Bradley Wiggins Bücher

Am 22. Juli 2012 sicherte sich Bradley Wiggins als erster Brite in der Geschichte des Radsports den Sieg bei der Tour de France. Nur zehn Tage später gewann er bei den Spielen von London die Goldmedaille im Zeitfahren. Ein neuer Nationalheld war geboren. König Wiggo I. Geradeheraus, unerschrocken und schlagfertig. So haben Sportfans in aller Welt den neuen Tour-Star kennengelernt. Kein aalglatter Diplomat im Sportdress, sondern eine echte Type mit Ecken, Kanten und eigener Meinung. In diesem Buch zeichnet Bradley Wiggins jene bemerkenswerte Reise nach, die ihn zum Sieg im härtesten Rennen der Welt geführt hat. Offenherzig erzählt er von seinem Leben auf und abseits des Rades. Von seinen Dämonen und Ängsten. Von Mannschaftskollegen und Rivalen. Von brutalen Trainingsprogrammen und totaler Opferbereitschaft. Von der Entschlossenheit, alles zu hinterfragen, und vom Mut, mit Traditionen zu brechen. Denn über allem steht eine große Frage: Was braucht es, um der Beste der Welt zu sein in dem, was man tut?

One man, one bike, one hour. The inside story of Bradley Wiggins's record-breaking ride For 60 minutes this summer, the British public stopped what they were doing, switched on their radios, their TVs, refreshed their Twitter feeds and followed Bradley Wiggins’s attempt to break one of sport’s most gruelling records: The Hour. The premise is simple enough: how far can you cycle in one hour. But it is thought to be one of the toughest events an athlete can endure, both physically and psychologically. Eddy Merckx, cycling’s über-champ, called it the hardest thing he ever did. Wiggins, like many before him, discovered the unique pain of pushing yourself as hard as you can for 60 minutes. In this revealing book, Bradley Wiggins takes you behind the scenes of his record attempt. From planning to preparation, to training to execution, Bradley shares his thoughts on his sacrifices, his heroes, and the people who have supported him along the way as well as what’s to come as he heads towards the twilight of his stellar career. Supported by stunning photography, My Hour is a fitting celebration of one of Britain’s best-loved sportsmen in his finest hour.

Bradley Wiggins is the son of a professional cyclist, and he first competed at twelve, immediately realising that this was what he wanted to do as a career. By the age of twenty, he won his first Olympic medal, in Sydney, before turning to professional road cycling in 2001. Since then Wiggins has developed into one of the UK's most successful cyclists of all time, winning a gold in Athens and double gold in Beijing. However, it was when his team Cofidis was suspended from the 2007 Tour de France that he made his most outspoken comments yet on the issue of doping in cycling and earned the respect of all followers of sport for his stand. Wiggins is an inspirational figure to many: immensely talented, dedicated and cool, he has brought his sport to a whole new audience and was awarded the OBE in 2004 for his efforts. This honest and compelling account of his life and career not only reveals the sheer hard work required to get to the very top, but also provide a fascinating and controversial insight into the sometimes murky world of cycling.

'There is me trailing home 131st and, for all I know, I might be a top 50 rider if we all started on a level playing field . . . Bollocks to you all. You are a bunch of cheating bastards. At least I can look myself in the mirror.' Bradley Wiggins contemplates Floyd Landis testing positive for testosterone in the 2006 Tour de France. This 2010 account was an instant book published in the autumn following the Tour. Part day-by-day diary, it includes wider, deeper reflections on the history of the Tour, its famous figures and what they mean to him and is also illustrated with Scott Mitchell's atmospheric, black and white photography. The Tour was featured in Wiggins's 2008 autobiography, In Pursuit of Glory, but really only in the light of a scandal he was caught up in at the time. The emphasis of his previous memoir was very much on his childhood, his father and track cycling at the Olympics; here, Wiggins' new found love of road racing, and its pinnacle, the Tour de France, take centre stage, particularly the gruelling 2010 race, which although played out somewhat in the shadow of his high finish in 2009, was nevertheless an exemplary exercise in true grit and fighting spirit against the odds.