Money woes continue for Olympian and Tour de France winner Sir Bradly Wiggins.
At the end of 2019 he wound up two of his companies with debts of more than £1m after the failure of his Team Wiggins cycling team.
A report has revealed that Wiggins Rights Ltd, the company set up to “exploit Wiggins’s name and image rights”, has entered liquidation with debts of more than £650,000.
New Team Cycling Ltd, which was used to run Team Wiggins between 2015 and 2019, is also being liquidated – with debts of £587,008.
The biggest creditor to Wiggins Rights Ltd is HM Revenue and Customs, which is owed £272,360.
New Team Cycling Ltd owes HMRC £57,344.
And, 101 Ride Ltd, which is controlled by Wiggins Rights Ltd and in turn owns New Team Cycling Ltd, is owed £238,000.
It is understood Sir Bradley, has spent a significant amount of his own money propping up the team, which aimed to give young riders a pathway into professional cycling – but the venture proved unsustainable given the lack of commercial partners.
To further his troubles, in July 2020, the High Court in London heard a bankruptcy petition brought against Sir Bradley (personally) by HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) with the approval of the tax office.
In a five-minute hearing, Judge Daniel Schaffer explained how Wiggins’s lawyers had met representatives from HMRC to come up with a solution.
The bankruptcy hearing is over money allegedly owed to HMRC following his split from his wife Kathy.
Sir Bradley, first met his future wife, when they raced together as juniors in 1997. They married in 2004, and have 2 children.
The judge then dismissed the petition against him with the agreement of HMRC. He said: ‘The petition is dismissed with the normal order for costs.’
Sir Bradley, who according to wealth management magazine Spears is worth an estimated £13million, will have to pay £916 to cover HMRC’s costs of the hearing.
Sir Bradley, 40, competed as a professional cyclist between 2001 and 2016.
He won a gold medal at four successive Olympic Games from 2004 to 2016 and holds the record as Britain’s most decorated Olympian with eight medals.
In 2012, he won the Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie, the Critérium du Dauphiné, and became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France.
He retired from all forms of professional cycling in December 2016.
A spokesperson for Sir Bradley, explained that he (Sir Bradley) was working towards a settlement with the Tax Authorities, and that he hopes all the issues will be sorted out within the next few months.
The father-of-two was awarded a CBE in 2009, and was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2012. He went on to be given a knighthood as part of the 2013 New Year Honours.
In 2018, Sir Bradley launched The Bradley Wiggins Show, a cycle racing podcast produced in association with Eurosport.
He also started to commentate for Eurosport, providing studio-based analysis for the Giro d’Italia, and working as a motorbike mounted reporter for the Tour de France.
He has said he hopes to retrain as a Social Worker, and in May this year, he announced that he and his wife were splitting.