Reporter’s question angers Tour de France leader Bradley Wiggins

PORRENTRUY, Switzerland – Bradley Wiggins kept the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. Keeping his cool was another matter.

The former Olympic champion, with ambitions to be Britain’s first Tour winner, unleashed a profanity-laced tirade after Sunday’s eighth stage in which the race entered Switzerland.

Wiggins’ Team Sky has controlled the Tour in a style reminiscent of Lance Armstrong’s former U.S. Postal team.

The Briton, however, lost his composure when asked by a reporter to comment on comparisons between the teams and “cynics who believe that you have to be doped up to win the Tour.”

Wiggins, angered by the chatter on social media, let loose with an expletive-filled outburst.

“I cannot be dealing with people like that. It justifies their own bone-idleness because they can’t ever imagine applying themselves to anything in their lives,” he said. “And it’s easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that.”

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency last month filed charges against Armstrong, accusing the seven-time Tour champion of using performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong denies any wrongdoing.

Wiggins is looking to move from three-time Olympic track gold-medalist to a rising star of the Tour de France roads. His fourth-place Tour finish in 2009 put to rest many questions about his climbing skill.

Speaking to French television, Wiggins said his ability to get up hard mountain climbs came from training, diet and lifestyle. “I drink nothing now … before, in 2004, I was almost an alcoholic after the Olympics.”

He’s come a long way since, and he has showed during the last two days he’s able to keep up with strong climbers.