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Allez Wiggo!: How Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France and Olympic gold in 2012
Bradley Wiggins is Britain's most successful and best known cyclist. He emerged as a talented track cyclist and then moved onto the roads with increasing success, culminating in his stunning summer of 2012 when he became the first British cyclist to win the Tour and bring home the yellow jersey and then went on to win Olympic gold in the time trial.
Daniel Friebe celebrates Wiggo's record breaking summer, as Team Sky took on the Tour de France and brought home the yellow jersey. He looks at the build up to the 2012 Tour as well as the strategy that brought ultimate success.
'Allez Wiggo!' - the cry of the French fans lining the roads who fell in love with our mod genius on two wheels.
Daniel Friebe celebrates Wiggo's record breaking summer, as Team Sky took on the Tour de France and brought home the yellow jersey. He looks at the build up to the 2012 Tour as well as the strategy that brought ultimate success.
'Allez Wiggo!' - the cry of the French fans lining the roads who fell in love with our mod genius on two wheels.
- GenresCycling
176 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2012
4 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Friebe
13 books30 followersDaniel Friebe is one of Britain's leading cycling journalists and a veteran of nine Tours de France. For the last five years Daniel has been the Features Editor of Procycling Magazine. He collaborated with cycling superstar Mark Cavendish on the bestselling Boy Racer - My Journey to Tour de France Record Breaker.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 2, 2015
If you're after a detailed essay on the 2012 cycling season, this isn't it. If you're looking for a sumptuous photobook on the Tour de France, this isn't it. If you're looking for the inside scoop on Team Sky, this isn't it. And, if you're looking for an insightful Wiggo biography, this isn't it either. Instead we have a book that doesn't seem entirely sure what it's trying to be – there are written sections, but they're a little light on detail. There are oodles of photographs, but the quality is mixed and none of the photographers are named or even differentiated.
Managing to not be a book about the tour, nor a Wiggo biography, nor even a team sky brochure. Instead it comes across as a fan's scrapbook built throughout Wiggo's 2012 year of domination. His "annus mirabilis". Much of it feels superficial, while the challenges to Wiggins's successes are mentioned, they are glossed over – the spat with Chris Froome is discarded as Froome merely being "off script", the media blow-up after Le Equipe's "UK Postal" headline and the subsequent twitter frothing is simplified to a simple reaction to an accusation rather than addressing Wiggins's potential responsibilities to answer what was an obvious question after the recent years of disappointment by cycling's heroes, Cavendish's sacrifices are mentioned but the reality of the world champion being sidelined wasn't really explored, even the WAG spat is trivialised to avoid the real frustrations that were behind those tweets. To an extent much of this makes some sense, this is an ode to Wiggo and his successes not a story of the Tour or of Team Sky. Other people are only mentioned in so far as they directly impact or affect that, but it leaves you feeling a little short changed. I had expected more from Friebe after reading his Cavendish biography, Boy Racer , and had been looking forward to his Merckx biography, Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal , too...
Having received this book for Christmas, it was interesting to end up reading it now. After Wiggo's 2012 "annus mirabilis" – the book covers his early season successes, his Tour de France win and his Olympic gold medal, but was obviously published too early to cover his Sports Personality of the Year award and eventual knighthood – last year, 2013 has been his annus horribilis as illness and poor form has plagued the first half of his year and he's had to watch team mates taking the wins he probably would have felt he deserved himself. It was good to remind myself what he was capable of though.
Managing to not be a book about the tour, nor a Wiggo biography, nor even a team sky brochure. Instead it comes across as a fan's scrapbook built throughout Wiggo's 2012 year of domination. His "annus mirabilis". Much of it feels superficial, while the challenges to Wiggins's successes are mentioned, they are glossed over – the spat with Chris Froome is discarded as Froome merely being "off script", the media blow-up after Le Equipe's "UK Postal" headline and the subsequent twitter frothing is simplified to a simple reaction to an accusation rather than addressing Wiggins's potential responsibilities to answer what was an obvious question after the recent years of disappointment by cycling's heroes, Cavendish's sacrifices are mentioned but the reality of the world champion being sidelined wasn't really explored, even the WAG spat is trivialised to avoid the real frustrations that were behind those tweets. To an extent much of this makes some sense, this is an ode to Wiggo and his successes not a story of the Tour or of Team Sky. Other people are only mentioned in so far as they directly impact or affect that, but it leaves you feeling a little short changed. I had expected more from Friebe after reading his Cavendish biography, Boy Racer , and had been looking forward to his Merckx biography, Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal , too...
Having received this book for Christmas, it was interesting to end up reading it now. After Wiggo's 2012 "annus mirabilis" – the book covers his early season successes, his Tour de France win and his Olympic gold medal, but was obviously published too early to cover his Sports Personality of the Year award and eventual knighthood – last year, 2013 has been his annus horribilis as illness and poor form has plagued the first half of his year and he's had to watch team mates taking the wins he probably would have felt he deserved himself. It was good to remind myself what he was capable of though.
June 22, 2024
It's got some nice pictures, so it'd make for a solid coffee table book for the hardcore early-2010s British pro cycling fan, but not for an Estonian reading it in 2024.
Weirdly structured, with a solid recap of the whole Tour in the first few dozen pages (the highlight of the book for me as I think Friebe is a great writer) but after that it goes through all the stages chronologically, with a focus on pictures but still text alongside.
Weirdly structured, with a solid recap of the whole Tour in the first few dozen pages (the highlight of the book for me as I think Friebe is a great writer) but after that it goes through all the stages chronologically, with a focus on pictures but still text alongside.
November 22, 2025
Read this 13 years after it was written (£2.50 from a charity shop).
Brought back happy memories of watching the Tour on TV, especially with all the familiar names and pictures.
Brought back happy memories of watching the Tour on TV, especially with all the familiar names and pictures.
August 15, 2015
My daughter bought this book for me as a gift. I didn't expect purple prose or deep insights. I like Sir Brad and feel v proud of what he has achieved. The book conveys that effectively through text and some great photographs.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews