Free Bradley Wiggins by John Deering Page A

first phase of this race is now over and he’s still upright on his bike, which was the main
objective, and he hasn’t lost any time.’
    Yates had made a quick judgement call on Cavendish and decided not to call back teammates to assist the sprinter in his quest to regain the front. ‘We found it quite hard to get towards
Cav – as did the [neutral service] Mavic car – because of what had happened. We were completely blocked behind the crash and it meant he never really got any help.
    ‘Bradley, Froomey, Bernie, Christian and Mick were all right towards the front and you saw once again how important that is. The worst stages are over now in that respect though and
we’re looking in relatively good shape.’

    BRADLEY WIGGINS LOVED BEING back on Team GB. After 2001 had started in such inauspicious fashion, he was riding like a demon all over the continent,
attracting admiring glances from more professional teams.
    He even went to the World Track Championships in Antwerp with a broken wrist after a training spill and performed with credit in the individual pursuit, though not to his full potential, which
was understandable with the injury. He managed to persuade the management to allow him to keep his place in the team pursuit side and was rewarded with a silver medal.
    A second attempt at professional road cycling awaited after the abortive Linda McCartney rocket had stalled on the launchpad. He would be heading back to France in the Fiesta again, but this
time it would be for Nantes, not so far away as Toulouse, and a spot on the well-established Française des Jeux squad.
    The team was fronted by Bradley McGee, an Aussie who seemed to be the perfect role model for Wiggins. A great pursuiter and time triallist, he was enjoying a superb road career with FDJ,
achieving Tour de France stage wins and lots of positive publicity for his sponsor. The year 2002 was Commonwealth Games year, and the two men would be expected to meet in the individual pursuit in
Manchester.
    It didn’t quite work out like that. The 2002 season was not going to be one to remember for Bradley Wiggins. Keen to impress his new team management and fellow riders, he overtrained in
the winter after his wrist injury and arrived in France exhausted and prone to illness. He struggled through lonely days in dreary Nantes and hard races that saw him shelled early and struggling to
finish in outposts of French cycling. He was missing the good life of Team GB and, to add to his misery, was a lot worse off financially, struggling to get by on a first-year pro’s meagre
salary after the comfort of living at home on Lottery funding.
    But that wasn’t the worst thing about 2002. Brad developed an irrational sense of inferiority concerning his Australian teammate and namesake Brad McGee that completely disrupted what was
becoming a good preparation for the Commonwealth Games. Despite his poor spring, Wiggins was coming into form at just the right time. His team’s participation at the Tour de France –
Brad had unsurprisingly failed to make the team – had left him free to train to his own metronome in July and he arrived in Manchester in great shape. If only his mind could be told to follow
his body.
    Terminally psyched out by McGee, Wiggins slumped alarmingly in the final after a great qualifying run and found himself humiliatingly caught by the Australian. There was no outward sign of
disagreement between the pair of Brads at any time – Wiggins has often said that McGee is a thoroughly decent guy and a great bike rider – just this sense on Wiggins’s part that
he couldn’t beat him. The disappointment of Manchester was replicated at the Worlds in Copenhagen, where his FDJ teammate’s presence loomed large over him once more.
    Things weren’t going well. FDJ had lost interest in their investment – if they’d ever shown any in the first place – and Great Britain’s greatest track talent was
in danger of spiralling away from