Sir Bradley Wiggins will be a special guest on Lance Armstrong‘s podcast, The Move, for the next week, it was revealed on Sunday.
Wiggins, the winner of the 2012 Tour de France, suggested to Cycling Weekly last month that he had a job lined up for the French Grand Tour, and has now appeared in his first podcast alongside Armstrong, discussing stage nine of the race.
Armstrong won seven Tours de France between 1999 and 2005, only to later have his yellow jerseys removed and his results scrubbed after a lengthy doping investigation and an admission that he took performance-enhancing drugs.
The Move, recorded in Aspen, Colorado, sees the American talk about the current world of professional cycling, joined by former teammate George Hincapie, and JB Hager. The website describes it as “an incisive perspective on the Tour de France and cycling, triathlon and endurance sports with special guest appearances, course previews and race analysis inside these worlds of suffering and splendor like no one else”.
Wiggins is far from the only former or current rider to take part in the programme, with Mark Cavendish and Matteo Jorgenson among the active sportsmen to call into the show during this Tour.
Wiggins arrived in the USA to take part in the podcast on Saturday – after apparently dealing with some visa issues – and will be staying there during his guest appearances on the show. Hincapie described him as a “very nice guy, very funny”.
“My son did all the logistics for me, Ben…” Wiggins explained. “He’s been fathering me a lot recently.”
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Wiggins’ appearance on the podcast follows widely reported financial issues. He has also spoken before of struggling with his mental health since leaving professional cycling.
In early June, The Times reported that Wiggins had been declared bankrupt, after going through financial difficulties with his company. When asked for comment in November last year, Wiggins told Cycling Weekly his financial difficulties were “a very historical matter that involves professional negligence from [others] that has left a s***pile with my name at the front of it to deal with.”
“I’ve experienced both sides of the coin,” Wiggins said on the podcast. “When you retire, you don’t know what to do with yourself… Since I was 13, all I had been was a cyclist. I went through this transition period, and your mental health is a lot better when you’re working out every day. It was about working out a new equilibrium. I have to find a healthy balance, where you can train, but it doesn’t have to be for something.”
The five-time Olympic gold medal winner also revealed that he has taken up a new sport in the last year. He previously attempted to get into rowing in order to fill the space that was left by cycling.
“I took up boxing a year ago, in an attempt to learn something new, also to face my fears a bit,” Wiggins said. “I’m quite anti-confrontational. I guess that’s one of the fears, actually getting in the ring and fighting someone.”
