Gary Wiggins

Early life

Wiggins was born in Yallourn, Victoria, Australia, in 1952, the younger child, and only son, of Roy Wiggins and his wife. The young Wiggins showed ability in cycling, and participated in cycling competitions around Victoria and Australia, becoming the National Junior Track champion.

Cycling career

Wiggins represented Australia several times at world track championships. He was national champion in the 1 km time trial, and the 4000m team pursuit as part of the Victoria state team. He had a surge of speed at the end of races, which won sprint finishes. Wiggins married as a teenager and had a daughter Shannon, but left his family and Australia for the United Kingdom in 1974. He raced as an amateur for Archer Road Club in west London. Wiggins met his next wife Linda in England. The couple were living together from 1976; they married in January 1979, before moving to Ghent, Belgium, to pursue his racing career. Bradley was born there in 1980. The marriage broke down in 1982 and for 14 years Wiggins had no contact with his son, who returned to London with his mother.

He raced on the Continent for nine years; during this period he partied hard and had a reputation as a supplier of amphetamines to other riders. With Tony Doyle, he rode the Six Day circuit in Europe, in 1985 winning the Bremen Six Day in 1985. The same year he won the European Madison championship also with Doyle. He was also successful on the European Kermesse circuit including in 1981 beating Lucien Van Impe at Eeklo in Belgium. In Australia in 1985, Wiggins won the Melbourne Cup on Wheels and a 1000-kilometre road race in Western Australia.

Post-cycling life

Wiggins retired from professional cycling and returned permanently to Australia after a crash in Copenhagen in January 1987. Wiggins worked as a housepainter in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, in later years. He remarried and had a second daughter, but this marriage also failed. He struggled with alcohol and drug issues. In his autobiography, Bradley Wiggins described a visit as a teenager with his father prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, recalling that "Most of his days would consist of buying a couple of crates of VBs ... and steadily drinking himself into a stupor."

Death

On 25 January 2008, Wiggins was found unconscious in Segenhoe Street, Aberdeen. He was taken to nearby Muswellbrook Hospital before being airlifted to the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle, where he died. The coroner's inquest found that the evening before, Wiggins had attended a party at a house in Aberdeen, but soon had fought with the man who lived at the house. He had been thrown to the ground several times and ejected from the party. After some time, he got to his feet and walked away unsteadily, before collapsing less than a mile away. The inquest determined that the cause of death had been a heavy blow to the back of the head. An open verdict on the cause of death was returned, due to lack of evidence: it was not possible to determine whether the head trauma had been received during the fight at the party, or if Wiggins had hit his head in falling. However, the coroner did find that two witnesses, including the party's host, had lied during the inquest. Another witness exercised his right not to give evidence. Wiggins' sister has continued to publicly question the verdict and has requested that the police investigation be reopened. In the wake of Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France win, she renewed her calls for witnesses to Gary Wiggins' last hours to come forward with more information.