LONDON (AFP) - Former Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins has revealed that his children had to move schools after they were bullied in the wake of the Lance Armstrong drug revelations.

Wiggins became the first British winner of the Tour in 2012, seven months before American rider Armstrong was stripped of his seven victories in the race after finally admitting to extensive doping.

Wiggins said that his increased public profile in Britain, coupled with the fall-out from the Armstrong affair, made life "horrendous" for his two children.

"That (winning the Tour) changed everything," Wiggins told several British newspapers. "I left home pretty much unknown and came home the most famous man in the country for that week.

"It was hard for me and the family. It affected them as well. The Lance Armstrong thing in January... my kids started getting harassed at school. 'Is your dad on drugs? He won the Tour. Is he the same as Lance Armstrong?'

"Horrendous stuff. Horrible. My son getting bullied at school. I had to move my kids from that school and move them to another school.

"I felt responsible for that and it all added to my unhappiness at the time. But a year on, it feels like a complete contrast. I feel much more comfortable in my own shoes now."