Bradley Marc Wiggins (OBE), is a British professional track and road bicycle racer.

Bradley Marc Wiggins (OBE), is a British professional track and road bicycle racer.

Triple Olympic Gold medallist Bradley Wiggins is the brightest star in British cycling. A professional track endurance and road cyclist, he has won medals at the European, Commonwealth and World Championships, as well as taking home Gold in the Individual Pursuit at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and Gold in both the Individual and Team Pursuit at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He claimed an astonishing three Gold medals at the World Championships in Manchester, and now has his sights set firmly on success at London 2012.

Bradley showed promise from an early age and, following in the footsteps of his professional cyclist father, he quickly developed a passion for the sport. He burst onto the international cycling scene with a Silver medal in the Team Pursuit at the Commonwealth Games in 1998; a massive achievement at the age of just 18 and a clear sign of much more to come from an exciting young athlete.

Two years on, Bradley had cemented his place in Team GB and travelled to both the World Championships in Manchester and the Olympic Games in Sydney. Again competing in the Team Pursuit Bradley helped bring home a Silver medal at the World Championships and, after a great performance in Sydney, an Olympic Bronze medal.

Bradley built on the success of the previous year and, in 2001 he achieved a Silver in the Team Pursuit at the World Championships followed by his first major individual success: a Gold medal at the European Championships. These two spectacular performances cemented him as a force in British and International Cycling.

At the Olympics in Athens, Bradley was a key figure in team GB putting in stunning performances which resulted in medals with the Team Pursuit and the Madison competition, and his crowning achievement, bringing back the Olympic Gold in the Individual Pursuit race. After returning from the games as a medal winning hero Wiggins' year was completed with an OBE for services to sport in the New Year's Honours List.

After these phenomenal successes Wiggins decided to turn his attention to road racing and in 2005 he competed for the French professional road cycling team Credit Agricole. In 2006 he switched team to Team Cofidis and cycled in the most famous of all races, the Tour de France. In 2008 he made the switch to Team High Road, who he now spends many hours on the roads with, training and racing.

In 2008 Bradley followed up his successes of Athens in 2004 and by retaining his gold medal in the Individual Pursuit and adding the Team Pursuit to his tally. This on the back of his success at the 2008 World Track Cycling Championships highlights a very successful year for arguably the world's best cyclist.

He writes a regular column for The Observer newspaper.