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The boy who became a double Olympic champion
Jack Lefley, Evening Standard19.08.08
When Londoner Bradley Wiggins attempts to rewrite British Olympic history today he will be riding a machine that took a decade to design and millions of pounds to develop.
His first bicycle, a Christmas present, cost just a few pounds and came with a plastic pannier and stabilisers.
Within minutes, two-year-old Bradley demanded they were taken off so he could race unfettered around the west London council estate.
Twenty-six years on, Wiggins will today try to become the first British athlete since 1908 to take three golds at the same games when he starts as the favourite in the men's Madison in which he partners Tour de France star Mark Cavendish.
Wiggins has now won six medals in three separate Olympics, including two golds already in Beijing. But he insists that only another gold will be good enough today.
His mother Linda, 51, who could not get a ticket to Beijing, will be cheering him on with the rest of the nation, although she is so nervous during his races that she buries her head in her hands.
But she will put herself through it all again today at the Victoria flat she shares with Wiggins's 20-year-old brother, Ryan, who is in the third year of a sports science degree at Roehampton University.
Linda spoke of the moment Bradley saw his first bike. Linda said: "He couldn't wait to get on it. But he took one look at the stabilisers and said 'I'm not riding it with those'."
Wiggins was born in Ghent, Belgium, where his Australian father, Gary, an endurance cyclist, was based. But when his parents split, he moved to London to be with his mother and her parents at the Dibden House estate in Maida Vale.
Linda still works as a secretary at St Augustine's Church of England school in Kilburn Park Road, where her son went to school, but often missed lessons to compete in junior races.
He started cycling competitively after watching Chris Boardman win Olympic gold in Barcelona in 1992. He left school at 17 without completing his A-levels to devote himself to the sport. At 18 he won the World Junior Pursuit title in Cuba in 1988. Linda said: "When he saw that Chris Boardman race he said 'I'm going to win an Olympic gold medal'. And he did. I wish I'd had a bet on him. Bradley worked so hard. I used to ask him to take Christmas Day off but he would go out training anyway.
"He missed school sometimes with all the competitions but they didn't believe him. I used to get letters saying he was bunking off."
Wiggins married Cathy, 28, just three months after scooping three medals at the Athens Olympics in 2004, to add to his bronze from Sydney in 2000. He is currently level with rower Sir Steve Redgrave on holding six Olympic medals and could become Britain's most decorated Olympian today.
Wiggins has moved with Cathy and their two children, Ben, three, and Isabella, one, to Lancashire, so he can train at the Manchester Velodrome.
Linda said: "Isabella knows it's her dad on TV but is a bit too young to understand what's going on. But Ben absolutely loves it. He already has a bike of his own and wants to be just like his dad."
As to whether her son, who already has an OBE, should be given a knighthood, she was unsure. She said: "I couldn't get a ticket to go and support him which was very disappointing. I've got my fingers crossed. It's going to be tough but I believe he can do it. Go on, Bradley.
"He thinks about more gold medals not honours. Sir Bradley? I'm not sure about that. It sounds strange."
