Sir Bradley Wiggins has revealed he was sexually groomed by a coach when he was just 13 years old.
Bradley Wiggins reached the pinnacle of cycling when he won the Tour de France in 2012
The 2012 Tour de France winner and three-time Olympic champion said he did not feel he could speak up at the time due to a difficult relationship with his stepfather.
Speaking to Men’s Health UK magazine, Wiggins said: “I was groomed by a coach when I was younger - I was about 13 - and I never fully accepted that.”
Asked if he was groomed sexually, Wiggins added: “Yes. It all impacted me as an adult...I buried it. My stepfather was quite violent to me, he used to call me a f****t for wearing Lycra and stuff, so I didn’t think I could tell him.
“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, which goes on sale on April 20th.
Wiggins has previously spoken about suffering from 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 who died in 2008 following a fight at a house party.
“It was definitely to do with my dad,” Wiggins said when asked what he had tried to run from in his life.
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