page_title: Bradley Wiggins
section_title: 2013: Giro d'Italia and Tour of Britain
hierarchical_section_title: Bradley Wiggins / Professional career / 2013: Giro d'Italia and Tour of Britain
caption_attribution_description: During stage 7.
context_page_description: Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins, CBE is a British former professional road and track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2016. Nicknamed "Wiggo", he began his cycling career on the track, but made the transition to road cycling and is one of the few cyclists in the modern era to gain significant elite level success in both those forms of professional cycling. In a career, notable for its breadth and diversity in terms of elite achievement, he won world titles in four disciplines, and Olympic gold in three. He is the only rider to have won both World and Olympic championships on both the track and the road, as well as winning the Tour de France, and holding the iconic track hour record. In addition, he has worn the leader's jersey in each of the three Grand Tours of cycling and held the world record in team pursuit on multiple occasions. He has won a gold medal at 4 successive Olympic Games from 2004 – 2016, and as of 2020 held the record as Great Britain's most decorated Olympian with 8 medals. He is the only rider to win the Tour de France and Olympic Gold in the same year, winning them a week apart in 2012.
context_section_description: It was widely expected that Wiggins would ride to retain his Tour de France title in 2013. However, in February he asserted that his focus for the season would be the Giro d'Italia, after which he would ride the Tour de France in support of teammate Froome. In April he let it be known that he desired to win another Tour, and had hopes of achieving the Tour and Giro double – a feat that has not been achieved since Marco Pantani in 1998.
  Wiggins participated in a winter training camp in Mallorca. His first race of the season was the Tour of Oman in February. On the first stage he was caught behind a crash, the time delay pushing him back to the back of the field. For the remainder of the race Wiggins helped Froome, who won the overall classification. Wiggins opted not to defend his title at the Paris–Nice, or ride the Tirreno-Adriatico, instead participating in a training camp on Mount Teide in Tenerife. He returned to action at the Volta a Catalunya in March, finishing the race in fifth place overall, 54 seconds behind winner Dan Martin of Garmin–Sharp.
  In April Wiggins rode the four-day Giro del Trentino in Northern Italy as preparation for the Giro d'Italia. The first day's race schedule consisted of a road race followed by a team time trial. An unexpected breakaway in the road race caused Wiggins to lose over six minutes. However he led the team to victory later in the day during the team time trial. On stage two he cut his deficit to race leader Maxime Bouet of Ag2r–La Mondiale in half, lifting Wiggins into the top-five overall. On the fourth and final stage Wiggins suffered a mechanical problem at the foot of the final 14.6 km (9.1 mi) climb. He ended up finishing the race in fifth place, one minute and 40 seconds down on winner Nibali (Astana).
  Wiggins entered the Giro d'Italia as one of the favourites for the general classification. Team Sky won the stage two team time trial on the island of Ischia, covering the distance of 17.4 km (10.8 mi) 14 seconds quicker than Nibali's Astana squad. On stage four Wiggins lost 17 seconds after being delayed by a crash within the final 3 km (1.9 mi), dropping him in the standings from second to sixth. A wet stage seven saw Wiggins crash while making a descent some 6 km (3.7 mi) from the finish, placing him in difficulty.  Teammates Rigoberto Urán and Sergio Henao helped pace him back toward the leaders, but could not close the gap.  Wiggins finished 90 seconds down on the race favourites, dropping him out of the race's top 20. In the following stage, a 54.8 km (34.1 mi) time trial, Wiggins placed second to compatriot Alex Dowsett of Movistar Team. A bike change compelled by a puncture cost Wiggins some time, and he ended up finishing the race ten seconds down on Dowsett. Wiggins struggled on the wet roads of stage nine, losing touch with the peloton on the descent of the Vallombrosa some 60 km (37.3 mi) from the finish.  A group of teammates helped pace him back, and the gap was closed. Following stage 11 Wiggins revealed that he was suffering from a chest infection.  He withdrew from the race the following day, after losing over three minutes on the day's stage.
  The presence of a knee injury was disclosed to the public on 31 May, which forced Wiggins to forgo defending his title in the Tour de France. He subsequently suggested he may never ride the Tour again. He returned to racing at the Tour de Pologne, winning stage seven's 37 km (23.0 mi) time trial, 56 seconds ahead of second placed Cancellara.
  In September, Wiggins led Team Sky at his home race, the Tour of Britain. He won the time trial on stage three on roads around Knowsley Safari Park, close to his home in Lancashire. He held the lead for the rest of the week to win the race for the first time, and take his first stage race victory of the season. The following week at the world championships, he took the silver medal in the time trial, behind winner Tony Martin and ahead of Cancellara in a repeat of the 2011 podium. Wiggins was also selected to ride the road race, but abandoned after one lap, and was soon followed by 
caption: Wiggins wearing the leader's jersey at the 2013 Tour of Britain
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D600", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Elements Organizer 11.0", "Image DateTime": "2013:09:21 18:39:59", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "212", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "240", "Thumbnail YResolution": "240", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1008", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9859", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "450", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:09:21 14:14:16", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:09:21 14:14:16", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1120723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "361471/100000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "[0, 1, 0, 0]", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3757", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3757", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5488689/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "5488689/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "4", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "24", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "6001805", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 85, 7/2, 9/2]", "EXIF LensModel": "24.0-85.0 mm f/3.5-4.5"}