http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/aug/04/bradley-wiggins-interview-donald-mcrae

I don't think I'm alone, have got just loads of admiration for this guy, what he's done for our sport and the way he conducts himself. And he's a Mod.

Very good interview, gives a real glimpse into having 'what it takes'….

Bradley Wiggins is an arrogant (insert expletives of your choice). He is not a great ambassador for the spoirt at all. Give me Cavandish any day…

Are you confusing the two of them perchance!?

I much prefer Wiggins.

Wiggins = legend!

Particularly for his chilled demeanor and sense of humour:

"He was at London House yesterday celebrating his achievements and rolled over the bonnet of a parked taxi that was waiting outside. The driver was not very happy and got out and there were some police officers already there who spoke to the driver. It ended up very good-natured with photos being taken of him, the driver and his medals."

Tommid you sure? I particularly like the way he (and Cav) refuse to play the corporate smiley game. Do we really need another bland sporting yes-man?

What a really disappointing interview with Wiggins.

I had thought he seemed a decent enough guy from the small bits I had read about him, but his worshipping a drug addicted cheat (Simpson)who was happy to steal a win from everyone he raced with has really lowered Wiggins rating in my eyes. What kind of an example is it to set to carry photographs of liers and cheats about with you?

It really gets on my nerves how Simpson and other 'race thieves' who are/were happy to steal wins are still held up and worshiped by the road racing scence and its magazines. I dont get why anyone would worship someone who shamed the UK by thier dishonest behaviour. No wonder drugs are still accpetable in road racing.

So much for Wiggins proclaimed anti drug stance.

Did he mention his meeting on Sunday with the inspirational IHN???

If you hated all riders that have ever taken stimulants/aids you'd have no heros left.

Merckx was probably the biggest of all!

Road racing back in simpsons day was all about "cheating" (if that's what you wanna call it) there was very little known about sports nutrition and how the human body reacted to stresses of training and racing etc. It was frowned upon to drink water during races because they thought it would flush the body of energy. Just because Wiggo uses Simpson as a "tool" to help him mentally this doesn't make him a "drug cheat" does it?

It was frowned upon to drink water during races…

People really were rather stupid in the olden days…! 😉

Whether he took drugs or not, riding yourself to death is a pretty full on thing to do and I can imagine why Wiggins had him in mind on Ventoux, given that Simpson was one of the best British TdF riders and is so closely linked to that climb. It doesn't sound like Wiggins has the photo with him all the time – that would be weird.

Oh yes, the best thing was thought to be a few amphets washed down with stolen brandy or whisky
😀 ! There's a great book about Tom and road racing of that era called "Put me back on my bike" well worth a read!

It wasn't only frowned upon – it wasn't allowed – they had a fixed number of bottles they were allowed each day – either 2 or 4 depending on the stage IIRC.

FWIW, I'm very anti-doping but you've got to recognise that in the Simpson era things were very different – using drugs wasn't seen as cheating any more than we'd consider it cheating nowadays if you took a paracetamol and they were pretty much all using whatever they could get their hands on.

As to Wiggins' anti-drugs stance, I reckon that he's better off just performing himself, providing evidence that he's not doping and being open about his opinions on his contemporaries who have cheated (eg Di Luca recently) rather than voicing opinions on something from 40+ years ago that has little relevance now.

Did Simpson steal race wins? I was aware that he frequently bought them… 🙂

Yeah, probably that too. like I said, different times…

"buying" races still goes on today, it's all part of pro sport

There was an article in the Times the other day complaining at the dearth of people studying history properly now. Popular history that we see on the TV is increasingly presented out of context – the standards of now are applied against the actions and behaviours at the time.

The same is true of decrying Simpson as a cheat. He rode no more or less fairly than the remainder of the peloton *at the time*, but what he did do on 13th July 1967 was the absolute extreme of a trait he had already shown many times in his career: he had the capacity to ride himself literally into unconsciousness; he could hurt himself more than others.

I rode the Ventoux two weeks ago. It came after 150km of four categorised climbs and two horrible stretches of false flat and headwind. It's brutally hard – the temperature was in the 30s. If someone had said to me "here, take this, this will make the suffering stop", I'd have taken it without a moment's hesitation. And still I tipped my cap to Simpson's memorial, to a man who had the ability to beat the best – look at his palmares – but whose capacity to hurt himself and his desire to win were just too much for him 42 years ago.

