Wiggins looks to Hoy and Boardman as role models for retirement

Sir Bradley Wiggins says he has come to accept his level of fame and says he wants to 'use it' during the next phase of his career. Speaking to The Guardian, he cited Chris Boardman and Sir Chris Hoy as being role models for when he retires from cycling later this year.

"I got quite embarrassed because my stupid big head came on the screen," said Wiggins to explain why he felt moved to stick out his tongue during the team pursuit medal ceremony in Rio. Asked whether anyone might have taken offence, he replied: “You know there’s always going to be someone. I mean Piers Morgan had a go at me four years ago for not singing the national anthem.”

The Morgan reference then led him to mull what might come next in his career and he added: “I’ll know things are bad when I go on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. That’s when I’d be scraping the barrel.”

So what will Wiggins do instead when he retires from cycling after the Six Days of Ghent later this year?

“I don’t know how I want to be remembered on the bike. But I don’t want people to look back in 10 years and say, ‘Do you remember that famous cyclist with the sideburns? Whatever happened to him?’ And it’s like, ‘He was on the telly for ages, weren’t he? On all those game shows. And then he sort of disappeared.’ And then you read about me in the Mirror, walking through the park or something, you know, down and out. So I think about it a lot. Where do I want to be in 20 years’ time?”

Where he wants to be has to some degree been guided by the post-competitive activities of Chrises Hoy and Boardman.

“They’ve got massive bike ranges, they’re on TV, they’re educating people about what’s happening in bike races. Or, in other sports, Michael Johnson and Michael Jordan, or Gary Lineker – look at what he’s done. And I look up to those people and think that’s who I want to be like, as opposed to the Paul Gascoignes of this world.”

Wiggins has of course already launched a range of kids’ bikes with Halfords and this seems to tie in with the general role he sees himself taking up in coming years. “It’s about grassroots and youth and finding the next Bradley Wiggins, as it were – or just inspiring the next generation.”