A combination of athletic prowess and personal eccentricity made him a beloved national figure but the latest allegations against him and Team Sky have at the very least tainted that legacy
The golden throne outside Hampton Court Palace. The Sun’s stick-on sideburns. The ringing of a 23-ton bell to open the Olympics. The quirky victory speech on the Champs-Elysées. The crescendo of noise that greeted the smashing of the world hour record in the London velodrome. A kaleidoscope of memories. How far in the past they seem now, and how faded the images, as a beleaguered Bradley Wiggins seeks to preserve his reputation.
The incessant attacks, including the particularly massive one provoked by yesterday’s release of the parliamentary report into doping in UK sport, tend to focus on Dave Brailsford, who drove the project that moulded British Cycling and Team Sky into a dominant force in international cycling. But Wiggins is already the biggest casualty, since it was he who most vividly embodied not just sporting success but cycling’s new nationwide visibility and popularity.
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