Bradley Wiggins wins 2012 Tour de France - BBC Sport BBC Sport Bradley Wiggins wins 2012 Tour de France 22 Jul 2012 Read more about sharing. Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour de France as compatriot Mark Cavendish claimed a fourth consecutive final-stage victory. Wiggins, 32, finished with a winning margin of three minutes and 21 seconds after ending Sunday's race around the streets of Paris in the peloton. Fellow Brit and Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome consolidated second place with Italy's Vincenzo Nibali third.

Wiggins' key Tour moments Stage 7: Finishes third to take yellow jersey for the first time Stage 9: Wins time trial from Arc-et-Senans to Besancon Stage 13: Ensures he will become first Briton to wear yellow jersey for a seventh time Stage 14: Praised for slowing the pace after rival Cadel Evans falls victim to tacks Stage 17: Extends lead over his main rivals during final day in mountains Stage 19: Wins time-trial on penultimate day to all but secure victory Cavendish won the traditional sprint down the Champs Elysees with some ease. The 27-year old from the Isle of Man is unbeaten in Paris, having also won on his three previous Tour finishes in 2009, 10 and 11. He began his sprint early and held off the challenge of the faster-finishing Peter Sagan of Slovakia, with Australia's Matthew Goss third.

It lifted his tally of Tour de France stage wins to 23, to surpass seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong and Frenchman Andre Darrigade and move into fourth in the overall stage-win standings, 11 short of Belgian Eddy Merckx's record of 34. But the day belonged to Wiggins, who safely negotiated himself around the streets of Paris, to complete the formalities after Saturday's stunning time-trial victory gave him an almost unassailable lead. The three-time Olympic track champion crossed the line arms raised having helped set up Cavendish's sprint victory in front of thousands of British fans on the Champs Elysees, who had come to witness history being made. Team Sky rider Geraint Thomas "Bradley Wiggins has done something unbelievable by winning the Tour de France, but I know he will be the first to recognise that he would not have been able to achieve his victory without a terrific team behind him" And in winning this year's Tour, Wiggins not only fulfilled a life-long ambition but also sealed his place in the pantheon of cycling greats. "I don't know what to say, I've had 24 hours for it to soak in," said Wiggins.

"I'm still buzzing from the Champs Elysees, the laps go so quick. We had a mission with Cav and we did it. What a way to finish it off. "I've got to get used to that [being a legend in the spotlight], it's going to take a while. I'm just trying to soak it all in. You never imagine it will happen to you but it's amazing." In three demanding weeks, he toiled over the Alps and the Pyrenees to complete the mammoth 20-stage, 2,173-mile race which was in its 99th edition. During his stunning transition from track to road racing, Wiggins finished fourth in the Tour in 2009 - equalling Robert Millar's 1984 British best - before crashing out with a broken collarbone when among the favourites in 2011.

Tour de France stage wins Eddy Merckx, Bel (1969-75) - 34 Bernard Hinault, Fra (1978-86) - 28 Andre Leducq, Fra (1927-35) - 25 Mark Cavendish, GB (2008 to present) - 23 Lance Armstrong, US (1993-2005) - 22 Andre Darrigade, Fra (1953-64) - 22 Nicolas Frantz, Lux (1924-29) - 20 Francois Faber, Fra (1908-14) - 19 But having worn the yellow jersey for 13 consecutive stages, Wiggins showed why Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford has placed so much faith in his man as he accumulated a winning margin of more than three minutes. The margin of Wiggins' victory also answered many of those who questioned why Froome, who appeared marginally stronger in the mountains, was not Team Sky's Tour leader.

Team Sky themselves achieved the rare feat of a 1-2 on the podium, the first since 1996, when Dane Bjarne Riis finished ahead of his German team-mate at Telekom, Jan Ullrich. It is also the first time compatriots have taken the first two places since France's Laurent Fignon finished ahead of five-time winner Bernard Hinault in the 1984 edition. Frenchman Thomas Voeckler of Europcar won the polka dot jersey for the race's best climber, with Sagan of the Liquigas team easily securing the green jersey in the points competition. Tom Fordyce's view "This Tour win has secured Wiggins alongside Steve Redgrave, Daley Thompson, Chris Hoy, Ian Botham and Bobby Moore in the public sporting consciousness" Read more of our chief sports writer's thoughts American Tejay Van Garderen made up for BMC team leader Cadel Evans' disastrous title defence by winning the race's white jersey for the best-placed rider aged 25 and under.

Evans, who made history by becoming Australia's first champion in 2011, finished nearly 16 minutes behind Wiggins, although he did suffer with stomach problems during the final week. Top five on final stage: 1. Mark Cavendish (GB) Team Sky 3:08:07" 2. Peter Sagan (Svk) @ same time 3. Matthew Goss (Aus) Orica GreenEdge 4. Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) Saxo Bank 5. Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Vacansoleil Final overall standings: 1. Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky 87h 34' 47'' 2. Christopher Froome (GB) Team Sky @ 3'21" 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas @ 6'19" 4. Jurgen van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol @ 10'15" 5.

Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC @ 11'04" Bradley Wiggins becomes first Briton to win Tour de France comment PARIS -- Twenty-three years ago, Bradley Wiggins marveled as Greg LeMond blazed a trail as America's first Tour de France winner. Now, Wiggins has blazed his own. The 32-year-old from gritty northwest London became Britain's first winner of cycling's greatest race on Sunday, ending a 75-year drought for his country with an imperial conquest of the roads in cross-Channel neighbor France. Wiggins had locked up the yellow jersey a day earlier by winning the final time-trial, and Sunday's ride onto the Champs-Elysees was largely ceremonial for him. But putting the coveted shirt to work one last time, he added a touch of class by providing a leadout to Sky teammate and fellow Briton Mark Cavendish to get his third Tour stage victory -- the 23rd of his career -- in a sprint. The Isle of Man native is a main contender to win road race gold at the Olympics in London, which has been a hovering presence over the peloton in this Tour.

