A police source said his injuries from the crash were thought to be very serious at first, but later it appeared he suffered a number of broken ribs and cuts and bruises.

The accident happened at about 6pm in Wrightington, Lancashire, which is near to his family home in Eccleston.

Father-of-two Wiggins is known to regularly embark on training rides around the area’s rural roads.

The driver of the Astra, a local woman, was uninjured.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said: “Police were called to the scene of a road traffic accident at Crow Orchard Road in Wrightington 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.”

Collision investigators visited the scene but the road did not need to be closed.

Garage attendant Yasmin Smith, who rushed to Wiggins’s aid, told the Lancashire Evening Post: “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.”