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Bradley Wiggins: I'm better than that dope Lance

Why the North London boy gets so angry about what Lance has done to the Tour

Wiggins is an angry man, and it's not directed towards the driver who landed him in hospital during a training ride recently.

In an interview in January's GQ magazine, it's Lance Armstrong he's got the hump with - for taking the gloss off Wiggo's Tour win, his most spectacular cycling achievement to date.

He said: “In some ways I think the scandal enhances what I did.

“His success was built on lies. I look at him now and I think to myself, ‘He didn’t win those Tours fairly, so maybe this superhuman cycling legend was never as good a rider as me.’

“That makes me feel proud that my victories aren’t built on sand.”

But that aside, it's the pressure of having to constantly defend himself now that the public is of the opinion that pro cycling is a murky grey zone, says Wiggins.

“It’s like I am having to atone for the sins of another generation.

"Cycling is a different sport now. This scandal is very much a snapshot of what cycling was like at that time. It's not like that now.

"What angers me is that I feel I have to justify my position and what I am achieving.

"I understand why people ask the questions they do about cycling.

"But it's something I struggle to cope with and keep responding to."

The January 2013 issue of GQ Magazine is out on Thursday.

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35 comments

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ribbledibble | 11 years ago
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Just like being in the clubhouse. Overopinionated know alls berating the achievements of others. Cycling in this country suffered for years because of this " I've suffered you haven't" snobbery. It won't be drugs or even the atrocious behaviour of some drivers that throws us back to the dark days of non achievement., it will be the aggressive mocking snobbery of no hopers like SOME of the comments above.

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Nzlucas | 11 years ago
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Anyone who uses the C word during a international press conference is alright by me.....

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wheelsucker replied to Nzlucas | 11 years ago
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Nzlucas wrote:

Anyone who uses the C word during a international press conference is alright by me.....

Whats that? Twat?
I agree

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Linkinbassist | 11 years ago
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Wiggins and Voeckler are my favourite riders purely because they actually speak their mind. Same with Cav and Pinotti. Athletes aren't robots - they're people with thoughts and opinions.

If the thought of an athlete saying what they think disgusts you for whatever reason, then you lack empathy - simple as.

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FMOAB | 11 years ago
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There's a distinct lack of maturity in some of the comments above. I'm with Hoester on this one, please don't let the standard of commentary drop to that evident in the first few posts here.

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a.jumper | 11 years ago
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Quote:

The January 2013 issue of GQ Magazine is out
on Thursday.

Is their reporting as good as their calendar-reading? I remember when mags used to appear a few weeks ahead, but over a month? What drugs are the publishers on?

Wiggo is a legend for that face during the anthem and that speech.

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pmr | 11 years ago
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More to the point, I want a pair of those Oakleys, what are they?

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Littlesox | 11 years ago
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Brad is brilliant.

Granted, a complex character that has probably done and said a few things he might have wished he hadn't. He's human, like the rest of us.

How long have we waited for a victory in a Tour, with all too short glimpses of a brit wearing yellow, and a smattering of stage victories to keep us cheering ?

Don't knock him - what he has acheived this year is unprecedented and he should be supported and applauded, not called shool boy names on blogs and forums.

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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I don't like Brits actually winning anything. He's shit.

/sarcasm

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crazy-legs | 11 years ago
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You can understand where he's coming from.

Cycling hacks seem to have a very limited range of questions to ask and the main one of course is doping. It's been the mainstay of cycling now for years, the biggest/most well known cyclist of all time has been exposed as a serial liar and cheat and to many people (who may not necessarily follow "cycling"), Lance = The Tour = Cycling

Hence the association.
Wiggins, Cav etc, have to live with the constant questions, insinuations, allegations so you can see how they get frustrated with it and how those frustrated answers, given 1000 times before, add up to make them sound like petulant schoolboys.

They're not, as always it's the media interpretation of their answers.

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Hoester | 11 years ago
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Please don't let roadcc go the way of the singletrack forum. Kind of feels like its going that way.

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seabass89 | 11 years ago
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As a non-UKer.. Wiggins is a legend! I love that sporting people have the guts to say what they think.

And truthfully, why wouldn't you be angry at Lance? Every cyclist has the right to be. I certainly am, and I won't ever win anything!

Wiggins is a colourful character in a colourful sport. Go Wiggo! (Just let EBH get some more chances next year, harr harr)

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wingsofspeed68 | 11 years ago
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Who are these people bad mouthing Wiggins? Cycling will never be 100% clean that's why we still need a thorough testing programme and better management (McQuaid, please leave now if you still love the sport). It is however much, much cleaner than 10 years ago.

Lance was not just a drug taker, he was a bully and and a manipulator. It was just a shame that very few spoke up against him but it's not surprising seeing as he had the UCI in his back pocket; not to mention the French president.

Hope he is bankrupt very shortly and long live the memories of what was a fantastic 2012; not just for Wiggins but the whole of British Cycling.

Wiggins has left a legacy already and BC can only go from strength to strength as a result - as Wiggins says - not built on sand either!

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Beaufort | 11 years ago
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Fast becoming tired of the cycling 'experts' who seem to love despising our great champions. If you have nothing good to say then please say nothing.