Bradley Wiggins defended the yellow jersey Sunday, becoming the first British rider to win the Tour de France. Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/GettyImages Wiggins congratulated his teammates after crossing the line, hugged his wife, and clutched the hands of their two children. A soprano sang "God Save The Queen", and Wiggins thanked the crowd with a touch of British humor. "Cheers, have a safe journey home, don't get too drunk," he quipped after hoisting the winner's bouquet, with the Arc de Triomphe behind him. "It's been a magical couple of weeks for the team and for British cycling," Wiggins said. "Some dreams come true. My mother over there, she's now -- her son has won the Tour de France." Then, with a Union Jack around his neck like a scarf, Wiggins sipped Champagne for the processional lap on the famed Paris avenue, trailed by his son with "Allez Wiggo" -- Go Wiggo -- written on his cheeks.

This 99th Tour will be remembered for successes of other Britons, too, like all-rounder Christopher Froome, who was second overall, Cavendish and Scottish veteran David Millar -- who won seven stages between them, a Tour record for Britain. Italy's Vincenzo Nibali rounded out the podium in third. France's Thomas Voeckler won the polka-dot jersey for best climber, Peter Sagan of Slovakia takes home the green jersey for best sprinter, and Tejay van Garderen, a 23-year-old American, won the white jersey given to the best young rider. It was a race of disappointment for Cadel Evans of Australia, who struggled in the climbs and failed to repeat his 2011 Tour victory. And it was a swan song for George Hincapie of the United States, who set the record of 17th Tour participations. Wiggins had come into the race as the favorite, but he knew all too well how anything can happen over more than 2,100 miles of racing over three weeks. Crashes, sickness and doping scandals all thinned the pack.

Questions were rife about the unity of his powerful Sky team -- Wiggins put those to rest. His victory was all the more remarkable because it culminated the transformation of Wiggins from three-time Olympic champion on the track to road-race star. His early years had given him the sustained power for the Tour time-trial -- which he dominated twice this year -- but his ability to scale Alps and Pyrenees ascents was in question. There too, Wiggins came through. His victory for Britain was no tiny feat. It's not just the first British victory, but the first podium finish -- and this year, Britain has two -- since Britons began riding in the race in 1937. A total of 59 have competed since then. Wiggins, who was fourth in 2009 and 24th in '10, came in with a thirst for victory after crashing out last year. He showed superb form, with three stage-race victories this season. And this layout was about as favorable as it could come for him: Heavy on time-trials, lighter -- relatively -- on climbs. Sky was methodical in its march to victory -- evoking at times some uncomfortable comparisons with the dominant teams of Lance Armstrong.

The seven-time Tour champion was at times a presence in the background at this race, with news of his battle against U.S. doping charges that threaten his legacy. Four of his former teammates who were riding the Tour came under a media spotlight amid a news report they had struck deal with USADA. This Tour, as in many in recent years, took its licks from doping. On the first rest day, Remy Di Gregorio of Cofidis was arrested and ousted from the race in a French anti-doping probe, accused of possessing doping products or equipment prohibited without medical justification. The bigger bombshell came on the second rest day: Frank Schleck, the RadioShack Nissan Trek leader from Luxembourg who placed third last year, was ousted after he tested positive for the banned diuretic Xipamide on July 14. He has denied any wrongdoing. The impact of doping was felt even before the first starter's gun in Liege, Belgium: Two-time Tour champion Alberto Contador was sitting out to complete a two-year doping ban linked to the 2010 Tour. The Spaniard is by far the sport's biggest star. Wiggins too has borne the impact of doping's ravages on the sport.

In 2007, one of the most scandal-ridden Tours in recent memory, his Cofidis team pulled out after rider Cristian Moreni tested positive for testosterone -- incensing Wiggins so much that he swore he'd never wear its jersey again. If this year's Tour was boring compared to others in recent years -- when use of performance enhancers juiced up many riders -- Wiggins said it may be because the sport is changing amid the fight against doping, and that fans perhaps should not expect as many incredible performances as in years past. He has been a vocal critic of doping in cycling. Some fretted the lack of panache -- flair -- on the mountain climbs. "Unfortunately, we didn't have either Andy Schleck or Alberto Contador here this year, but next year, they'll both be back -- hopefully -- and that will give it the panache," UCI chief Pat McQuaid told The Associated Press. Andy Schleck, Frank's brother and runner-up last year, was out with an injury. With "conservative" riders like Wiggins, "you weren't going to see that panache.

But he's a deserving winner, as every winner of the Tour de France deserves to win the Tour de France," he said. While he made his name as a track star -- Britain's forte in cycling -- Wiggins is a student of the road race. As a kid, he lined his bedroom walls with posters of cycling greats like five-time Tour winner Miguel Indurain. "My first Tour de France memory was obviously watching LeMond win in '89, and then after that I was hooked on cycling," said Wiggins. "All through my early teens I was watching Indurain win the Tour. That was my reason to not go to school in the morning, to watch the cycling." "I never imagined then that I, in the center of London in a -- well, I can say, dangerous -- neighborhood with a lot of crime, that one day I could one day maybe win the Tour," he told France-2 TV before the Tour. "It's a little bit of a dream." Wiggins says he straddled the Armstrong era: By the time the Texan started his run of Tour victories, "I was already into cycling ...

so I sort of stopped watching in those years." But they were similar: They love their music; (Wiggins is a fan of The Jam and his trademark sideburns have drawn comparisons to those of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.) Both were raised by their mothers -- with fathers absent. Armstrong once reportedly advised Wiggins about how to handle the media -- counsel that he's appeared to keep to himself. Wiggins had a hot-and-cold relationship with the media during this Tour, notably when asked about comparisons to Sky and the Armstrong teams, he laced into anonymous critics on Twitter with an expletive-laden tirade. After his final press conference, Wiggins acknowledged that he had "never trained to do well in the media," and thanked reporters for "putting up with me" and "my mood swings at times." On Sunday, though, he was back at it -- swatting at photographers hoping to get a quick shot of the victor on the Champs-Elysees. The bigger Armstrong influence appears to have been on his coach.

