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Sir Bradley Wiggins in trouble over crude joke at charity dinner

"Banter" goes wrong as compere catches Tour star "unawares"...

Sir Bradley Wiggins’ tarnished public image took another blow last night when it emerged he had made an explicit remark at a dinner in support of charity Barnado’s.

According to the Daily Star, the Tour de France winner was approached by compere Jon Hammond as one of his cycling shirts went up for auction. Wiggins’ face appeared on the big screen at the luxury Rudding Park Hotel near Harrogate and he said: “You’ve got a posh voice. I like posh voices. S*** me off.”

Last night a spokesman for Wiggins’ management company said: “There had been some friendly banter beforehand and Bradley was caught unawares by the auctioneer. We’d like to apologise to anyone who was offended by his language.”

According to the report, Wiggins was attending the £300-a-seat Firecracker Ball fundraiser for children’s charity Barnado’s, which took place on November 9.

Guests said drink had been flowing “extremely freely” but Wiggins is said not to have been drunk.

Nevertheless, the remark did not go down well with other guests.

Business director David Parkin said: “Initially there was just stunned silence. It was bizarre and shocking.

“The chap sitting next to me said: ‘Before tonight he was my hero, but not anymore'.

“It was completely the wrong time and place to say something like that.

“People were completely disgusted by him.”

The 2013 Firecracker Ball raised £230,000 for Barnado’s, including £5,000 from the sale of Wiggins’ jersey.

Wiggins has been in the news recently as a result of revelations in David Walsh’s new book Inside Team Sky. Wiggins is alleged not to have given any of his 2012 Tour de France win bonus to Chris Froome, despite paying other team members for their help, until Sir Dave Brailsford intervened.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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53 comments

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Driver Protest Union | 11 years ago
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So Godfrey's shared joke with women who confessed they never clean behind their fridge 'I'm in a room full of sluts' seems really sensible and good clean fun after all?  21

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mike1727 replied to Driver Protest Union | 11 years ago
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Get back under your bridge Keith Peat.

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Leviathan | 11 years ago
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Bravo, how do I Like his comment? This week the Wiggo has been bashed about a bit, missus.

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Cooks | 11 years ago
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I still haven't forgiven him for when he pinched Oprah Winfrey's arse at Paris-Roubaix.

That happened, right?

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Daclu Trelub | 11 years ago
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Having a posh voice is no indicator of sexual proclivity. Just as many prudes as tarts amongst the poshos as the plebs.

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Northernbike replied to Daclu Trelub | 11 years ago
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Cauld Lubter wrote:

Having a posh voice is no indicator of sexual proclivity. Just as many prudes as tarts amongst the poshos as the plebs.

I don't know; isn't that what the phrase 'fur coat and no knickers' alludes to?

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MattT53 | 11 years ago
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quality, continues to go up in my estimation!

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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The one thing that there is NO mention of anywhere. As it was for Barnado’s. Were there kids at the event?

If yes, its a bit of a stupid comment to make.

If no, that's a light comment from him. No harm done if no kids in ear shot  3

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Karbon Kev | 11 years ago
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prat, as usual

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aslongasicycle | 11 years ago
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I'm not posh and feel excluded. His snobbery disgusts me. I don't want to suck Bradley off, but IT IS MY RIGHT TO BE OFFERED THE CHANCE.

These people should be hung.

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gareth2510 | 11 years ago
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Wasnt even a funny quip... silly boy.
Hes a celeb and everything he says that isnt 'PC' will be picked up and published, he knows this or should do.
Prat

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Stim | 11 years ago
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Well done Bradley,cant imagine Chris Froome coming out with suck me off but who gives a toss,im sick of these posh bastards who appear to have proliferated like effing rabbits since the Bullingdon cunts got in through dint of privileged birth and bugger all merit,talent or hard work
Suck me off indeed and now fuck off

 41

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Old Man Miller | 11 years ago
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Wiggo has gone up in my estimations - top comment. All the PC nobbers should sod off and get a life. A harmless amusing comment.

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jollygoodvelo | 11 years ago
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Wiggo said "S*** me off."

Road.cc said "His tarnished image took another blow"

Nice one, Centurions.  4

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Colin Peyresourde | 11 years ago
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Listen, if they wanted to book a comedian to bomb they would've booked Frankie Boyle....

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samwstraw | 11 years ago
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Ha!

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Ush | 11 years ago
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What f***ing ever. Leave him alone.

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md6 | 11 years ago
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FFS. So, that's what passes for 'disgusting' these days...really these people have obviously never vnetured out in the 'real' world where normal people are unlikely to be offended by the tail end of a possibly inappropriate comment. Although it was probably only inappropriate due to the fact someone stuck a camera in his face as he said it.

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700c | 11 years ago
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Oh get over it. His 'tarnished image took another blow'?! He's doing something for charity and all the press can concentrate on is that he made a crude joke...

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Mendip James | 11 years ago
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Bit of a PR gaff but he's not there to please the other guests, his jersey gained £5k for charity which was presumably the point of his attendance, we all know he can be a bit of a loose cannon which is part of the appeal. Chris Froome might feel differently of course!

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lookmanohands | 11 years ago
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Burn him, he's a witch

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Mr Jono | 11 years ago
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Finally, something funny and distinctly not-beige uttered by a pro. Sure all the 'won't somebody think of the children?' crew will say it's in poor taste, but why don't they all f*$^ off and stop the bland stranglehold (blandlehold?!?) on the media and let real people enjoy themselves and say what they want when they're on the lash. Charity got paid, and we're reading about an event we would have otherwise not been aware of

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Stumps | 11 years ago
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Oh ffs, it was a stupid comment, end of.

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