Bradley Wiggins taken to hospital after being knocked off bike by van Garage attendant Yasmin Smith, who came to Wiggins" aid, said: "By the time I got there he had moved to a safer place but was still on the ground and he was in a lot of pain. He said he thought he had broken his ribs, and while a lot of police cars arrived it was about 15 minutes before the ambulance got there - by which time he was blue. A Lancashire Police spokesman said: "Police were called to the scene of a road traffic accident at Crow Orchard Road in Wrightlington at about 6pm this evening. A cyclist has been involved in a collision with a white Vauxhall Astra car. The rider of the bike, a 32-year-old local man, was taken to hospital by ambulance with injuries not thought to be life-threatening. His family have been told. Wiggins was being followed on his ride by his cycling support team, who attended to him quickly. Collision investigators were called to the scene but the road did not need to be closed. One eyewitness described how he had seen Wiggins in an upright position and walking and how emergency vehicles were blocking all exits from the forecourt. One lorry driver said: "There were about four police cars there. All the roads were coned off. I could see a pushbike, like a mountain bike, and the front wheel was all buckled. I went into the garage and asked what was going on. A woman said "Bradley Wiggins has just been knocked off his bike."" It is understood, despite the trauma of the crash, that the incident marks a distressing postscript of a stellar year for Wiggins, who only last month was in Paris to promote next year's edition of the Tour de France. He is already the clear favourite of the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year next month, having taken gold in the Olympic individual time trial just three weeks after becoming the first Briton to win the Tour in its 109-year history. Last week the seven-time Olympic champion received the prestigious Vélo d'Or award as the world's outstanding cyclist of 2012. Wiggins's extraordinary campaign this year has also encompassed victories at Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphiné. As part of a series of interviews during his off-season period, he was due to be appearing this morning on Chris Evans's BBC Radio 2 show. Wiggins had found himself at the centre of a controversy over road safety during the Olympics, when he argued at a press conference that cyclists had a responsibility to wear a helmet. He made his comments after being put on the spot with a question related to the death of 28-year-old Dan Harris from Wanstead, who was struck by a bus which had been ferrying media between London 2012 venues immediately outside the Olympic Park. Wiggins later took to Twitter to clarify his comments, saying that he had not been calling for helmets to be made compulsory.