Journalist Richard Moore, in his book "Sky's The Limit" on the team, writes of the apparent fascination that team manager Dave Brailsford -- a guru of British cycling -- had for the Armstrong approach to the Tour. Sky studied the race, and noted Armstrong formulas like keeping the leader in the front to avoid crashes, or tweaking at the margins on training or effort management to get an edge that would add up against rivals. Wiggins' father, Gary, was an Australian cyclist who was mostly absent from Bradley's life. He was a "boozer and brawler" who died in 2008 -- and had been beaten and dumped in a street in New South Wales, Moore wrote. Wiggins, asked Tuesday about what his father might have made of his Tour success, replied: "It's difficult to say. That depends on whether he was sober or ..." Was his father in the back of his mind, just a little? "Not really. I've put that one to bed," Wiggins said. Wiggins, too, had his run-ins with drink.

After winning gold at the 2004 Olympics, he signed with a French team, moved to western Nantes, and lived day-to-day, at times with debt, over a Chinese restaurant. "I was drunk all the time between races because I was alone in France, 21, 22 years old," Wiggins recalled, "The only thing to do at night was to buy a six-pack of beer bottles." His life started to change when he became a father. "I have to try something to make a little money," he recalled. "I had two young children at the time, and I said, 'I can't live like this, I have one euro in my pocket' ... and it started there." He lost weight. At the Beijing Games, he weighed 181 pounds; at the Tour, he was down to 157. He drinks almost nothing now, he says. He could also contend for gold in the Olympic time trial. So as he returned to the Sky bus, he jumped up on a team car, bowed and took a swig from a bottle ... of yellow rehydration drink -- not Champagne. But he could be forgiven for sipping a bit on the Champs-Elysees.

Bradley Wiggins: Tour de France 2012 win set to inspire Team GB to London 2012 Olympics glory | Daily Mail Online Next Now bring on the Olympics! Bradley Wiggins' amazing Tour de France victory set to inspire Team GB to Games glory Scores of patriotic fans who had crossed the Channel to be there cheered on Wiggins down the Champs Elysee Wiggins celebrated with his wife Catherine and their two children David Cameron ad Nick Clegg back calls for Wiggins to be knighted Britain's Chris Froome Repeats as Tour De France Champion Britain's Chris Froome Repeats as Tour De France Champion July 24, 2016 5:16 PM Parke Brewer 2016 Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Britain celebrates on the podium after the twenty-first and last stage of the Tour de France cycling race in Paris, France, Sunday, July 24, 2016. Share Email to a Friend Print British cyclist Chris Froome successfully defended his Tour de France title on Sunday, and has now won the multi-stage race three times in the past four years.

The Kenyan-born Froome held a lead of more than four minutes over Frenchman Romain Bardet heading into the 21st and final - largely ceremonial - stage in Paris. He pedaled across the finish line side-by-side and arm-in-arm with his Sky teammates. They finished in the back section of the peloton in which 169 riders were all credited with the same time behind stage winner Andre Greipel of Germany. The cyclists covered the 113 kilometers, starting in Chantilly, with the traditional ending on the Champs Elysees after nine laps around the center of Paris in two hours, 43 minutes, eight seconds. Greipel edged world champion Peter Sagan of Slovakia at the line in a sprint finish. Norway's Alexander Kristoff was third on Sunday. The 31-year-old Froome's total time for the three-week tour was nearly 90 hours. Bardet was runner-up, 4:05 behind, and Colombian Nairo Quintana was third, 4:21 in back of Froome. "It's like the first time. It's amazing. Every time it's special," said Froome.

During the trophy ceremony he spoke to the crowd in French, saying, "Thanks for your kindness in these difficult times. You have the most beautiful race in the world. Viva le Tour. Vive le France." Froome rode a special yellow bike to match his yellow leader's jersey, helmet, gloves and shoes. His teammates, rather than their usual blue stripes on their jerseys, had yellow stripes on Sunday, as well as yellow handle bars. Knowing he had such a comfortable lead riding at the start of the final stage, Froome shared both beer and champagne with his teammates. During his wins in 2013 and last year, Froome achieved his victories with aggressive attacks in the mountain stages. This month, he won by surprising his rivals on the downhill and flat sections. Froome cut both his elbow and right knee in a crash on a downhill section in Friday's stage. That seemed to gain him some sympathy from the French crowd. British cyclists have now won four of the last five Tours, as Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the race in 2012. Froome has vowed he will return to France to try for another win and perhaps take part in the prestigious event five or six more times.

British Cyclist Froome Wins Second Tour de France British Cyclist Froome Wins Second Tour de France July 26, 2015 5:46 PM Reuters Chris Froome, center, celebrates his overall victory with Peter Sagan of Slovakia, left, and Nairo Quintana of Colombia after the final stage of the 102nd Tour de France in Paris, July 26, 2015. Share Email to a Friend Print British cyclist Chris Froome won his second Tour de France title in three years Sunday to enhance his growing reputation as a grand tour specialist. It was Team Sky's third Tour de France triumph in four years; Bradley Wiggins prevailed in 2012, and Froome succeeded him in 2013. Froome, 30, beat Colombian Nairo Quintana by 1 minute, 12 seconds and his Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde of Spain by 5:25.

The leading trio stayed safe in Sunday's finale on the Champs Elysees in Paris, where German Andre Greipel confirmed he was the fastest by overpowering the rest of the field to take the 21st stage, his fourth win on this year's tour. Froome, the first Briton to win the tour twice, made his mark in the mountain stage to La Pierre St. Martin in the 10th stage before riding defensively to hold off Quintana, who came close to making him crack in Saturday's stage to l'Alpe d'Huez. Froome, who crashed out of the race last year, also relegated Quintana to second place in 2013, and their rivalry could develop into a classic one. Because rain had made the tiny cobblestones of the Champs Elysees slippery, the clock was stopped 41 kilometers into the 109.5-km stage on Sunday, but Froome still had to complete it to be officially crowned champion. He finished safely in the main bunch as the sprinters contested the last action of the three-week race. All the major honors had been decided Saturday.

