A stunned Bradley Wiggins leaves his Cofidis team's hotel (Image credit: AFP)
Britain's Bradley Wiggins was not sorry to leave the Tour de France. The Cofidis rider was forced from competing after Stage 16 when his teammate Cristian Moreni was arrested after testing non-negative to testosterone, but Wiggins wasn't too upset about leaving the race given the events of the past week.
"I don't want to continue in the Tour de France anyway, it's not supposed to be like this," Wiggins, himself an anti-doping campaigner, told The Guardian newspaper. "It is completely gutting to have to quit the Tour but everyone knows where I stand on doping. I have nothing to hide."
Wiggins hit out at the "pure stupidity" of his Italian teammate's actions. The respected rider also admitted that such events at times makes him question his future in the sport.
"It's pure stupidity on the part of Moreni," he said. "I don't know how he can have slipped through the net. It makes you think about your future as a professional cyclist. It makes me question the whole thing, but then you think why not continue because I get a lot of pleasure out of it."
Just weeks after successfully hosting Tour stages for the first time, London's mayor Ken Livingstone offered his heartfelt support to Wiggins. "This is deeply disappointing for Bradley Wiggins, who has had a fantastic Tour de France," Livingstone told the BBC. "As a steadfastly clean rider, he is well known for his vocal condemnation of drug use in his sport, and has been a tremendous ambassador for London and cycling."
Stay tuned to Cyclingnews for a full interview with Bradley Wiggins.
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