Thomas Le Roi

It’s something of an irony that football is the British national sport and the World  Cup was won by France whose national sport is cycling and their marquee event Le Tour De France is going to be won by a Briton.

In many ways it’s been an unsavoury tour of loutish behaviour by fans and the French police spraying riders with pepper and falsely arresting Chris Froome. It’s rare for a domestique to win but no one except the great Eddy Merckx has won the Tour after winning the Giro d’ Italia. One wonders too if the vitriolic abuse Froome sustained on the road got to him. Thomas, a road rider and sprinter proved himself a grimpeur (climber) too.

He won the Tour and asserted his dominance over Froome in those two tough Alpine stages. He is a worthy winner but SKY is a formidable team bankrolled at £35m annually and Tom Dumoulin, Primoz  Rogic and Vincenzo Niboli have never enjoyed the same degree of support. He now goes to Paris to be crowned.