“I was getting ripped off left, right, and centre by the people looking after me”: Bradley Wiggins slams “sofa surfing” reports as “sensationalism” and explains bankruptcy “mess” in candid Lance Armstrong interview

Two months after being declared bankrupt, amid reports that he had “lost absolutely everything” and had been forced to “sofa surf” at the homes of friends and family, Sir Bradley Wiggins has finally broken his silence on the financial problems which have plagued him since retiring from professional cycling in 2016, telling Lance Armstrong in a candid podcast interview that he was taken advantage of and was unaware of the severity of his issues until he had retired.

In the revealing hour-long chat with the disgraced Texan, recorded for Armstrong’s The Forward podcast (on which Wiggins had appeared as a guest during the Tour de France), the five-time Olympic gold medallist explained the context which led to June’s bankruptcy declaration, while criticising the tabloid press in the UK for stoking the situation by harassing his family and sharing “sensationalist” rumours about the former Team Sky leader’s financial plight.

In early June, the news broke that Wiggins, Britain’s first male Tour de France winner, had been declared bankrupt, and was on the verge of being forced to sell his eight Olympic medals and other trophies gained during his glittering, if now arguably tainted, cycling career.

> Sir Bradley Wiggins' medals and trophies set to be seized after being declared bankrupt

The news came after a turbulent few years for the 44-year-old. In 2020, his image rights company Wiggins Rights Limited entered voluntary liquidation, with creditors owed over £300,000.

In 2022, Wiggins entered an Individual Voluntary Arrangement to pay off his creditors and avoid bankruptcy, but last November it was revealed that liquidators had yet to receive any of the almost £1 million they claimed from Wiggins Rights Limited the previous year, in part to pay off an outstanding director’s loan.

And following his bankruptcy case, the Daily Mail reported that the 2012 Tour winner’s lawyer had told the newspaper that Wiggins had “lost absolutely everything, his family home, his home in Mallorca, his savings and investments” and “doesn’t have a penny”, being forced to “sofa surf” and stay with friends and family.

> “Back with the boys!” Sir Bradley Wiggins joins Lance Armstrong’s podcast during Tour de France

However, in his recent interview with Armstrong, Wiggins was scathing of these claims made in the tabloid press – despite being attributed to his own lawyer – and dismissed them as “sensationalism”.

“That is where the sensationalism came in, and that’s where this story ran amok, and continued for several weeks,” Wiggins said.

Explaining the background that led to his current financial woes, which he describes as a “complete mess”, the 44-year-old said: “I was made bankrupt through a company. I had three companies – my image rights company that handles all my image rights, endorsement deals, various other things. Connected to that I joined XIX Entertainment, Simon Fuller, in 2014. And they set up various joint ventures with various clubs and companies, drinks suppliers, all different things, whatever endorsements.

“Off the bottom of that – so these companies were all subsidiaries of the top company, which was my image rights company. Now that was done, as we see now through the lawyers, that was done purposefully so the top company would always take the hit if there was any trouble with the other ones. They should have been separate companies.”

> Sir Bradley Wiggins has "lost absolutely everything and doesn't have a penny" after bankruptcy, reveals lawyer

Wiggins then claimed that he was forced to invest his own money into Team Wiggins – the UCI Continental team the British rider established in 2015, after leaving Team Sky, to enable him to prepare for the track programme at the Rio Olympics the following year – due to an overspend of over £300,000.

(Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

“And the third company was a cycling team called New Cycling Limited, which was Team Wiggins, which was a team that was set up to facilitate the national track programme, which was the team pursuit, my last cycling career goal in Rio,” he said.

“That team should never have made a loss, it should never have made a profit, it was purely to pay the riders of the team, their wages and handle the budget. That team… was managed by joined XIX Entertainment and run on a daily basis by Andrew McQuaid, who was the manager of that team. I was made a director, but I had no involvement, I was still racing.

“The budget was £650,000. But in year one, for six riders it spent a million, so I had to prop that team up with my own money from Wiggins Rights.”

He continued: “So there was a lot of money coming down from the top company to prop up these ventures that weren’t making any money, while management were taking slices off from their expenditure and people they were putting in place. It was a complete mess.

“And because they were all subsidiaries of the one company, the top company took the biggest hits. And it ran up a debt of nearly one and a half million, which was given to me as a director’s loan. But I wasn’t the director at the time, and I had to be made a director to take the loan without my knowledge. I was still racing my bike at the time.

“It was a complete mess, and I wasn’t aware of the mess until I was deep in retirement.”

Wiggins also described how he was forced to pay back taxes and spend additional money on legal fees after losing an employment case that reclassified him in the UK as an employee of Team Sky, rather than a self-employed athlete.

(Gian Mattia D'Alberto/LaPresse)

“When I left Sky, because I was a British resident, I never lived abroad – the tax laws changed,” he told Armstrong.

“And when I started with Team Sky, as most cyclists, I was self-employed with an image rights company. Towards the end of my tenure with Team Sky, they were involved in a two-year case with HMRC for everyone who worked at Sky to fight whether they were deemed employed by Sky.

“I was acting as a witness for Sky in that case against HMRC and spent an enormous amount of money on legal fees because… if I was deemed employed, I’d have had to back pay taxes and National Insurance etc.

“In the end, I was deemed employed so I had to go back five years and pay all the taxes and every bits and bobs and pieces. And Sky knew that was happening from the day I signed with them.”

> Sir Bradley Wiggins: “I don’t ride a bike anymore because I don’t like the person I became when I was on it”

Reflecting on his own approach to his finances, the former Hour Record holder concedes that he perhaps should have paid more attention to money during his career.

"One of the things I regret is I never paid attention to my financial affairs when I was racing,” he said. “You asked before if I’d got any money for riding the Giro [in 2013, after winning the Tour the previous year], and I didn’t. Because I always assumed money would be there forever, that I’d always have a value that people would pay for.

“I never did the sport for the money, but I realise I should have paid more attention to it. Because you get to the point where I am in this situation now, because of the mess that’s been created, and because it’s been rumbling on for quite a few years now – this hasn’t just happened overnight. It’s now in the hands of receivers, who can go through everything.

“Because I was getting ripped off left, right, and centre by the people looking after me, accountants as well. Which is one of the things that happens to athletes you know, you make a lot of money and if you haven’t got your eyes on it, people take advantage.

“And this will all come out in the wash over the next few years, it’s just going to be a hell of a headache to get right.”

> Sir Bradley Wiggins names cycling coach who sexually abused him and other young cyclists at club

Once again turning his attention to the press, Wiggins concluded: “The hardest thing to deal with though is the tabloid newspapers in the UK. They were aware of it before it even went on the insolvency register, which shows that there must have been someone inside that leaked it to the press.

“And once it’s in the press, what ensued for the next couple of week was a paparazzi-style harassment of every member of my family, trying to dig up dirt and stories and things like this, just to add weight to the fact that they think you’re done and dusted. And the tabloids have thrown large amounts of money at me, when they think you’re on your arse, to tell your story. I refuse to dance with the devil on this occasion.

“It will be alright. But that's the first time I’ve commented on it since that happened.”