Bradley Wiggins basks in warm glow of his ‘greatest achievement’

Wiggins rounded off a dream 2012 on Sunday night by winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award at a glittering ceremony in London.

The enigmatic 32-year-old pedalled to gold in a captivating Olympic time trial on 1 August, but his greatest achievement came just ten days earlier when he became the first Briton to win the Tour de France in its 99-race history.

Fellow Team Sky rider Froome played a supporting role for Wiggins during the 2012 Tour but hopes to win the race himself next year, which has left team general manager Brailsford with a conundrum.

Speaking before collecting his Coach of the Year award on Sunday, Brailsford said he would wait until just before the Tour begins to make his decision on who should go for glory and who should play a supporting role within the team. “The legs will do the talking,” said Brailsford. “When we get there (the Tour de France) it’s the guy with the best legs who will lead (the team). Chris is obviously focusing on the Tour and Bradley will do the Giro (d’Italia) and then the Tour. As you get close to the moment you see who is in form, who isn’t in form and you make the decisions from there.”

It had been expected that Wiggins would make way for Froome next summer, but the Olympic champion made his intentions clear last week when he said he wanted to reclaim his crown. Brailsford has not ruled out the possibility of two leaders and claims both riders are more than capable of taking home the yellow jersey. “It’s possible (to have two lead riders),” Brailsford added. “That can give you a great advantage. When you have two world-class athletes in a team it’s a fantastic place to be. As long as Brad keeps the hunger, he can win it again. Physically he can certainly keep going for a few years. Chris is younger, he is 27 years old. He is very, very ambitious and I think he has many years ahead of him. I am sure he can win a grand tour.” Froome followed up his second-place finish in the 2011 Vuelta a Espana by ending this year’s Tour de France just one place behind Wiggins.

The Kenya-born star said he would be comfortable competing against his team-mate Wiggins for the yellow jersey. “The team have a lot of confidence in me next year going for the yellow jersey so it’s always better for us going with a two-pronged attack instead of hedging all our bets on one rider,” Froome told BBC Sport. “It would be hard for someone not to defend their title. He (Wiggins) is definitely going to go to the Tour with the aim of being the best possible. It is the team who have to decide how to manage that.”

On Sunday night, Wiggins, a big fan of mod culture and Paul Weller, collected his award, then got up on stage to play guitar to The Jam’s That’s Entertainment with the house band. The Eccleston-based star, who also strummed along to Oasis’ Wonderwall, described winning the award as his “greatest sporting achievement”.

“Sports Personality is a bit of an institution in our household,” he said. “It’s very hard to put into words what it means to win it. For Mo (Farah) not to get in the top three and to be ahead of Jess and Andy makes it probably my greatest sporting achievement because the other stuff you can control, but you can’t control other people voting for you.”

Lord Coe, who picked up the Lifetime Achievement award for his role in London 2012, said of Wiggins: “I think he has inspired a generation of people not just to go into cycling, but to go into sport (generally).”

Meanwhile, the owners of Wiggins’ two local pubs spoke of their pride at the prospect of putting his Sports Personality of the Year award behind their respective bars.

Wiggins has already promised to loan the trophy to his two locals in Eccleston, Lancashire. The Farmers Arms, and the Original Farmers Arms – two small pubs in a village of just over 4,000 people outside Chorley – are expected to house the trophy over the coming weeks.

The landlord of the Original Farmers Arms, Barry Newton, hosted a “riotous” night at his pub as locals gathered to watch Wiggins win the award and he welcomed the news that his establishment is set to have a new attraction behind the bar.

“We would accommodate it with pleasure,” he said. “It would be fantastic to have it here. It’s a really nice gesture.”

Wiggins is a regular at the pub, where he enjoys a drink and meal with his wife Cath and their two children, Ben and Isabella. Newton says the four-time Olympic champion enjoys the kitchen’s fish dishes and mainly has soft drinks from the bar.

Wiggins has become a reserved but popular member of the Eccleston community since moving to the village to be closer to Manchester’s Velodrome, and the locals enjoyed toasting his success last night. “There was a lot of us in watching, about two or three dozen,” Newton said. “The atmosphere was riotous. We were all voting for him. There were so many good people in the running it was difficult to see who would win it. When he won it we all jumped in the air. We are dead proud of him.”

A mile down the main road through the village, Ann Rothwell, landlady of the Farmers Arms, said: “It was exciting. We were all voting for him. It was quite an emotional night. We don’t know when he’ll be in, but we would be absolutely thrilled to have the trophy behind the bar. We would be honoured.”

VOTING NUMBERS

1. Bradley Wiggins – 492,064 votes – 30.25% share of vote

2. Jessica Ennis – 372,765 – 22.92%

3. Andy Murray – 230,444 – 14.17%

4. Mo Farah – 131,327 – 8.07%

5. David Weir – 114,633 – 7.05%

6. Ellie Simmonds – 102,894 – 6.33%

7. Sir Chris Hoy – 42,961 – 2.64%

8. Nicola Adams – 35,560 – 2.19%

9. Ben Ainslie – 35,373 – 2.17%

10. Rory McIlroy – 29,729 – 1.83%

11. Katherine Grainger – 28,606 – 1.76%

12. Sarah Storey – 10,342 – 0.64%

TOTAL VOTES CAST: 1,626,718