Quintana won the white jersey for the best Under-25 rider for the second time, and Froome was the first rider to win both the yellow jersey and the polka dot jersey for the mountains classification since Carlos Sastre in 2008. Slovakian Peter Sagan, who took five second places but failed to win a stage, secured a fourth consecutive green jersey for the points classification. Wiggins becomes first British cyclist to win Tour de France | Fox News Wiggins becomes first British cyclist to win Tour de France Published July 22, 2012 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Email Print July 22, 2012: Bradley Wiggins, winner of the 2012 Tour de France cycling race kisses the trophy on the podium of the the Tour de France cycling race in Paris, France. (AP) Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France by protecting the yellow jersey during Sunday's final processional ride into Paris. He also helped Sky teammate Mark Cavendish earn his fourth straight sprint victory on the Champs-Elysees. Wiggins secured his win with a dominating performance in Saturday's final time trial to extend his already commanding lead.

Fellow Briton and Sky teammate Christopher Froome finished second, 3 minutes, 21 seconds behind overall. Vincenzo Nibali of Italy finished third, 6:19 off the pace. "It's been a magical couple of weeks for the team and for British cycling," Wiggins said. "Some dreams come true. My mother over there, she's now -- her son has won the Tour de France." The last time two riders from the same nation finished first and second in the Tour was in 1984, when Frenchman Laurent Fignon defeated Bernard Hinault. Wiggins congratulated his teammates after crossing the line, gave a big hug to his wife and clutched the hands of their children. The 32-year-old lanky Londoner blew kisses and bowed to a sea of union jacks. After a soprano sang "God Save The Queen", Wiggins thanked the crowd with a touch of British humor. "Cheers, have a safe journey home, don't get too drunk," said Wiggins, who wrote in his autobiography about overcoming drinking problems after his early successes in the Velodrome. Cavendish claimed his 23rd Tour stage win and third this year.

He also became the first reigning world champion to win on the Champs-Elysees. As expected, Wiggins repaid Cavendish for his efforts earlier in the race and led the Sky train in the final mile of the 74-mile stage before leaving his place to Edvald Boasson Hagen, who delivered a perfect lead-out for Cavendish. Cavendish accelerated coming out of the final corner, never looked back and raised four fingers as he crossed the line. The seven stage wins was a record haul for British riders in the Tour, beating the previous record of six stage wins in 2009 -- when all were won by Cavendish. This time the victories were divided up between Cavendish (3), Wiggins (2), David Millar (1) and Froome (1). Wiggins and his teammates were at the font of the pack as it arrived on the streets of Paris for eight laps of a 4-mile circuit on the Champs-Elysees. Veteran rider George Hincapie, competing in his 17th consecutive and final Tour, led the peloton onto the prestigious avenue alongside fellow American Chris Horner.

With Sky determined to help Cavendish secure a fourth consecutive win in Paris, Horner and Hincapie were immediately reined in. Several other riders tried to break away but the peloton was not ready to give them any slack as the race passed some of the capital's most iconic monuments such as the Louvre museum, the Eiffel tower and the Place de la Concorde. Six riders including Jens Voigt of Germany finally escaped from the back with 18 miles to go. They had a maximum lead of 30 seconds but were progressively reeled in as Liquigas and Sky organized the chase. Advertisement Tour de France 2012: live - Telegraph Tour de France Tour de France 2012: live All the action and colour from 199km seventh stage of the 99th edition of the Tour de France from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles.

Reach for the sky: Chris Froome celebrates on the summit of La Planche des Belles Filles after the Team Sky rider won stage seven of the Tour Photo: AP This page will automatically update every 90 secondsOn Off • Froome wins stage seven on La Planche des Belles Filles • Wiggins takes overall lead as Team Sky dominate • Schleck and Menchov crack on steep ascent WRAP: Chris Froome (Team Sky) won stage six of the Tour de France after the Kenyan-born climbing specialist dropped Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) with one final kick on the steep slopes of La Planche des Belles Filles following a superb ride from the British outfit. Froome, also, took control in the mountains classification and will wear the polka dot jersey on Sunday. Bradley Wiggins, Froome's team leader came in in third spot two seconds adrift of the stage winner to wrest the leader's yellow jersey off Fabian Cancellara as he became the first Briton since David Millar in 2000 to wear the famous maillot jaune. "It's an amazing feeling, it just went perfect," said Wiggins afterwards.

"I'm in yellow and that's to be savoured and enjoyed, it was a childhood dream. "We're in the driving seat now, the next few days we'll look to consolidate this, more so in the time-trial and then we've got a rest day and we're halfway through the Tour then. "It's not over but you know, everything that's to come in this Tour aside, I'm in the yellow jersey and that's something to be savoured and enjoyed, it's been a childhood dream of mine and you know ... here I am. "I promised my son yesterday I'd take the yellow jersey so yeah, it's nice." Team Sky now lead in three of the five competitions after they retained their lead in the teams competition while have three riders in the top 10 in the general classification. Meanwhile, here's a look at the only four other British riders to have worn yellow ... Tom Simpson: 1962 (one day) Tom Simpson, until recently regarded as the greatest ever British road cyclist, became the first Briton to wear the maillot jaune, the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey, following the 12th stage of the 49th edition of the race.

Simpson, though, lost it 24 hours later following the 18.5km mountain time-trial from Luchon to Superbagnères. Chris Boardman: 1994, 1997 & 1998 (six days) Chris Boardman made a dream debut at the Tour in 1994 when he beat five-time winner Miguel Indurain by 15 seconds in the prologue in Lille to claim his first maillot jaune before successfully defending the jersey for two days. The time-trial specialist from Merseyside wnet on to spend a further three days in yellow in 1997 and 1998 after winning the prologues in Rouen and Dublin respectively. Sean Yates: 1994 (one day) The Team Sky directeur sportif and former team-mate of Lance Armstrong's solitary day in yellow came in the same year as Boardman's first after the Tour returned to its homeland. After one day in the maillot jaune, Yates lost it in controversial circumstances after his jersey was pulled by Danish rider Rolf Sorensen during an intermediate sprint and deny him a valuable time bonus.

