Bradley Wiggins has given up alcohol to try and ensure he does not start taking cocaine again and revealed he lived in a crack house and slept on park benches in London at the height of his drug addiction.
To mark the publication of his book, Chain, the Tour de France winner and five-time Olympic champion, has given an interview and said he also snorted cocaine off one of his Olympic medals.
He believes he did it because it was "the equivalent of pissing on someone’s grave, and in that moment I was pissing on my own".
At that point in his life, he hated cycling because his first cycling coach sexually abused him and the person who won the Tour and the Olympic and world titles was "dead to me".
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Speaking to The Times, Wiggins also claims Team Sky, as it was then, made him a scapegoat when doping allegations were being made against the team.
“There was something greater going on,” he said. “They (Team Sky) chucked me under a bus.” He claims they did this to protect somebody else, with Wiggins adding he believes he knows who that person is - "It’ll come out.”
He added once he began taking cocaine he was "high most of the time for many years". He would stay in hotels, sometimes for up to two weeks, taking the drug.
However, he then hit financial problems, leading him to sleeping on park benches, in his car and even staying in “a crack house in Middlesbrough".
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When he once spent two weeks in a hotel taking the drug his ex-wife, Cath, came to rescue him. She found about 120 empty packets the drugs had been in and wondered how he hadn't died after taking so much.
However, he said he now has his own house, had come through bankruptcy and had all the work he could handle. He is the father of a 5-year-old girl, from a relationship after his marriage broke down, and lives near her and takes her to school.
He also said he had to focus on looking after himself and having a planned daily routine to ensure he did not relapse into the lifestyle of drinking and taking drugs.
“Gym. I go every day," he said. I have a daily routine that starts at 6.15. I’ve made my bed by seven. Immaculate. And I plan my meals for the day. I live like I’m a professional athlete.”
He wears an Oura ring to track how he sleeps and other metrics in a bid to stay healthy and keep to his routine.
“I track my sleep. First thing in the morning, that’s become a competition in itself. How much REM sleep? What’s my readiness score today? Looking at that screen and saying, ‘Shit! I only had 57 minutes’ deep sleep.
"(So I say to myself) I’m not going to have as much screen time tonight. I’m not going to drink coffee after 12 o’clock. Well, if I have a drink and a line of coke, I’m going to be up all night — then imagine what my readiness score’s going to be.’ ”
He added his son, Ben (20), who is now making his way in pro cycling and has been European champion on the track, helped rescue him. Wiggins explained Ben was the one he reached out to for help when he was in his addiction crisis because he knew he wouldn't judge him.
