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

Sir Bradley Wiggins has spoken out about the abuse he suffered as a child, naming Stan Knight as the coach who sexually abused him and other young riders.

Speaking to The Times, Wiggins recalled how Knight, who died in 2003, would take him on training camps to a youth hostel in Dorset aged 12, sleep in the same bed and abuse him in the shower, accusations repeated in the account of another victim.

Knight was a coach at the Archer Road Club in London and has attracted complaints from more former members than just Wiggins and the other rider who the newspaper spoke to, Ben Ellery reporting there are allegations involving other young riders and that the family of another boy also reported concerns to British Cycling.

Wiggins explained how his abuse began with "minor acts" presented under the pretence that Knight's actions were just to help with sporting performance.

The Olympic cyclist says Stan Knight assaulted him at training camps when he was a young boy https://t.co/kR3UkfrqVo

— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 8, 2023

"How it started was on the basis, 'This was for sport. This is helping you.' So, first things first: 'I'm going to show you how to clean your crotch when you're in the shower because one of the biggest problems with cyclists is that you get saddle sores and infections.' So he showed me, you know. 'You have to lift your sac up with a scrubbing brush,' and he actually demonstrated that on me, in the shower," Wiggins recalled. 

"All on the basis that, 'This is going to help you for sport. There's nothing wrong with it. We're all men'. But I realise now that, when you are a 12-year-old boy, living in a youth hostel on his own with a 72-year-old man, and he's actually showing you how to do that... That's just one of the minor acts. That's how it started."

When Wiggins was 23 — the year Knight died — his mother was contacted by British Cycling in a letter explaining that the governing body had received a complaint from the family of another boy that the coach was training.

The letter asked if Wiggins had experienced similar abuse, something at the time he did not admit and so "walked away" from saying anything.

"Straightaway, on the spot, I said, 'Nah, nah, of course he didn't. No, no.' And so she said, 'I'm going to write back, tell them that no, nothing like that ever happened.' So I walked away from that moment, and that cemented me into [the position of] not saying anything," he continued.

"There are big questions to answer about British Cycling and safeguarding at the club"

Another of Knight's victims told The Times how Knight was "utterly useless" as a cycling coach and "it was like he used the club just to be around boys". Detailing similar abuse to Wiggins at the Litton Cheney hostel during the early 1990s the rider said he has heard from "several others" who suffered abuse and "inevitably, there will be many others, this was at the end of a long, so-called career in cycling."

"Stan took advantage of this slightly blurred line between what's required to be fit and for the sport and what's not acceptable," the rider said. "Stan was not just pushing the boundaries, he went way beyond the boundaries using the excuse that it's for the benefit of the body to help with training and recovery.

"He would give massages which would end up with fondling and fingers going into places that you didn't want to. You kind of wriggle and writhe and push away and stuff like that. And then you kind of get through it and then it stops.

> Bradley Wiggins says he swept alleged child abuse "under the carpet"

"I have heard there are several others and I hope they come forward too. Inevitably, there will be many others. This was at the end of a long, so-called career in cycling. Stan was utterly useless as a coach. He was like a child, an utter idiot. It was like he used the club just to be around boys.

"I knew Brad at the time but he didn't tell me what Stan did to him. He would make jokes about how weird he was. There are big questions to answer about British Cycling and safeguarding at the club."

British Cycling offered a statement saying "abuse of any kind has no place in sport" and urging anyone with "concerns about non-recent or current abuse to report them" to the British Cycling safeguarding team.