David Millar: 2000 (three days) David Millar, like Boardman six year's earlier, won his first leader's jersey on his debut Tour outing when the 23 year-old won the opening 16.5km time-trial at Futuroscope two seconds ahead of defending champion Armstrong before France's Laurent Jalabert took it off him two days later. ------------------------------------ CHRIS FROOME WINS THE STAGE! BRADLEY WIGGINS TAKES OVERALL LEAD AFTER TEAM SKY CONTROL FIRST MOUNTAIN STAGE! Wiggins launches fightback. Froome has gone. The Kenyan-born rider caught Evans before leaving him standing! Froome is going to win this... Evans has attacked! 16.12: As it stands: 1. Froome, 2. Wiggins, 3. Evans, 4. Nibali, 5. Taaramae. 16.11 / 1.5km to go: Froome takes over for Team Sky. Menchov and Rolland have been dropped now.

16.10 Cancellara is digging deep and not giving up his maillot jaune without a fight. Team Sky, though, are still in control. Fantastic stuff. 16.08 Roche regaining contact with lead group. Evans on the fourth wheel, Nibali fifth. Denis Menchov sixth. 16.06 Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali and Pierre Rolland marking the Sky boys. Nicholas Roche has popped. 16.05 /3km to go: Yellow jersey trails Team Sky's lead group by 30secs. 16.04 / 4km to go: The peloton has been blown to pieces. Frank Schleck is struggling! Team Sky are controlling this. Stylvain Chavanel and Fabian Cancellara trail the Team Sky boys. Can see Wiggins taking yellow this evening. 16.01 Michael Rogers is pacing Bradley Wiggins's team up. A Europcar rider (Pierre Rolland) appears to be making a sneaky move. Richie Porte and Chris Froome are alongside Wiggins.

16.00 The peloton, led by Team Sky, are about to swallow up Sorensen. 15.58 / 6km to go: Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) leads escapees on to the final climb of the day, the category one La Planche des Belles Filles. Here we go ... 15.55 Alejando Valverde (Movistar) has now too sufferd a mechanical - puncture I think - team-mate Vladmir Karpets gave him his wheel. Escapees' lead slashed to 20secs with 7km remaining. Peter Sagan has now been dropped by the bunch. 15.52 Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Lotto-Belisol's general classication rider, has suffered a mechanical. The Belgian now trails the peloton by over a minute. 15.50 / 12km to go: Cyril Gautier (Europcar) has popped and will soon be caught by the chasing peloton who now trail the leading six-man group by 50secs. Garmin-Sharp still on the front of the bunch with Team Sky tucked closely behind.

15.45 / 15km to go: Escapees' lead down to 1min 21secs. Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana) gave a quick kick to see if he could drop the other six but he was soon reeled back. Cyril Gautier (Europcar), though, is struggling to keep with the tempo. 15.30 David Millar (Garmin-Sharp) is now doing his turn on the front. Until the road ramps up to lung-bursting gradients in the final kilometre I'm thinking the current teams - Garmin-Sharp, BMC Racing and Team Sky will stay out on the front of the peloton. Garmin will be hoping their man Dan Martin can win the stage while the others, probably, will be more concerned in keeping their men (Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins) out of trouble.

15.25 Brendan Gallagher agrees that Garmin-Sharp are overdue a bit of good fortune: "Garmin-Sharp have endured a miserable time of it with injuries and getting caught up with the latest Lance Armstrong nonsense but they are never down for long and there is a thought that they might be working today for Dan Martin - the Irishman with the Brummie accent - who if fit and healthy would normally fancy the steep finish." 15.15 Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi), who I seem to rememeber crashing during the opening prologue seven days ago, has joined Tyler Farrar behind the peloton who, in turn, trail the seven-man breakaway by 4mins 40secs with around 35kms remaining. There are going to some fireworks on the La Planche des Belles Filles. Outside bet, Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp)? Speaking of Garmin-Sharp, Johan Van Summeren - the Belgian who came over the finishing line yesterday over 16mins off the pace, has just been spotted picking up some bidons for his team-mates after struggling on the Col du Mont de Fourche. Chapeau!

David Zabriske (I think it's him?) is doing his turn on the front of the peloton. Jonathan Vaughters' team could do with some good news today ... 15.00 Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) has taken another two points in the mountains classification after cresting the Col du Mont de Fourche ahead of Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank). Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) has been shelled out of the back of the bunch and his face is now etched with pain. The escapees' lead has dropped to below four minutes. Geraint Thomas, the Team Sky rider currently on Olympics duty, clearly hasn't been paying too much attention to this year's race ... &amp;lt;noframe&amp;gt;Twitter: Geraint Thomas - Maybe someone who lost time yesterday will hit out early, while Brad n the other hitters watch each other?! Hesdejal?!&amp;lt;/noframe&amp;gt; 14.50 The breakaway are now on the Col du Mont de Fourche climb and lead the main bunch by 4mins 40secs with just over 50km remaining.

Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) is getting a tad agitated with the spectators and appeared to give one over-eared punter a rugby-style push off. &amp;lt;noframe&amp;gt;Twitter: Lionel Birnie - I've waited all day to see the Tour de France. I'm wearing Speedos. I've got my stupid massive flag. It's all about me. Look at me on telly!&amp;lt;/noframe&amp;gt; 14.40 BMC Racing have taken over on the front of the peloton followed closely by Team Sky and a few Liquigas-Cannondale riders whose own general classification rider Vincenzo Nibali has been busying himself criticising Bradley Wiggins in today's L'Equipe. saying that he didn't rate the Briton. &amp;lt;noframe&amp;gt;Twitter: Daniel Friebe - 'Honestly, Wiggins doesn't impress me.

I've had better results than him and I'm better in the mountains.' Nibali in L'Equipe.&amp;lt;/noframe&amp;gt; 14.30 Second climb of the day is approaching the 3.1km category three Col du Mont de Fourche. After taking the points on the first climb of the day I wouldn't be surpised to see Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) go for it again. 14.25 Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) has been spotted collected bidons for his team-mates. What do you call a domestique in the rainbow jersey? A super-duper domestique?Team Sky, meanwhile, are riding on the front of the peloton as they stay out of trouble. 14.20 More from Brendan who, like the rest of the world, has been mightily impressed by a certain young Slovak this week: While we are understandably consumed with the fortunes of Bradley and Cavendish there's absolutely no doubt the story of the first week is Peter Sagan.

