Bradley Wiggins has revealed he took cocaine to ease the “pain that I lived with” in the years after his retirement from racing, but has recently got his life back on track and will undergo therapy in the USA thanks to support from Lance Armstrong.
Wiggins was a national sports idol in 2012 when he won the Tour de France and a time trial gold medal in the London Olympics. He retired in 2016, but his life then spun out of control.
Hackers revealed that Team Sky had secretly given Wiggins Triamcinolone injections during the peak of his career, and he was also caught up in the still-unexplained ‘jiffy-bag’ investigation. Wiggins has always denied any wrongdoing and claimed the Triamcinolone injections were to treat asthma, but a critical British Parliamentary investigation claimed that Team Sky crossed an ethical line.
In 2020, Wiggins divorced from his wife Cath, and was declared bankrupt last year. He is confident he will recoup much of the money he lost, but he has gone through years of personal trauma. In 2022, Wiggins also revealed he was groomed and allegedly sexually abused by his coach when he was 13 years old.
He admits that he put himself in some “very dangerous” situations, especially after becoming addicted to cocaine. He admitted that his children feared his cocaine addiction and its consequences were life-threatening.
“I was doing shit loads of cocaine,” Wiggins revealed to our sister site Cycling Weekly, Velo and the Observer before the presentation of a Bradley Wiggins clothing range with French brand Ekoi.
“I had a real problem, and my kids were actually going to put me in rehab at one point. I’ve never spoken about that. I really was walking a tightrope,” he said.
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“There were times when my son was worried I was going to end up dead in the morning. I was a functioning addict, there was no middle ground for me. I couldn’t ever have a glass of wine, as if I did, then I was buying drugs. My addiction was a way of easing that pain that I lived with…”
Wiggins managed to find a way through his addiction.
“I’m still figuring a lot of this out, but what I have got is a lot more control of myself and my triggers, I’m a lot more at peace with myself now, which is a really big thing…”
Wiggins said he has been sober for a year. He is attending weekly therapy sessions in London and has accepted an offer from Armstrong to pay for special treatment in the USA. He will then join the disgraced Texan on his podcast during the Tour de France.
Wiggins revealed he is writing a new autobiography called ‘The Chain’, which will shed light on the problems he has faced since the end of his career.
“It’s about after cycling, when all that was over. It looks at what I was really going through and what I was facing,” Wiggins said of the book.
For a long time, Wiggins fell out of love with cycling. Now, thanks to support from Armstrong, friends and brands like Ekoi, he is back in the saddle.
“This kit and working is my reintroduction to cycling,” he said of the range of Ekoi shorts and jerseys. “Two years ago, I never anticipated throwing my leg over a bike ever again. I hated cycling, and I’ve come full circle with that now.
“After a damaging period in his private life in the last few years, it is “the rebirth of me as a person,” he added.
His son, Ben, rides for the Hagens Berman Jayco development and has a chance to turn professional in 2026. Wiggis now supports his son’s decision to follow in his footsteps, just like he did with his Australian father, who raced in Belgium and on the track.
“I’ve accepted in the last 12 months that however much I try and push it away, I am a cyclist, it is my life and it will always be part of my life,” Wiggins said.
“I think I was causing myself more pain by trying to push it away. Every time someone sees me, they go, ‘Oh, you’re that cyclist’, so it’s just never going to leave me, ever.
“I hadn’t had a bike for several years, and then I got a bike again, and I just forgot how much I love being out on it.
“Whenever I get on my bike, it reminds me of being 13 years old and how unhappy I was at 13. My escapism was being on my bike. It’s sort of given me that same feeling again now.
“I’ve always viewed it from the negative side with what came with my career, and what happened at the end of my career, whereas now I’m seeing it for what it is… Ultimately, it’s where I get the most pleasure, it’s my sanctuary.”