Wiggins - National Disappointment

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  • steerpike
    steerpike Posts: 424
    Well, I'm starting to err on the 'Dissapointment' side of the fence. He has to learn to start dealing with this better; yes the paps are a disgrace but he should be starting to learn how to deal with the less savoury aspects of fame without lashing out. I'm all for character, but for me he's starting to resemble someone rather immature.

    Cavendish is not the sharpest tool in the box, but he's grown up. Wiggins needs to do the same.
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,310
    Britain has a fine tradition of working class oiks as sporting heroes/ disappointments.


    smithMS1204_468x338.jpg
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    TailWindHome wrote:
    Britain has a fine tradition of working class oiks as sporting heroes/ disappointments.


    smithMS1204_468x338.jpg


    Harvey Smith?
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,310
    Richmond Racer wrote:
    Harvey Smith?


    Harvey Smith doing what later became known as a "Harvey Smith"
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,550
    The biggest disappointment really is that it a single finger, rather than two fingers.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    The biggest disappointment really is that it a single finger, rather than two fingers.

    So what's with the two finger thing? Must have a different meaning "over there".
  • chrisaonabike
    chrisaonabike Posts: 1,914
    dennisn wrote:
    So what's with the two finger thing? Must have a different meaning "over there".
    It does.

    Here it does not mean 'two', it means the same as the middle finger, but in a much less aggressive way.

    Still rude, but less unfriendly.

    Glad that's cleared that up :)
    Is the gorilla tired yet?
  • slim_boy_fat
    slim_boy_fat Posts: 1,810
    dennisn wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    The biggest disappointment really is that it a single finger, rather than two fingers.

    So what's with the two finger thing? Must have a different meaning "over there".
    Read the V sign as an insult bit Dennis http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#section_2

    Edit: Do his kind words on this article make him a national hero again? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-20271788
  • andrewjoseph
    andrewjoseph Posts: 2,165
    Brad had a dream as a kid, to be a famous bike rider with lots of fans and his picture on the telly and newspapers etc.

    He knew what he wanted and now he's got it, maybe a bit more than he bargained for, but he knows he's got fans and the media are interested, he knows what happens in public will likely be reported. Either he doesn't care or he doesn't think.

    I presume it's the latter, he just gets a bit fed up at times, but I think he should be more careful with the image he portrays.

    But there again, as the TDF presentation showed, he is trying hard to be different.
    --
    Burls Ti Tourer for Tarmac, Saracen aluminium full suss for trails
  • mr_poll
    mr_poll Posts: 1,547
    Brad has now apologised - from his status update on his Facebook:

    I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and messages over the last 48 hours, and of course all the staff at the Royal Preston Hospital who looked after me so well.

    Although I’m still a little bit sore I will now be spending time at home with my family and concentrating on making a full recovery.

    I would also like to apologise for the gesture that I made when I arrived home yesterday afternoon. I was tired, in a lot of pain, and just wanted to get inside, but I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I’m sorry for that.

    I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike soon and continuing my preparations for the 2013 season.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    ChrisAOnABike wrote:
    dennisn wrote:
    So what's with the two finger thing? Must have a different meaning "over there".
    It does.

    Here it does not mean 'two', it means the same as the middle finger, but in a much less aggressive way.

    Still rude, but less unfriendly.

    Glad that's cleared that up :)

    I'm gonna remember that, just in case I get over toward your neck of the woods. Don't want to do the wrong thing. :oops:
  • pauldavid
    pauldavid Posts: 392
    RichN95 wrote:
    durhamwasp wrote:
    anyone have a link to the photo in question

    wiggins-finger_2392644b.jpg

    That's not Wiggins, it's ET with a ginger beard :shock: :D
  • chrisaonabike
    chrisaonabike Posts: 1,914
    mr_poll wrote:
    Brad has now apologised - from his status update on his Facebook:
    Like he wrote that himself...
    Is the gorilla tired yet?
  • Drumlin
    Drumlin Posts: 120
    mr_poll wrote:
    Brad has now apologised - from his status update on his Facebook:

    I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and messages over the last 48 hours, and of course all the staff at the Royal Preston Hospital who looked after me so well.

    Although I’m still a little bit sore I will now be spending time at home with my family and concentrating on making a full recovery.

    I would also like to apologise for the gesture that I made when I arrived home yesterday afternoon. I was tired, in a lot of pain, and just wanted to get inside, but I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I’m sorry for that.

