Bradley Wiggins has enrolled in an Open University degree in social work and intends to work in that area, he has told the Big Issue magazine.
His move comes as is Team Wiggins Le Col Continental
squad has announced it will close at the end of this season.
Wiggins said the team did not have the infrastructure or
level of investment required to continue.
He added while he was now working with Eurosport on its
cycling coverage, he felt detached from his own career and had reverted to
watching the sport as a fan.
“When I was offered a TV role I wasn’t sure I wanted to
do it. It took me a while to find myself, redefine myself, and come back to
cycling without an ego,” he said.
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“So now I can do the TV job, but I’ve also enrolled to do
an Open University degree in social working. I want to help people," he
said, adding he had seen “horrific things” growing up in London.
“Nothing can shock me now, and I want to use that mental
toughness working as a social worker,” he said.
“And when people say, ‘Oh you’re that cyclist’, I’ll say:
‘No, that was a few years ago. I’m a social worker now’.
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“I don’t give a shit about my cycling career now. I’m
just detached from it; I don’t want to live off the back of it.
“I live off of being me, and I’m happy in my own skin.
I’ve gone full circle; I watch it as a fan now. I don’t expect to be recognised
or anything.”
In the Big Issue interview he described as “a witch hunt” allegations that he had used medicines under TUE to enhance performance.
Allegations that the delivery of a jiffy bag to Team Sky
in France in 2011 was untoward were never proven, though the team was unable to
prove a decongestant, as it said, was in the bag.
“I felt like I was in the eye of the storm, and I was trying
to prove a negative,” Wiggins said of trying to refute the allegations.
“But the fact that I’m back working in the sport is
testament to the fact that I did nothing wrong.
“The people who are responsible for what happened are now
on a charm offensive but people aren’t stupid.
“I’m not angry though, I’ll be involved with cycling a
lot longer than those people, because I love it.”
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