Wiggins shares shocking details of sexual abuse by cycling coach: "He was 72 and ex-military"

Wiggo has repeatedly disclosed that he used cycling as a distraction from events that happened at a young age. "My biggest shame was in the fact that another man had done that to me. I couldn't deal with how bad that is, especially at that age. It's a trauma and from then on I just pretended nothing happened," he revealed. 

Now, in the Under the Surface podcast, which focuses on mental health, Wiggins elaborated on this. "I was introduced to my coach right on the first night," he recalls. "They said, 'This is your coach, he's going to take care of you.' He was 72 and an ex-military man. Immediately he grabbed my wrist. Apparently he loved being able to feel kids' pulse. He told me he had never felt such a strong pulse. He also immediately said that I would become the best English cyclist ever. I believed him, of course."

"In hindsight, his words were pure manipulation," the ex-Tour winner now knows. "One day I was in the shower with another youth rider. The coach showed us how to wash our scrotum, because it can easily get infected when you sit on a saddle all day. Under the guise of 'this is part of the steps to becoming a professional cyclist,' he held our scrotum and showed us at length which scrubbing method was the most ideal."

It is one of many occurrences. "Going to sleep in pajamas but waking up without them on, for example. While I couldn't remember taking them off at all during the night. So I am pretty sure we were being drugged."

Wiggins already didn't have an easy childhood, so he didn't really have anyone to turn to. "The man who abused me was the coach of the club. I felt no one would listen to me. It also had a huge impact on my self-image and my whole life. I wished I had never started cycling. Then I would never have had to meet that man," the former rider indicates. "But now I wouldn't want to change anything about it. It made me who I am," the Brit said. "But it's had a huge impact, that's for sure."

Recently, Wiggins was declared bankrupt, but he still appeared on Lance Armstrong's THEMOVE podcast during the Tour de France. He hopes to gradually get back on track in his life.