Bradley Wiggins and Sam Tomkins share their motivation
Tour de France winner, Olympic gold medallist and Wigan fan Bradley Wiggins has got something in common with the Warriors this year – the taste of success.
While Wiggins’ journey has taken in a number of accolades so far, the true success of Wigan’s season hinges on the next six weeks, as they aim to win the Grand Final.
They play their final regular season game against St Helens tonight, where they will be presented with the league leaders’ shield, having finished top of the Super League table.
Several Warriors will be in the running for the Super League Dream Team, to be announced next week, while Sam Tomkins is likely to be a contender for the coveted Man of Steel award.
So with Wiggins at the end of his journey for another year, and Wigan coming up to the business end of their own drive to success, SKY Sports’ Brian Carney asked both Wiggins and Wigan full-back Tomkins what motivates them in the cold days of pre-season.
Wiggins said: “Well for me for the last couple of years it has all been about the Tour de France really and going back year after year and having failures and disappointments, crashing out last year and that’s been the thing that’s driven me The belief that I could do it if I got it right. That’s what makes it easier to get up every day, especially on those tough mornings.”
Tomkins added: “Our pre-season starts similar to Bradley, mid-November, we’ll really get into it. There’s some mornings when you don’t feel like getting out of that bed and going out on that field, but you have 25, 30 blokes who are doing the same as well. Motivation for us is speaking about what happens at this end of the year – trophies and success.”
Wiggins now has time to reflect on the success of the past year, and it will be something Tomkins and his Wigan team-mates will be hoping they can do in October, after the Grand Final.
The cyclist said: “For me it certainly hasn’t sunk in yet. You do all of this training to be successful and you don’t make plans for post success. You expect it to feel different but you wake up the next day feeling exactly the same.
“There’s a huge amount of relief and satisfaction that you have achieved what you have been training for, for however many months, but then you go out and see people’s reaction to you – that changes, and that’s the biggest thing you notice. How much your performances have inspired people. Certainly for me, I left home six or seven weeks ago and now everywhere I seem to go someone wants a photo …that’s when it starts to sink in just what you have achieved really.”
All eyes will be on the DW Stadium this evening, with Wigan wearing a special kit to raise awareness for the Joining Jack charity, set up by former Warrior Andy Johnson, in aid of his son.