Bradley Wiggins - Icons - My Inspiration. My Motivation. My Obsession.

COPYRIGHT Copyright Title Page Foreword: Eddy Merckx Introduction 1. Johan Museeuw 2. Franco Ballerini 3. Chris Lillywhite 4. Miguel Induráin 5. Sean Yates 6. Eddy Merckx 7. Patrick Sercu 8. Tom Simpson 9. Barry Hoban 10. Phil Edwards 11. Francesco Moser 12. Gianni Bugno 13. Lance Armstrong 14. Jacques Anquetil 15. Gastone Nencini 16. Felice Gimondi 17. José Manuel Fuente 18. Luis Ocaña 19. Hugo Koblet 20. Fabian Cancellara 21. Fausto Coppi Afterword Glossary of Cycling Terms List of Searchable Terms Picture Credits About the Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2018

FIRST EDITION

© Bradley Wiggins 2018

Jacket design by James Empringham © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Jacket photographs (front, left to right) Roger-Viollet/Topfoto, Agence France Presse/Getty Images, Imago Sportfotodienst/Imago/PA Images; (back, left to right) Presse Sports/Off side, Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, © AGIP/Bridgeman Images, courtesy of Elisabetta Nencini

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Bradley Wiggins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 9780008301743

Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008301750

Version 2018-10-12

CONTENTS

Cover

Copyright COPYRIGHT Copyright Title Page Foreword: Eddy Merckx Introduction 1. Johan Museeuw 2. Franco Ballerini 3. Chris Lillywhite 4. Miguel Induráin 5. Sean Yates 6. Eddy Merckx 7. Patrick Sercu 8. Tom Simpson 9. Barry Hoban 10. Phil Edwards 11. Francesco Moser 12. Gianni Bugno 13. Lance Armstrong 14. Jacques Anquetil 15. Gastone Nencini 16. Felice Gimondi 17. José Manuel Fuente 18. Luis Ocaña 19. Hugo Koblet 20. Fabian Cancellara 21. Fausto Coppi Afterword Glossary of Cycling Terms List of Searchable Terms Picture Credits About the Publisher HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published by HarperCollins Publishers 2018 FIRST EDITION © Bradley Wiggins 2018 Jacket design by James Empringham © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018 Jacket photographs (front, left to right) Roger-Viollet/Topfoto, Agence France Presse/Getty Images, Imago Sportfotodienst/Imago/PA Images; (back, left to right) Presse Sports/Off side, Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, © AGIP/Bridgeman Images, courtesy of Elisabetta Nencini A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Bradley Wiggins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Source ISBN: 9780008301743 Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008301750 Version 2018-10-12

Title Page

Foreword: Eddy Merckx

Introduction

1. Johan Museeuw

2. Franco Ballerini

3. Chris Lillywhite

4. Miguel Induráin

5. Sean Yates

6. Eddy Merckx

7. Patrick Sercu

8. Tom Simpson

9. Barry Hoban

10. Phil Edwards

11. Francesco Moser

12. Gianni Bugno

13. Lance Armstrong

14. Jacques Anquetil

15. Gastone Nencini

16. Felice Gimondi

17. José Manuel Fuente

18. Luis Ocaña

19. Hugo Koblet

20. Fabian Cancellara

21. Fausto Coppi

Afterword

Glossary of Cycling Terms

List of Searchable Terms

Picture Credits

About the Publisher

Merckx rode for the short-lived Faemino-Faema team between 1968 and 1970. The team mostly comprised Belgian riders, with a few Italians.

FOREWORD

FOOTBALL WAS MY FIRST LOVE, and like most kids from Brussels I was an Anderlecht fan. However, one day I discovered the great Stan Ockers, and fell in love with cycling.

Stan was a hero to me, just as he was to many Belgians. In 1955 he won the World Championships, Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but in general he tended to lose more races than he won. He was popular because he was a great rider, but most of all I think because he was a great sportsman. I liked to pretend I was him as I rode my bike, but then in 1956 he died following a crash on the track at Antwerp, his home town. I was only 11 at the time, but his death broke my heart.

Ultimately, Stan was the reason I started racing. I went on to win 525 professional races, so I guess you could say that he changed the course of cycling history.

The point is that we are all dreamers. We’re all fans first and foremost, because if we weren’t we wouldn’t become sportsmen. I started out pretending to be Stan, and through him I learned about Rik Van Steenbergen, Briek Schotte and Fausto Coppi. Eventually I became a professional cyclist, and I wanted to emulate Coppi and Jacques Anquetil by winning the Tour de France and breaking the Hour Record.

Brad’s story is more or less the same. He started out watching Miguel Induráin, and decided he wanted to understand cycling history for himself. That led him to me, to the Tour de France, to the Hour Record and eventually to our friendship.

We were lucky enough to be blessed with the talent to win bike races, but in reality we were no different to millions of starry-eyed kids down the years. History repeats itself in cycling, and I know for a fact that there are thousands of young British guys who took up cycling because of Brad. That’s the way it rolls in cycling, and the way it always was.

Enjoy the ride …

In among all the jerseys in my collection, Eddy’s gloves mean a hell of a lot.