Icons: My Inspiration. My Motivation. My Obsession.
With a foreword by Eddy MerckxThe world of professional cycling is fraught with fierce competition, fervent dedication and unerring ambition, and only a handful of competitors reach iconic status. Among them is Sir Bradley Wiggins – a man uniquely placed to reflect on the history of this remarkable sport and its unforgettable titans.In Icons, Wiggins takes the reader on an extraordinarily intimate journey through the sport, presenting key pieces from his never-before-seen collection of memorabilia. Over the course of his illustrious career, he amassed hundreds of items – often gifts from its greatest and most controversial figures. Each reflects an icon, a race or a moment that fundamentally influenced Wiggins on both a personal and professional level.By exploring the lives and achievements of 21 of the sport’s key figures – among them Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Induráin and Tom Simpson – Wiggins sheds new light on what professional cycling demands of its best competitors. Icons lauds their triumphs, elucidates their demons and sheds light on the philosophy and psychology that comprise the unique mindset of a cycling champion.
Читать Icons: My Inspiration. My Motivation. My Obsession. онлайн беплатно
HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
FIRST EDITION
© Bradley Wiggins 2018
Jacket design by James Empringham © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Jacket photographs (front, left to right) Roger-Viollet/Topfoto, Agence France Presse/Getty Images, Imago Sportfotodienst/Imago/PA Images; (back, left to right) Presse Sports/Off side, Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, © AGIP/Bridgeman Images, courtesy of Elisabetta Nencini
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Bradley Wiggins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green
Source ISBN: 9780008301743
Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008301750
Version 2018-10-12
CONTENTS
Merckx rode for the short-lived Faemino-Faema team between 1968 and 1970. The team mostly comprised Belgian riders, with a few Italians.
FOOTBALL WAS MY FIRST LOVE, and like most kids from Brussels I was an Anderlecht fan. However, one day I discovered the great Stan Ockers, and fell in love with cycling.
Stan was a hero to me, just as he was to many Belgians. In 1955 he won the World Championships, Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, but in general he tended to lose more races than he won. He was popular because he was a great rider, but most of all I think because he was a great sportsman. I liked to pretend I was him as I rode my bike, but then in 1956 he died following a crash on the track at Antwerp, his home town. I was only 11 at the time, but his death broke my heart.
Ultimately, Stan was the reason I started racing. I went on to win 525 professional races, so I guess you could say that he changed the course of cycling history.
The point is that we are all dreamers. We’re all fans first and foremost, because if we weren’t we wouldn’t become sportsmen. I started out pretending to be Stan, and through him I learned about Rik Van Steenbergen, Briek Schotte and Fausto Coppi. Eventually I became a professional cyclist, and I wanted to emulate Coppi and Jacques Anquetil by winning the Tour de France and breaking the Hour Record.
Brad’s story is more or less the same. He started out watching Miguel Induráin, and decided he wanted to understand cycling history for himself. That led him to me, to the Tour de France, to the Hour Record and eventually to our friendship.
We were lucky enough to be blessed with the talent to win bike races, but in reality we were no different to millions of starry-eyed kids down the years. History repeats itself in cycling, and I know for a fact that there are thousands of young British guys who took up cycling because of Brad. That’s the way it rolls in cycling, and the way it always was.
Enjoy the ride …
In among all the jerseys in my collection, Eddy’s gloves mean a hell of a lot.
CYCLING SEEMS TO ATTRACT A LOT OF COLLECTORS, probably because it’s always been so important historically and culturally. You could say it’s just a sport, but the bike itself still plays a big role in the way human civilisations think and act. You only have to look at places like Holland and China to see this, and to understand that, long after fossil-fuel cars have disappeared, the humble bike will still be around. I genuinely don’t think there’s any one single invention that has been healthier for the human mind and body, so while it is ‘just’ a sport, for many people it’s also a way of life and of living.
Bike racing is unique among mainstream sports because its development was totally organic. It didn’t have to be ‘invented’ like the others, because Europeans have been learning to cycle for well over 100 years. Going fast on a pushbike is the most natural thing in the world, and organised racing is just an extension of that.
As a professional sport it has two special characteristics. The first is that it’s free to watch; the second, that it goes to its public and not vice versa. What I mean by this is that there are no filters – the riders are literally within touching distance, and the public are intrinsic to the spectacle. It’s much easier to watch cycling on TV, and actually being there means you’re only going to see a tiny fraction of the action. The
