“I wish I’d just said what I thought” – Bradley Wiggins reveals true thoughts on Lance Armstrong and Team Sky

Earlier this week, Sir Bradley Wiggins opened up further about his post-retirement struggles, revealing more about his battle with addiction, and the surprising figure who played a key role in helping him through it: Lance Armstrong.

Speaking on the Cyclist Magazine podcast, Wiggins revealed that the disgraced American Tour de France winner, stripped of his seven titles due to his doping scandal, helped fund his therapy and offered vital support during a difficult period. The revelation adds to Armstrong’s growing role in supporting ex-professionals, having previously stepped in to assist Jan Ullrich during his own battle with addiction.

But what does Wiggins really think of Armstrong?

For Wiggins, the relationship with Armstrong is complex. Publicly, he once condemned the American after his 2013 doping confession, but now admits that reaction was not truly his own.

“I was told what to say about Lance Armstrong, in terms of my opinion and stuff. And that was one of my main regrets... I wish I'd just said what I thought.”

Back in 2013, Wiggins had echoed the outrage of the wider sporting world. In a BBC interview at the time, he criticised Armstrong’s role in denying him a potential podium finish, having originally finished fourth behind the American.

Still, 12 years on, most fans of cycling and sport in general have not forgiven Armstrong for his doping crimes. Yet, he is still a prevalent figure in the sport, and Wiggins went into more detail about his opinion on the American.

“I look back now and he certainly robbed me of maybe third place in the Tour de France and standing on that podium and experiencing what that was like.”

More than a decade later, Wiggins now suggests that his role as the face of Team Sky meant he wasn’t always able to speak his truth.

“It was hard, you know, because I was representing Sky. I had to say everything that they wanted me to say on that issue. And I wish I'd have been able to have my own voice on that.”

That feeling of lost autonomy echoes throughout the interview. Wiggins, Britain’s first Tour de France winner and one of the defining athletes of his generation, reflected on the wider context surrounding Armstrong’s downfall and the role of the media in shaping public narrative.

“I think there was a lot of hypocrisy in the media, a lot that media knew what he was doing,” he said. “And people were sat there dumbfounded that really, 'he took all this stuff?', and people knew what was happening. They knew what was happening across the sport. You know, it was a pandemic in the sport in that sense.

“It's still an open wound in many ways.”

Wiggins also touched on his disillusionment with Team Sky’s internal culture during his racing years, particularly its much publicised “winning behaviours” programme.

“I don't know what it meant. I remember all that crap they came out with,” he added. “I mean, it's the same thing Dave Brailsford's doing the same now at Manchester United – Project 21 or whatever it's called. I don't know how any of that… that was more, maybe for the staff, the winning behaviours thing.”

Now nearly a decade into retirement, Wiggins is clearly in a reflective state of mind, grappling with what the last ten years have meant, and how lessons learned the hard way have reshaped his view of the people around him.

“I'm nearly 10 years retired now. I think, God, what's the last 10 years? And the other thing I probably told my younger self, not everyone who helps you is your friend and not everyone who hurts you is your enemy.”