Team GB Olympic legend’s son sets sights on LA 2028 gold and claims ‘I’m a lot better than my dad was’
BEN WIGGINS admits having a famous sporting dad has been a slight burden – but he is starting to make a name for himself.
Retired racing royalty Bradley Wiggins, 43, won five Olympic gold medals for Team GB and wore the Tour de France Yellow Jersey in that glorious summer of 2012.
His 18-year-old son has followed in the same two-wheeled path and is attempting to carve out his own distinguished career.
Wiggins Junior has shown enormous promise already, taking the European juniors point race title last year on the track in Portugal.
On Friday morning, he will take part in the men’s junior individual time trial around the streets of Stirling at the UCI Cycling World Championships.
Asked if the family name was a burden or bonus, Wiggins replied: “I think it’s more difficult to manage when it’s not going so well.
“Say you’ve had a few bad races or whatever it starts, I don’t know if it’s just in my own head, but you start to think about what people are thinking or saying.
“People are always going to compare me to him but actually if you look at my junior results compared to when he was a junior, I’m actually a lot better than he was.
“Do I remind him of that? I do. All the time. He says it himself.
“It was difficult at the start of last season as in my first year I hadn’t really done anything.
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“But now I’ve won the European title and a Nations Cup on the road so it’s alright when you’re doing it yourself, you can make your own name.
“There’s not much advice he can really give you. If you think about it, it’s 25 years since he rode a junior race himself and the sport has changed so much.
“It’s more just (having) the presence there than any advice.”
Liverpool fan Wiggins’s first appearance at these Scottish ‘super cycling worlds’ was the 127.2km junior road race last weekend but he withdrew after his chain came off and he lost pace with the peloton.
It was a tough introduction to bunch racing on the streets of Glasgow and he says it was not an enjoyable experience due to the “attacks every five minutes”.
His development on the road is being overseen by the Fensham Howes Junior Team, which is run by Giles Pidcock, the dad of Olympic cross-country mountain bike champion Tom.
Asked about his long-term ambitions, Wiggins said he was targeting both the road and track – with the Olympics firmly on his mind.
The Lancashire teenager added: “Certainly in the short term, for the next few years. I’d like to go to the LA Olympics (in 2028).
“And I imagine as with most riders eventually I’ll focus on the road. But I’ll try to do both for the next few years.
“I’ve got the track worlds at the end of this month. I’m more prepared for that really than a road race.
“In the past couple of months I’ve been preparing for the track really and sort of playing catch-up the last couple of weeks.
“I think the different timing of the (road) worlds has put a bit of a spanner in the works in terms of preparation.”