Bradley Wiggins, Tour de France winner & hypocrite of the year

THIS man won the Tour de France and is said to be worth millions. So why does he sneer at lesser athletes trying to earn a dollar?

Wiggins gold

ONE of the world's most high profile and marketable athletes has lashed out at low profile sports stars earning a bit of cash by promoting products or appearing on reality TV Shows.

Bradley Wiggins won last year's Tour de France and a gold medal in the time trial at the London Olympics. He's incredibly well known and is said to be worth millions.

But in an interview with the BBC yesterday, Wiggins said "My saving grace is that I haven't gone out and tried to cash in on the Olympics and got my face everywhere, got on game shows and all this stuff, like most of them have done."

This, from a man whose sponsors include Oakley, Adidas and Gatorade.

This, from a man who recently released a range of cycle wear with upmarket label Fred Perry called the "Bradley Wiggins X Fred Perry Collaboration".

And this, from a man whose book about being the first Brit to win the Tour de France sold 60,000 copies in a single week.

Oh by the way, he's Sir Bradley Wiggins these days, an honour bestowed upon no other London Olympian. You'd imagine the knighthood won't hurt his earning power either.

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Yet as virtually anonymous athletes with infinitely lower earning capacity struggle to find a gig, any gig, in the long four years between Olympics, Wiggins thinks it's all a bit rich that they dare try to earn a fraction of what he earns.

Several British athletes have tried to boost their profile through stints on reality TV shows after the Olympics. But Wiggins took a swipe at the reality TV genre in his BBC interview.

"It's nice to be recognised for achieving something in life because so much of British culture is built on people being famous for not achieving anything," he said.

That's an admirable sentiment if you're talking about the average Big Brother contestant whose chief life is skill is obnoxiousness.

But many Britons are today suggesting that if you've proved your worth as athlete, you deserve a chance to promote yourself any way you can. After all, no one pays you for having the word "Olympian" on your CV.

Wiggins is currently preparing for a serious assault on the Giro D'Italia, the Italian equivalent of the Tour de France, before he launches his Le Tour defence on June 29.

He released a promotional video about his quest this week, in which two of his other sponsors, Team Sky and bike company Shimano, were prominently featured.

Wiggins is reportedly still spatting with team-mate and 2012 Tour de France runner-up Chris Froome, who many believe is the superior rider and deserves to be the team leader this year.