Cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins reveals he was groomed by a coach at the age of 13

Sir Bradley Wiggins has revealed he was groomed by a coach when he was 13 years old.

The 2012 Tour de France winner and three-time Olympic champion said he did not feel he could speak up at the time because of a difficult relationship with his stepfather.

“I was groomed by a coach when I was younger – I was about 13 – and I never fully accepted that,” he told Men’s Health UK magazine.

Asked if he was groomed sexually, Wiggins said: “Yes. It all impacted me as an adult … I buried it.

“I was such a loner … I just wanted to get out of the environment. I became so insular. I was quite a strange teenager in many ways and I think the drive on the bike stemmed from adversity.”

Wiggins, 41, made the revelation in an interview with Men’s Health ‘Talking Heads’ columnist Alastair Campbell in the May issue of the magazine.

The cyclist has previously spoken about having depression and a difficult childhood.

He said he had spent much of his life trying to understand his relationship with his father, Australian cyclist Gary Wiggins, who walked out on the family when Bradley was young and died in 2008 after a fight at a house party.

Sir Bradley Wiggins during day one of the HSBC UK National Track Championships in 2022

“It was definitely to do with my dad,” Wiggins said when asked what he had tried to run from.

“Never getting answers when he was murdered in 2008. He left us when I was little, so I met him for the first time when I was 18.

"We rekindled some kind of relationship but then we didn’t speak for the last couple of years before he was murdered …

“He was my hero. I wanted to prove myself to him. He was a good cyclist – he could have been really good – but he was a wasted talent.

"He was an alcoholic, a manic depressive, quite