    I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike soon and continuing my preparations for the 2013 season.

    An attempt at damage limitation by the Sky PR department
    Would welcome company for Sat rides west/south of Edinburgh, up to 3 hrs, 16mph ish. Please PM me if interested/able to help.
  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    This is utterly ridiculous. First there is the total exaggeration of the importance of what he did. Then he apologises (which he absolutely did not need to do IMO) and you don't accept it because you think it's a PR exercise?? You do realise that the only reason they have to have a PR team for stupid stuff like this is because of people like you? :roll: If nothing he does will make you happy, please explain to me why he should pay any attention to his media image rather than doing what he feels like?

    Some of the posters in this thread remind me a lot of football fans who are happy to dish out all kinds of abuse to players, but if a player turns round and dares to make a rude gesture in their direction suddenly they become a flock of innocent outraged little girls and go running to the stewards or police. Pathetic.
  • chrisaonabike
    chrisaonabike Posts: 1,914
    adr82 wrote:
    First there is the total exaggeration of the importance of what he did. Then he apologises (which he absolutely did not need to do IMO) and you don't accept it because you think it's a PR exercise??
    You think he did write it himself?

    Either way, I think you're overstating people's reaction, with the exception of the OP, who I'm sure would agree deep down that the thread title is a bit OTT.

    In particular reference to the finger - I agree, I don't think he did particularly need to apologise. If you compare that image to the video of the paps chasing his car, you'll notice that one pap in particular is almost leaning on his window and being really quite intrusive. I think it must be the same hand in the still. In pain, and wanting to get some peace and quiet, I can totally understand the finger at that instant.

    But seriously - don't you think that the wording of the 'apology' is rather stilted, and in fact not at all like the language that BW actually uses?

    If someone has decided that a carefully worded apology is in his interest to smooth things over, then clearly even those close to him have picked up at least a hint of the sentiment in the OP.

    It would be a shame if he pisses off the press to the extent that they turn on him. Tabloids being what they are, and their readers being what they are, it wouldn't take much to turn public opinion against him.

    For all the geezerish support of "ordinary guy come good can do no wrong", it would be nice if, now that the sport has a fantastic role model, it could keep it.
    Is the gorilla tired yet?
  • Le Commentateur
    Le Commentateur Posts: 4,099
    RichN95 wrote:
    durhamwasp wrote:
    anyone have a link to the photo in question

    wiggins-finger_2392644b.jpg


    It's been a terrible misjudgment. He's merely showing the Press his dislocated finger, that's all.
    Un uomo solo al commando
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    adr82 wrote:
    This is utterly ridiculous. First there is the total exaggeration of the importance of what he did. Then he apologises (which he absolutely did not need to do IMO) and you don't accept it because you think it's a PR exercise?? You do realise that the only reason they have to have a PR team for stupid stuff like this is because of people like you? :roll: If nothing he does will make you happy, please explain to me why he should pay any attention to his media image rather than doing what he feels like?

    Some of the posters in this thread remind me a lot of football fans who are happy to dish out all kinds of abuse to players, but if a player turns round and dares to make a rude gesture in their direction suddenly they become a flock of innocent outraged little girls and go running to the stewards or police. Pathetic.

    +1. Herd mentality. It's the same on many threads.
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,310
    Just wait until next July - he'll be a huge disappointment when he fails to win the Tour and it's won by some foreign bloke no one at the BBC has heard of.
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    TailWindHome wrote:
    Just wait until next July - he'll be a huge disappointment when he fails to win the Tour and it's won by some foreign bloke no one at the BBC has heard of.
    That's a bit unfair, Froome has had quite a lot of coverage by now
  • adr82
    adr82 Posts: 4,002
    ChrisAOnABike wrote:
    You think he did write it himself?
    I don't care who wrote it, since I think he has nothing to apologise for. Don't think he did it himself but I assume they'd at least run it by him before publishing it.
    ChrisAOnABike wrote:
    But seriously - don't you think that the wording of the 'apology' is rather stilted, and in fact not at all like the language that BW actually uses?

    If someone has decided that a carefully worded apology is in his interest to smooth things over, then clearly even those close to him have picked up at least a hint of the sentiment in the OP.
    Of course they were trying to smooth things over, they were obviously doing their best not to stir up the type of people who got upset by the finger! They wanted to make it very conservative and noncontroversial and as difficult to find fault with as possible. If Wiggins had written it with his usual sprinkling of expletives he would just have been setting himself up for more criticism along the lines of what we've already seen - "Ooh he's ruining the minds of our poor little innocent children, who certainly have never seen anything more offensive than that in their several years of browsing the internet!" :roll:
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    Lordy, what a load of sanctimonious nonsense.