Wiggins is also a hero. The look on his face as he flew by us in Bedoin was of a man on a mission, and rode Mont Ventoux exactly like that. Chapeau, Bradley.

I've pushed myself to unconciousness through excercise a couple of times. Does that mean I'm as 'core as Simpson? Cool 🙂

clubber – if you could arrange for someone to let me know which hill/mountain you keeled over and died on, then I'll ride up there some time with my own face in a tortured grimace but still take the time to doff my cap to you as I crawl by….

🙂

I think you're confusing pushing yourself to the point of collapse with falling asleep after a **** there, Clubber. 😉

Never been to the Ventoux myself, but I hear someone cycles up there nearly every week to put fresh flowers on Simpson's memorial. The French know the score. 🙂

What ourmaninthenorth said.
Applying contemporary drug ethics to riders in the 60's is pretty naive.

Will do OMITN. Appreciate it 🙂

mr_a – wash your mind out 🙄

but I hear someone cycles up there nearly every week to put fresh flowers on Simpson's memorial

It's meaningless unless they take amphetamines washed down with Brandy before they start.

That would be a proper tribute.

That said, being French an' all, they probably have been at the Brandy (or maybe Pastis, Cognac, etc) 🙂

I don't know cos I've never been but aren't the mountains strewn with memorials to riders past who've either stiffed it on the slopes or who have degraded into obscurity after they knocked up their team managers wife or got sacked for wearing green socks?

and they smoked. we are all such pussies now.

Nothing wrong with a sly tab 😉

Good interview

I think that for someone who's for over a decade been feted as one of Britain's best risers – his way with PR is simply unbelieveable. I particularly liked his SPOTY appearance where unlike everyone else he kept his helmet and shades on during his interview and dismissed all the Olympics as just a day at the office, and that all the results were completely expected.
He is still a great rider, but I prefer Cav more.

I can recommend "Put Me Back On The Bike". Excellent read and to me shows Tommy to be a very similar personality as Mr Armstrong. IMHO he comes over much better though as it's written by someone else, whereas my decline in "liking" LA started when I had read "It's Not About The Bike".

Put Me Back On The Bike

I thought he didn't say that and it was made up by a journalist down in the valley?

Sorry if I don't get this exactly right.

Journalist: So Mr Coppi do you take drugs?
Coppi: Only when necessary.
Journalist: When is it necessary?
Coppi: Most of the time.

It's what was done then, if you did not you we not going to win anything.

Yep good interview – if they could just drop the track balderdash :wink:and let him concentrate on the real event…
at least Cav learnt his lesson the hard way but Twiggo = legend.
Watching him attack on the Verbier climb was just brilliant – sadly I've become a bit blase about Cav's wins but then I've always preferred the rouleurs to the sprinters.

Simpsons death kind of marks the start of the modern era of dope testing. Whether buying races still continues, hmm, did Barredo buy Kreuzinger on Sat?

Fotheringham discusses whether he said it or not at some length I think. 'Tis a very good book.

Samuri – there is an article (with maps!) in a back issue of Rouleur about memorials. There are not many to people who have actually died during the TdF. Simpson and Casartelli certainly.

Excellent interview. With prepartion to be the winner I think BW will be the man. I think rather than Contador that Andy Schleck will be the biggest obstacle. He's only 23 turning 24 where BW is heading for 30. Though admittedly it has always been said that 28 to 32 was prime Grand Tour age.

I do hope he goes to Sky but glad he has the morals to stick to his contract with Garmin, who I admire a lot as a team and an ethic.

My only concern is a lot of people have this desire to see BW in the same team as Cav. If BW is going to win he has to be in a team devoted to the GC. Compare and contrast Postal/Discovery aimed at Yellow only and T-Mobile trying to get Green for Zabel and Yellow for Ullrich. It don't work.

I thought he didn't say that and it was made up by a journalist down in the valley?

Yep, true.

T-Mobile trying to get Green for Zabel and Yellow for Ullrich. It don't work.

It did in 1997 🙂

I agree though but I'm sure that Cav and Wiggo are aware of that too (!) so I suspect we won't see them on the same team.

Its also why you won't see Cav in team Tandy.

I particularly liked his SPOTY appearance where he….dismissed all the Olympics as just a day at the office, and that all the results were completely expected.

I thought that was brilliant. he didn't dismiss all the Olympics as just a day at the office, but yes, he said that the results were as expected. Which was true. What's wrong with that? Given the amount of training and preparation the British team had undertaken it would have been a major surprise had 'all the boxes not been ticked'.