The self-styled "Tourminator" has been a class apart I have a sneaking suspicion Sagan might be the biggest all-round talent the sport has unnearthed since Eddy Merckx. Already he is dominating opponents mentally as much as physically. There's nothing he can't do and that includes, in due course, winning grand tours. To these eyes he is also a clear favourite, at present, to win the Olympic road race title. As an added bonus his parody Twitter account is also hilarious. Meanwhile, any talk that Sagan has requested his Liquigas-Cannondale team-mates wear green make-up to match his Incredible Hulk-type celebrations is pure speculation. Honest ... 14.00 Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) scooped up the two points there while Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) took his leftovers. The peloton, led by Team Sky's Christian Knees, trail by 4mons 50 secs. 13.58 The escapees, led by Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana), are now on the category three Col de Grosse Pierre climb.

Three points on offer here in the mountains classification - two for the first man over the summit, one for the second rider. 13.50 Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) led the main bunch over the intermediate sprint ahead of Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge). Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) didn't bother contesting it. Full details here: Pos Tour de France: Chris Froome completes historic British win - BBC Sport BBC Sport Tour de France: Chris Froome completes historic British win 26 Jul 2015 Read more about sharing. Chris Froome won the yellow jersey and polka dot jersey Chris Froome became the first Briton to win the Tour de France twice when he safely reached the finish line in Paris at the end of the three-week race. The 2013 champion finished alongside his team-mates on the final stage, behind a sprint won by Andre Greipel. Mark Cavendish, seeking a fifth win on the Champs-Elysees, finished sixth after the 109.5km race from Sevres.

The win for Froome means a Briton, and Team Sky, have now won three of the last four of cycling's showpiece races. Froome, 30, beat Colombia's Nairo Quintana to the yellow jersey by 72 seconds with Spain's Alejandro Valverde third. The final stage ended with 10 laps of a 7km course around Paris but the times for the general classification were taken the first time they crossed the finish line because heavy rain in the French capital had made the roads treacherous. Listen to the moment Froome won the yellow jersey That meant Froome could not lose time if he was held up by a crash or mechanical problem but he still had to complete the stage. Inside the last 10km he had to stop to remove a paper bag that had got caught up in his gears, while moments later he rode over a discarded water bottle. If either had caused him to crash and not cross the finish line his title would have been cruelly taken away. However, he stayed upright and rode over the line arm-in-arm with his Team Sky team-mates several seconds behind the main bunch. How did the other Brits get on?

Mark Cavendish (left) won the green jersey at the 2011 Tour There were a record 10 Britons at this year's Tour, with Geraint Thomas (15th, Team Sky) the highest ranked after Froome. The Welshman rode through the pain barrier, and at one point a telegraph pole, in the name of helping his team-mate Froome and was up in fourth until the latter stages of week three. Froome was also supported by Ian Stannard (128th), on his second Tour, and Luke Rowe (136th) who was making his Tour debut, while Team Sky lost Peter Kennaugh to illness on stage 16. Sprint specialist Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quickstep, 142nd) had a mixed Tour, having been accused of giving up in a sprint on stage two, something which he reacted angrily to. The Manxman took his record tally of Tour stage wins to 26 by winning on stage seven, but lacked team-mates to succeed on the Champs-Elysees.

Twin brothers Adam Yates (50th) and Simon Yates (89th) not only made it to Paris on their Tour debuts, but often put their Orica-GreenEdge team in front of the cameras with regular breakaways. A stage win for Stephen Cummings (86th) for his MTN-Qhubeka team on Mandela Day would have made the man from the Wirral a popular man in his camp. And Movistar's Alex Dowsett, who Bradley Wiggins took the hour record off earlier this year, had to withdraw on stage 12 after a crash earlier in the Tour. How Froome won Froome had led the general classification since stage seven. Team Sky finished the race with eight of the nine riders they started with - only Pete Kennaugh abandoned In fact, he had never dropped out of the top two positions since the third stage and up until Thursday held a lead of three minutes 10 seconds over the field. In the end it turned out to be the narrowest winning margin since Carlos Sastre beat Cadel Evans by 58 seconds in 2008.

But it will be seen as vindication for Froome, whose composed and gritty riding was at risk of being overshadowed by persistent questions over the legitimacy of his performances and three isolated incidents of abuse from spectators. Froome's Tour victory was predominantly established by an excellent first week, followed by a phenomenal burst on the climb to La Pierre-Saint-Martin on stage 10 that put him almost three minutes clear. Questions and abuse It was that climb which caused some to question whether Froome's performances were being enhanced by doping, with a French TV channel using images of Lance Armstrong to draw parallels between the shamed drugs cheat and the Team Sky rider. But Team Sky produced their own numbers to counter that claim and Froome has repeatedly said that he is clean. Team Sky released Froome's riding data to the media earlier in the week That has not stopped Froome being subjected to abuse from spectators, as he claimed he had urine thrown at him on stage 14 and appeared to have twice been spat at in the last two stages before Paris. Team-mate Richie Porte has said he was punched during stage 10.

There is also a sense that Kenya-born Froome has never fully secured the support of the British public, particularly in comparison to Sir Bradley Wiggins, who was the first Briton to win the Tour in 2012. It remains to be seen whether his victory this year, which came among a field of Grand Tour winners including Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali, Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde, will persuade doubters of his ability. The big four Nairo Quintana has now finished runner-up to Chris Froome twice Much was made of the big four of Froome, Nibali, Contador and Quintana all racing against each other. Quintana said he ultimately lost the race on stage two when he finished 88 seconds behind Froome. He gained time in the Alps but had to be content with second, replicating his result behind Froome in 2013. Defending champion Nibali finished alongside Quintana on stage two and lost further time on stages eight and nine before fading further as Froome dominated stage 10. Although the Italian did win stage 19.