    Here's what the man himself says about this 'role mode' business - extract from 'My Time':

    'I struggle with the idea that I may have turned into a role model overnight. People say to me 'Are you ready now, do you realise that you are a role model for so many people out there?' I was constantly saying that I can understand why in an inspirational sense for what I do on the bike, but please dont hold me up there as something to aspire to, because outside a sports environment I'm as normal as everyone else. I'm not perfect, I make mistakes. People seem to have illusions before they meet you; then they find out that you're not precisely what they would like you to be. It's the same with most celebrities in this country; porcelain gods that shatter when they fall. So I say that I've got a different job to everyone else, but I'm normal in some of the problems I face like any other person.'

    Says it a lot better than I would. I'd be more likely to tell people to poke it, and get over themselves.
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    bompington wrote:
    TailWindHome wrote:
    Just wait until next July - he'll be a huge disappointment when he fails to win the Tour and it's won by some foreign bloke no one at the BBC has heard of.
    That's a bit unfair, Froome has had quite a lot of coverage by now


    Methinks the British public will not be taking a lot of interest in Mr Froome...he's quite the dullard compared to Wiggins...
  • steerpike
    steerpike Posts: 424
    It's not sanctimonious nonsense. The OP is deliberately OTT and inflammatory. We have a right to expect better. Being a top sports star carries some resposibility. Wiggins effectively says: "I'll take the plaudits, bit don't expect me to start acting with any dignity or maturity anytime soon because I am who I am." Sorry, that's not good enough. Quite aside from the 'role model for kids' argument, he is now the most high profile cyclist the country has ever had.

    So, how frustrating that every rabid petrolhead gets a pic of Wiggins flicking the bird on the front of their redtop? It's hardly helping the pro-cycling agenda.

    He doesn't have to be a spokesman, he doesn't even have to be a role model if he doesn't want to - he could just learn to carry himself with a little more dignity and stop lashing out at the inevitable, predictable media interest.
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    it's about being human, having human frailties and sometimes making mistakes, often in stressful situations that the vast majority of us will never find outselves in.

    Clearly something that some of the people here have mastered.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,661
    Sporza are tweeting that he's said sorry now...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    ddraver wrote:
    Sporza are tweeting that he's said sorry now...

    Fran Millar's back at work from her sick bed :wink:
  • steerpike
    steerpike Posts: 424
    Richmond Racer wrote:
    it's about being human, having human frailties and sometimes making mistakes, often in stressful situations that the vast majority of us will never find outselves in.

    Clearly something that some of the people here have mastered.
    oh sure, I'm all for sportsmen having frailties - it's what often what makes them appealing. But I'm starting to tire of Wiggins petulance.
  • Richmond Racer
    Richmond Racer Posts: 8,561
    steerpike wrote:
    Richmond Racer wrote:
    it's about being human, having human frailties and sometimes making mistakes, often in stressful situations that the vast majority of us will never find outselves in.

    Clearly something that some of the people here have mastered.
    oh sure, I'm all for sportsmen having frailties - it's what often what makes them appealing. But I'm starting to tire of Wiggins petulance.


    Guess that he'll just have to take that on the chin, then
  • deejay
    deejay Posts: 3,138
    edited November 2012
    dennisn wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    The biggest disappointment really is that it a single finger, rather than two fingers.

    So what's with the two finger thing? Must have a different meaning "over there".
    No one really answered that properly for you.
    2 fingers with the hand in the forward position is known as the Winston Victory sign.

    2 fingers with the back of the hand is the "Feck You" sign or Feck Off interpretation.

    The Index finger in the picture is known as "Up Yours" (right up) or Feck You.
    An architect who was criticised by Prince Charles and many others over several buildings and a Wobbly Thames Bridge he designed has had the last laugh with a building in the City of London.
    Some of us realise the significance of the structure as his answer to his critics by the "Up Yours" building but the media couldn't say that.
    So they have named it the Gherkin but each time I come into London Bridge station I always measure it with my Index Finger and it fits with the background of High Rise square office buildings.
    I have seen it being measured by others on the train sat in front of me. :roll:
    Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 1972

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