CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Bradley Wiggins

British former professional road and track racing cyclist

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ193876
Source-derived summary

Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins (born 28 April 1980) is a British former professional road and track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2016. He became Great Britain's most decorated Olympian, amassing eight medals across five Games, and remains the only rider to have won World and Olympic titles on the track and road. In 2012, he was the first British winner of the Tour de France.

The son of the Australian cyclist Gary Wiggins, Wiggins was born to a British mother in Ghent, Belgium, and raised in London from the age of two. He competed on the track from the early part of his career until 2008. Between 2000 and 2008 he won ten medals at the track world championships, of which six were gold: three in the individual pursuit, two in the team pursuit and one in the madison. His first Olympic medal was a bronze in the team pursuit in Sydney 2000, before winning three medals including the gold in the individual pursuit at the Athens 2004, and two golds in the individual and team pursuit at the Beijing 2008.

On the road, Wiggins turned professional in 2001 but made it his focus from 2008. Initially viewed as a time trial specialist and rouleur, he showed his ability in stage races when he came fourth in the 2009 Tour de France; he was promoted to third after Lance Armstrong's results were annulled in 2012. He signed with the newly formed Team Sky in 2010, and in 2011 claimed his first victory in a major stage race in the Critérium du Dauphiné, as well as finishing third, later promoted to second, in the Vuelta a España.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bradley Wiggins” is british former professional road and track racing cyclist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Bradley, Wiggins and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 2001, 2016, 2012—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980-04-28. For this dossier, Bradley, Wiggins and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british former professional road and track racing cyclist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q193876. VIAF identifies the subject as 102972563. The Library of Congress control number is nb2009028816. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 2001, 2016 and 2012.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bradley Wiggins”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bradley Wiggins primary sources, Bradley Wiggins archive and Bradley research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bradley Wiggins”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Bradley Wiggins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.