Contador came into the race hoping to become the first man since 1998 to win the Tour and Giro d'Italia in the same year. He would also have held all three Grand Tour titles, having won last year's Vuelta a Espana. However, the Spaniard never looked at his best in the mountains and had to be content for fifth overall. The other jersey winners Peter Sagan has won four consecutive green jerseys Green: The points jersey which rewards consistently high finishes on each stage. Slovakia's Peter Sagan dominated the classification without winning a stage. He did, however, finish in the top five on 10 stages. He amassed 432 points, 66 more than second-placed Greipel Polka: The King of the Mountains. Froome became the first rider since the legendary Eddy Merckx in 1970 to win both the overall race and mountain classification in the same year. White: Best young rider. Quintana won it for a second time in three years by finishing second overall. The 25-year-old will be too old to contest it in 2016.

Media playback is not supported on this device Has Chris Froome joined Britain's greatest road cyclists? Team award: For the team whose top-three riders have the lowest cumulative time. Won by Movistar, who beat Sky by 57 minutes 23 seconds. Stage 21 result: 1. Andre Greipel (Ger/Lotto) 2hrs 49mins 41secs 2. Bryan Coquard (Fra/Europcar) Same time 3. Alexander Kristoff (Nor/Katusha) 4. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor/Team MTN Qhubeka) 5. Arnaud Demare (Fra/FDJ) 6. Mark Cavendish (GB/Etixx - Quick-Step) 7. Peter Sagan (Svk/Tinkoff - Saxo) 8. John Degenkolb (Ger/Giant) By James Clear | Continuous Improvement , Goal Setting , Self-Improvement In 2010, Dave Brailsford faced a tough job.

No British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France, but as the new General Manager and Performance Director for Team Sky (Great Britain’s professional cycling team), Brailsford was asked to change that. His approach was simple. Brailsford believed in a concept that he referred to as the “aggregation of marginal gains.” He explained it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.” His belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement. They started by optimizing the things you might expect: the nutrition of riders, their weekly training program, the ergonomics of the bike seat, and the weight of the tires. But Brailsford and his team didn’t stop there. They searched for 1 percent improvements in tiny areas that were overlooked by almost everyone else: discovering the pillow that offered the best sleep and taking it with them to hotels, testing for the most effective type of massage gel, and teaching riders the best way to wash their hands to avoid infection. They searched for 1 percent improvements everywhere.

Brailsford believed that if they could successfully execute this strategy, then Team Sky would be in a position to win the Tour de France in five years time. He was wrong. They won it in three years. In 2012, Team Sky rider Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. That same year, Brailsford coached the British cycling team at the 2012 Olympic Games and dominated the competition by winning 70 percent of the gold medals available. In 2013, Team Sky repeated their feat by winning the Tour de France again, this time with rider Chris Froome. Many have referred to the British cycling feats in the Olympics and the Tour de France over the past 10 years as the most successful run in modern cycling history. And now for the important question: what can we learn from Brailsford’s approach? The Aggregation of Marginal Gains It’s so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making better decisions on a daily basis. Almost every habit that you have — good or bad — is the result of many small decisions over time. And yet, how easily we forget this when we want to make a change.

So often we convince ourselves that change is only meaningful if there is some large, visible outcome associated with it. Whether it is losing weight, building a business, traveling the world or any other goal, we often put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about. Meanwhile, improving by just 1 percent isn’t notable (and sometimes it isn’t even noticeable). But it can be just as meaningful, especially in the long run. And from what I can tell, this pattern works the same way in reverse. (An aggregation of marginal losses, in other words.) If you find yourself stuck with bad habits or poor results, it’s usually not because something happened overnight. It’s the sum of many small choices — a 1 percent decline here and there — that eventually leads to a problem. Inspiration for this image came from a graphic in The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. In the beginning, there is basically no difference between making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse.

(In other words, it won’t impact you very much today.) But as time goes on, these small improvements or declines compound and you suddenly find a very big gap between people who make slightly better decisions on a daily basis and those who don’t. This is why small choices don’t make much of a difference at the time, but add up over the long-term. On a related note, this is why I love setting a schedule for important things , planning for failure, and using the “never miss twice” rule . I know that it’s not a big deal if I make a mistake or slip up on a habit every now and then. It’s the compound effect of never getting back on track that causes problems. By setting a schedule to never miss twice, you can prevent simple errors from snowballing out of control. The Bottom Line Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. —Jim Rohn You probably won’t find yourself in the Tour de France anytime soon, but the concept of aggregating marginal gains can be useful all the same. Most people love to talk about success (and life in general) as an event.

We talk about losing 50 pounds or building a successful business or winning the Tour de France as if they are events. But the truth is that most of the significant things in life aren’t stand-alone events, but rather the sum of all the moments when we chose to do things 1 percent better or 1 percent worse. Aggregating these marginal gains makes a difference. There is power in small wins and slow gains. This is why average speed yields above average results . This is why the system is greater than the goal . This is why mastering your habits is more important than achieving a certain outcome. Where are the 1 percent improvements in your life? How Britain became a cycling nation | Sport | The Guardian The Observer How Britain became a cycling nation The Tour de France and Olympic golds are well within the grasp of British riders, and nearly two million of us are now regular cyclists. Yet a decade ago, this was a minority pursuit. So what has changed? Bradley Wiggins during the 11th stage of the 99th Tour de France: seven years ago there wasn't a single Briton competing in the event.

Photograph: Stephane Mahe/Reuters Saturday 14 July 2012 06.49 EDT First published on Saturday 14 July 2012 06.49 EDT Share on Messenger Close Bradley Wiggins and his team-mate Chris Froome are odds-on to win the Tour de France when it finishes in Paris next Sunday, holding first and second place with a week to go, but amid the celebration one salient fact could go unnoticed: seven years ago, in 2005, there was not a single cyclist from these shores in the race. The dramatic rise of British cyclists riding for a British team to dominate the toughest race in the cycling calendar is the mirror image of a sport and pastime that has boomed in the last few years, whether you measure it by medal count, participation or cash spent on bike bling. The Tour de France is the start of what could be the perfect summer for cycling, on the results side if not in terms of the weather for actually being in the saddle.