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Stumps replied to Beaufort | 11 years ago
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Beaufort wrote:

Fast becoming tired of the cycling 'experts' who seem to love despising our great champions. If you have nothing good to say then please say nothing.

Well said that man  41

The rest of the doom mongerers can go and ply their tirade elsewhere, muppets.

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localsurfer | 11 years ago
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Nope. I think Brad is probably clean, and I think he's done great things for cycling. But we've heard all this before.
'It used be dirty, it's clean now'.

They said that after Festina fourteen years ago. Armstrong swore up and down he was clean. No-one really knows who's won what for a decade or more.

Wiggins started competing in the late 90s, early 00s. There is no way he didn't know about doping. None. He was in the Cofidis team for a start! Not exactly Christophe Basson is he?

And he said nothing. Omerta. Lot of respect for the bloke, but he should lay off the 'poor me, people suspect us all now' bollocks. He should be expecting it, and he should accept it as the price for his silence.

Everyone in the peloton for more than the last 3 or 4 years is suspect by default, because they knew, and did nothing.

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Sam1 replied to localsurfer | 11 years ago
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--

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Sam1 replied to localsurfer | 11 years ago
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localsurfer wrote:

Nope. I think Brad is probably clean, and I think he's done great things for cycling. But we've heard all this before.
'It used be dirty, it's clean now'.

They said that after Festina fourteen years ago. Armstrong swore up and down he was clean. No-one really knows who's won what for a decade or more.

Wiggins started competing in the late 90s, early 00s. There is no way he didn't know about doping. None. He was in the Cofidis team for a start! Not exactly Christophe Basson is he?

And he said nothing. Omerta. Lot of respect for the bloke, but he should lay off the 'poor me, people suspect us all now' bollocks. He should be expecting it, and he should accept it as the price for his silence.

Everyone in the peloton for more than the last 3 or 4 years is suspect by default, because they knew, and did nothing.

Go into a bookshop, find a copy of 'My Time', turn to chapter 12 and read what Wiggins himself has to say about his career and doping including when Moreni was done and Cofidis chucked off the Tour. Wiggins was so disgusted he retreated back to the security of British Cycling, and joined Highroad the next year and then Garmin. He was something of a go-to guy for journos when it came to anti-doping in a period when no one else wanted to say talk about it.

As for your last sentence...'Everyone is suspect because they said nothing.'  20 Maybe read a little more widely to understand the environment, how much riders on teams actually got together outside of races (answer: bugger all) - it was genuinely possible that a rider did not know that another rider on the team was doping. It wasnt all blood transfusions in front of each other and raiding each others fridges for EPO, as per USPS.

Geraint Thomas and Cav were both riding for pro teams in 2007. Are they suspect too? Apparently so according to your criteria, namely that only riders who have turned pro since 2009 are not 'suspect'. Hell, they both started the 07 Tour - doubly suspect!!

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OldnSlo | 11 years ago
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Flip me, look at his results christ sake. I get the distinct there are few former Lance lovers out there ready to stick it to our Brad. I'm with the French on this, Cycling god who has the confidence to know and his own mind.

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thereandbackagain | 11 years ago
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Maybe some of the commentators are sock puppets accounts for Lance.

I mean, what else is the Cancer Jesus going to do now, other than make angry posts on internet forums?

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new-to-cycling | 11 years ago
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Good for Wiggins. He is better than Armstrong as he has a Tour title and Lance does not. Wiggins shouldn't have to be dogged with questions of doping. He controlled the entire Tour de France and won it exactly like the plan said he would.

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Velo_Alex replied to new-to-cycling | 11 years ago
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Opinions are wonderful things.

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The Rumpo Kid | 11 years ago
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"Cycling is a different sport now." As the great Yogi Berra once said, "It's like deja vu all over again."

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andybwhite | 11 years ago
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really! why on earth should we make judgements on people based on the spin they recieve from the media? we don't know these people, however many times we read about them in Hello, GQ, or the tabloids. If you think you can comment on these 'celebritys' personalities based on what you read then you are plain STUPID. And I know you are stupid based on your own words not those you have allegedly said and reported in the madia.

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Sam1 | 11 years ago
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The other comment I have is for the writer who posted this article: you haven't read the full article for GQ because it's not been published. You are quoting from a blog that in term is quoting incompletely, without the context of the full interview.

This counts for a credible newsworthy article, does it?
 39

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Sam1 | 11 years ago
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If the first 3 posters want to look for a twat and a moron, they should all look closer to home. Utter trolls.

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NeilXDavis | 11 years ago
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Why exactly is wiggins a twat? - some of these comments are just plain pathetic.

He gave the middle finger ironically - it was the one he dislocated. I happen to like the way he dresses and the whole mod scene stuff..it's interesting...Tom Simpson was no different...

Just sour grapes...seriously get a life..

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Brummmie | 11 years ago
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Wiggins has big bollocks. He says what he wants, when he wants.

That is why some people think he is a "twat"......

That is why I and millions more like him very much.......including the French !

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Cooks | 11 years ago
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fast becoming tired of Wiggins.

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doc | 11 years ago
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I do hope some of the more stupid and ill thought comments don't reach BW's lawyer, public forum and all that.
How bad is it when the best road rider in recent history is vilified by comments from so called "fans"?
Just simply unbelieveable.

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