Has Sir Bradley Wiggins ditched his view that cyclists should be required by law to wear a helmet?
Whether it’s winning the Tour de France or world and Olympic time trial gold, or breaking the UCI Hour Record, in recent years if you’ve seen Sir Bradley Wiggins on a bike it’s almost certainly been a Pinarello.
And he'll have been wearing a helmet too - as the UCI rules require - but he has said in the past that he believes all bike riders should have to wear one.
Today the man who is the biggest star in British cycling has been snapped riding a Boris Bike in London, shown in this tweet from the capital’s Santander Cycles bike-sharing scheme – and what’s more, without a helmet.
The four-time Olympic champion said back in 2013 they should be mandatory for all cyclists.
> Sir Bradley Wiggins: Cycle helmets should be compulsory
Speaking to BBC’s Newsround, he said: “I think certain laws for cyclists need to be passed to protect us more than anything.
“Making helmets compulsory on the roads, making it illegal to maybe have an iPod in while you’re riding a bike, just little things like that would make a huge difference.”
One of Wiggins’ predecessors as a world and Olympic champion as well as a wearer of the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, Chris Boardman, told road.cc last year that cycle helmets are “not even in the top 10 of things you need to do to keep cycling safe or more widely, save the most lives.”
We wonder if that’s a view Wiggins now shares?
> Boardman: "Helmets not even in top 10 of things that keep cycling safe"
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20 comments
Possibly yes as in now older and wiser.
This will probably turn out to be for some photo shoot for Fred perry or something where he travelled no more ten 500 yards to get a photo. Lazy Journalism. I once seen him on a scooter with no helmet dressed very similar!!
I have studied the risk and now always wear one in my car.
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A Santorum of head injuries. Don't take the risk Carson is sharpening his scalpel.
I wonder what Santander and Boris think as compulsory helmet wearing will kill off this booming business overnight.
#CapitalismRocks
Also, he said that users of the hire bikes were "a disaster waiting to happen" I commented about that then:
http://rdrf.org.uk/2012/08/17/disaster-waiting-to-happen-the-london-bike...
i love helmets there the best thing everhooray for helmets i like my brain
I got pulled off by an angry driver and took a knock to my helmet.
The tip of my helmet & base of my bag were badly scuffed but luckily for the main part was OK.
Always wear a helmet kids!
or learn how to kick the fuck out of angry drivers who assault you?
Arsey answer but come on - do you wear a stab vest in case a criminal stabs you?
I don't know whether to laugh or cry...and I'm not here to judge, but let's be safe out there!!
That's what you get for getting into the back of Addison Lee cab.
is this just a troll ? Or are you being ironic?
Other wise I can only assume you also think pedestrians should wear a helmet, you know just incase their assault by a criminal, how about down the pub on a Saturday night?
An element of double entrendre to subvert the trolling article, I think, maybe.
Hahahaha - an encounter with an aroused cabbie?
*applause*
zzzzz
This article is verging on trolling. Anyway, if he has any common sense his thinking will have progressed from "thinking everyone should wear a helmet and saying so" to "thinking everyone should wear a helmet but keeping his mouth shut".
He's right there. Even if it's not in the way he thinks.
Probably, like most compulsionists, he needs the nanny state to give him a good hard spanking to help him decide what to do with himself.
Quote: "The four-time Tour de France champion" Eh????????????
Wishful thinking me-thinks! Great rider I know, but when did that happen?
Cough. Olympic champ, of course. (blush)