The dream scenario for the men who run the sport in Britain would be that, six days after Wiggins or Froome wins the Tour de France, the reigning world road race champion Mark Cavendish sprints up the Mall to win the opening event in the London Olympic Games, the men's road race. The script climaxes the following week with a rush of medals at the London Velodrome, building on the track cycling team's dominance in Beijing in 2008. New national heroes then emerge to act as flagbearers alongside Cavendish – BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2011 – Wiggins, Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton. Those who underestimate cycling have only to stand by the side of a major road leading to the centre of London at rush hour and watch the endless stream of bikes passing as commuters beat congestion on the tube, or see the hordes who watch the Tour of Britain each September (official crowd figures topped a million in 2011). Cycling is no longer at the margins and this summer's events will help it grow further, in terms of participation and economics.

British Cycling's membership has doubled since 2008 to 50,000, while Sport England's latest participation survey suggests nearly two million people currently cycle at least once a week. That's reflected in the buoyant state of the cycle industry. A joint report by British Cycling and the London School of Economics in August last year estimated that as a pastime and industry it is worth £2.9bn to the national economy . Their estimated spend of £230 per cyclist will make any two-wheeled widow smile wryly: the most expensive top-end racing bikes cost as much as a small car, so that might just about cover a pair of brakes. The LSE figure is borne out by a simple rule of thumb: visit any major cycle event or do a quick commuter count, estimate the value of the bikes within view, and extrapolate. Or you could compare the magazines I edited in the 1990s with their editions now, in terms of page count and advert count.

This summer, retailers suggest that mid-range bike sales have been hit hard by the poor weather – one shop reported in June that its top-selling clothing line was winter overshoes – but in 2010 and 2011, the market in high-end bikes, those costing more than £5,000, was more than bucking the recession. "The massive difference in the last three years is the number of serious, first-time buyers – that's increased enormously. There is a huge increase in people buying a first serious bike, costing £1,000 or more, it's more than doubled," Phil Weaver, who runs Shropshire-based Epic Cycles, told me. The classic pattern, according to Weaver, is that cyclists begin with a commuter bike, buy a low-to-mid-range road bike, get hooked, then look to the top end of the market. The rise and rise of cycling can be traced back to two coaches, Peter Keen and Dave Brailsford and one event: the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, when Chris Boardman won the gold medal in the individual pursuit, Britain's first cycling gold since 1920.

That created massive short-term hype, but nothing concrete for five years, until Boardman's trainer Peter Keen sat down and wrote a long-term plan for the sport in order to attract funding from the National Lottery: Boardman's gold, and the bronze he won in Atlanta, indicated that British cyclists could compete on the international stage if well resourced. But by then the sport was in crisis, the governing body had been riven with dissent and members had deserted in droves. Major sponsors had disappeared and while Boardman had won a time trial in the Tour de France, he was the only Briton in the race. Keen's plan seemed outlandish: he proposed the funding be directed mainly at track cycling and women's racing. These, he suggested, were areas where medals could be won in the short term, attracting more funding and creating a virtuous cycle of forward progress. There was an outcry from traditionalists, offended partly by the fact he was only intending to fund teams in road racing – the most prestigious and popular side of the sport – as part of preparation for track racing.

Keen also felt that, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the professional road side was riddled with drugs and it would be unethical to launch young riders into that milieu. The diehards also hated the lime-green jerseys that Keen's national team wore, briefly, to mark a complete break with the past. His vision bore fruit almost immediately, with Jason Queally's gold medal in the kilometre time trial at the Sydney Olympics, where Hoy and a 20-year-old Bradley Wiggins were also among the medallists. The momentum continued at the Athens Games, where Wiggins and Hoy both took gold. But as the track cyclists flourished, the road racers were nowhere: Boardman had retired in 2000, and his apparent successor, David Millar, was busted for drugs in 2004 and banned. (He has since returned, reinventing himself as an anti-doping campaigner, and on Friday won a stage of the current tour.) In 2004 and 2005, there was not one British cyclist in the Tour de France. The key years were 2007 and 2008.

By then Keen had moved on, succeeded by Brailsford, who ran the sport along the same lines as Keen, but with a key twist: Brailsford was a road racer at heart, a would-be pro before turning his attention to business. In 2007, when the tour started in London, the first products of the Great Britain cycling academy – run by a passionate young coach, Rod Ellingworth – were coming through, led by Mark Cavendish, and Brailsford had spotted the potential for a British-based professional team. The talent was there, he felt, but the sport was clearly changing, with stricter testing pushing drug taking increasingly to the margins. Young British cyclists no longer had to face the ethical minefield that had ensnared Millar. Beijing in 2008 saw Brailsford's cyclists dominate with eight golds; James Murdoch's Sky had come on board as a major sponsor for the Olympic team just before the Games and by 2009 they were lined up to back the pro team project.

Serendipitously, that same year Wiggins achieved his breakthrough performance in the tour, finishing fourth after finally paying his full attention to the road after his years of concentrating on the track at the Olympic Games. At the same time, there had been a massive boom in participation at grassroots level, fuelled largely by the emergence of the Mamil: Middle Aged Men in Lycra, able to commit time and money to pursuing their passion, largely mass-participation events based on the format of the Etape du Tour , in which leisure riders get to cycle the route of a stage of the great race. At the top of the tree, in 2011, British pro cyclists won a record 46 races, partly spurred by Team Sky's formation, but also because of Cavendish's rise to dominate the mass sprints that decide many professional events. The highlight was Cavendish's victory in the world professional road race championship , a feat no Briton had managed since 1965.

It was a team performance of striking dominance – confirmation that Keen's goal of making Britain the world's top cycling nation had been achieved – masterminded by Ellingworth in a two-year campaign that bore echoes of Sir Clive Woodward's single-minded march towards the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Unlike Woodward's players, Britain's cyclists have kept going, without a pause for breath. In February 2009, Brailsford had stated his goal of winning the Tour de France with a British cyclist. It was met with widespread scepticism. That is now within reach, whether or not it happens this year. Asked what he would do next if it were to happen, whether he might feel he had nothing else to achieve, he had no hesitation: "Win it again. And again." After this July, few would gainsay him. And looking back further, the original visionary, Peter Keen, wrote in an early Olympic plan that he felt Britain had to aim to be the number one cycling nation in the world. That looked outlandish, but, again, it is perfectly on the cards.

Question: Which British cyclist won the 2012 Tour de France?
Answer: Bradley Wiggins