.

But, at the moment, we have a questionable TUE that was sanctioned by the governing body and nothing else. Until we here more I shall try my best to concentrate on what he achieved and not what he may or may not have done.

Fair one Brad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Wiggins#Career_achievements

As said above Sky not Brad as an individual have sailed very very close to the wind, I still keep going back in my head to a clip on one of the Brad shows sat in front of a infant class saying something like”How can I sit here talking to all these children when in a few years I might lose it all” ,hoping he`s good to his word.

TUE are allowed in the rules. End. Of.

A great career on fhe track and the road. Chapeau.

Like it or not, no one has provided any evidence that he, or Sky, have broken any rules. All the information “leaked” indicates that they followed the rules, even if their stories have not always hung together.

No former team mates or staff have claimed rules were broken.

It’s a sad background to his retirement, but it’s not Armstrong v2.1, no matter what the haters and conspiracy nuts might like to think. And it’s certainly no worse than other riders and teams have been doing.

IMHO, until some evidence actually turns up.

He’s been a massive boost to the sport, and cycling culture, in this country.

He has a smug aura of someone who got away with it.

I’m of a similar age to wiggo and David Millar so I can remember watching the tour for years but thinking that a British winner of the tour is kinda fanciful, so to see him win in 2012 was a big deal to the fans of road racing.

Doper ? On balance I’d say no even though it’s right on the edge of the rules, blame the UCI for having poorly implemented rules etc.

I’ve never met him but I can imagine he’s a Marmite personality, but that doesn’t detract from the wins of which there were an impressive many.

What’s this? Have I missed something?

Fancy Bears? WADA hack? Ring a bell? It kicked off the whole TUE “revelations” bandwagon in the press….

He has a smug aura of someone who got away with it.

Does He? Or are you just projecting?

I’m don’t really see much similarity to LA personality wise, not quite the same messiah complex, shouting down descenting voices or threatening potential whistle blowers…

It’s easy to default to the cynical position, especially post LA, Sky aren’t difficult to dislike, Murdoch’s money, the (mutually beneficial) tie in with BC but that doesn’t actually mean they’re another US postal…

Pushing the rules to the limit is different to breaking the rules.

He may not have explicitly broken the rules in the armstrong sense but along with sky it seems he bent them beyond their spirit.

Banned? For what – ridiculous notion 1+2 = 666. Whilst there may have been some ‘interpretation’ of the TUE rules, it was hardly blood bags in camper vans.
I’d seen him racing previously and then bumped into him in early 2009 and saw how weight he’d lost – his 4th place at that summer’s Tour didn’t come as a surprise.

Ref Wiggins TUE.

From the Secret Pro

‘I’ve never taken Kenacort, but from what I have heard, it’s just rocket fuel.I can only take it from guys I’ve spoken with, how good it is. Supposedly it makes you bionic. It strips down any muscle you’re not using, and any fat you have is used as energy. Your arms waste away, your legs become lean; the muscles you do use become all muscle, no fat’

Pushing the rules to the limit is different to breaking the rules.

End result is the same though…

Apparently.

Fabulous strop at the Giro Del Trentino..

Ya gotta love him.

Does He? Or are you just projecting?

Projecting cookeaa?

The Russians can go stuff themselves, they’re mud slinging isn’t going to diminish Brads achievements. Bradley Wiggins is a legend. He might not be the greatest cyclist ever but he added personality to a mechanical team machine blah blah blah

He’d already retired, then hinted at the 6-days “race” that he might not, so I assume he’s stuck with Plan A while there’s still some shine to his reputation.

The Russians can go stuff themselves, they’re mud slinging isn’t going to diminish Brads achievements.

yeah, it’s the pesky Russkis fault 🙄 Personally I think him using the exact same corticosteroid LA failed a test for, to treat “allergies” that only flared up after he’d left a team with a no-needles policy (and had still managed to come 4th in the Tour with, and we all know how bad the pollen is in the Italian mountains in May, when they’re ploughing snow from the roads to keep them open) diminishes his achievements. As does Dave B and Sky’s laughable attempts at explaining the Jiffy bag.

Wiggins and Sky gamed a system that has been gamed since it’s inception and to many of us that’s cheating.

A riding hero for the masses, with a tainted record. Still, fanbois gonna fan.

That pic that midlifecrashes put up there gave me goosebumps! One of the best moments in sport ever.

[/quote] Still, fanbois gonna fan

And haters gotta hate, must be in their DNA.
Britains greatest ever cyclist.

Legitimised doping, marginal gains?

Margarine gains.. Slippery slope to drugs

I can’t believe it (‘s not butter)

Eggsellent, keep churning them out guys.