London 2012 Olympics: Hero Bradley Wiggins wants to get back to normality

The 32-year-old Londoner on  22 July became the Tour’s first British winner and on Wednesday claimed road time-trial gold at Hampton Court for his seventh Olympic medal, surpassing Sir Steve Redgrave’s British record haul.

Wiggins was hoping to watch the action at the Olympic Velodrome, which was set to begin today, along with wife Cath and children Ben and Isabella, before returning home to Lancashire for the school run and supermarket shopping.

“I’d love to take my kids to a couple of events,” said Wiggins, who was hoping for further British success on the track.

“My son’s seven, my daughter’s five. This is a time in their life when they can remember this. I’d love to just go and sit with the rest of the crowd – if I can do that – and just be like everybody else and just enjoy the sport.

“I’ve done my medal now and it’s down to the rest of the boys now. I just want to go and cheer them on. As to what comes next, the minute I step out of the Olympic Games and try to go back to normal life, I don’t know.

“One thing I am quite adamant about is things aren’t going to change too much. I train hard, I work hard. Ultimately I am very normal in my life, aside from cycling.

“I’m not a celebrity, I will never be a celebrity. I despise that whole celebrity culture.”

Wiggins was already a three-time Olympic champion on the track and six-time Olympic medallist when he began his summer-long journey to sporting greatness in Liege at the Tour’s start on 30 June.

Now, he is a national hero, something he is content with in terms of sporting success after lauding the “phenomenal” support of the crowd which lined the 44km time-trial route. He added: “I left home six weeks ago for the Tour de France, known in cycling circles, but a relative no-one to the general public. A lot’s changed. I’m grateful for everything, the attention and the adulation, because I have a lot of appreciation for what people achieve in sport and I have a lot of heroes and people I idolise in sport  for what they’ve achieved. To just be up there and be looked upon as inspiring or whatever is brilliant.”

Wiggins is still to pause to consider his place on the podium in Paris, having left immediately afterwards to focus on the Olympics, where he became the first man to win the yellow jersey and Games gold in the same year.

He said: “This is the bit you don’t prepare for. At the Tour I got whisked straight out of Paris on the Sunday night to this, to concentrate on the Olympics. But now the Olympics is done, there’s no excuse to concentrate on something else.

“This last six weeks I don’t think I’m ever going to top it in my sporting career – winning the Tour and coming back and winning a home Olympic Games and a fourth Olympic gold medal. I’m never going to experience anything like that ever again.”