Bradley Wiggins has revealed he became addicted to cocaine after his cycling career ended, adding the problem got so bad his son “thought I was going to be found dead in the morning”. Wiggins has also said his children considering putting him into rehab.
The 2012 Tour de France winner has said he stopped taking the drug last year, without undergoing any treatment and was no back riding his bike and working with brands to earn a living after his bankruptcy.
“I was doing shitloads of cocaine. I had a really bad problem. My kids were going to put me in rehab. I was walking a tightrope,” Wiggins told Jeremy Whittle in an interview for The Observer newspaper in Britain.
“I realised I had a huge problem. I had to stop. I’m lucky to be here. I was a victim of all my own choices, for many years.
“I already had a lot of self-hatred, but I was amplifying it. It was a form of self-harm and self-sabotage. It was not the person I wanted to be. I realised I was hurting a lot of people around me.”
Wiggins added Lance Armstrong had help him get through his substance abuse, as he did with fellow Tour winner, the German rider Jan Ullrich.
“He’d been through a similar thing with Jan. They’d try and get hold of me, but couldn’t find where I was. My son speaks to Lance a lot. He’d ask my son, ‘How’s your Dad?’ Ben would say, ‘I’ve not heard from him for a couple of weeks, I know he’s living in a hotel.’
“They wouldn’t hear from me for days on end. I can talk about these things candidly now. There was an element of me living a lie, in not talking about it.
“There’s no middle ground for me. I can’t just have a glass of wine. If I have a glass of wine, then I’m buying drugs. My proclivity to addiction was easing the pain that I lived with.”
Wiggins is set to bring out a new autobiography, The Chain, later this year and has said the the controversies he and Team Sky become embroiled in – including the ‘jiffy bag’ incident which never reached any firm conclusion – added to his problems.
He has been getting back out on his bike and working with Ekoi on a range of shorts and jerseys, all of which he said has really helped his recovery. He also believed he would recoup money he lost, resulting in his being declared bankrupt.
“Two years ago, I never anticipated throwing my leg over a bike ever again. I hated cycling, and I’ve come full circle with that now,” he said of effectively returning to the sport.
“I’ve accepted in the last 12 months that however much I try and push it away, I am a cyclist, it is my life and it will always be part of my life,” Wiggins said.
“I think I was causing myself more pain by trying to push it away. Every time someone sees me, they go, ‘Oh, you’re that cyclist’, so it’s just never going to leave me, ever.
“I hadn’t had a bike for several years, and then I got a bike again, and I just forgot how much I love being out on it.
“Whenever I get on my bike, it reminds me of being 13 years old and how unhappy I was at 13. My escapism was being on my bike. It’s sort of given me that same feeling again now.
“I’ve always viewed it from the negative side with what came with my career, and what happened at the end of my career, whereas now I’m seeing it for what it is… Ultimately, it’s where I get the most pleasure, it’s my sanctuary.”
