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Sunday, 22 July 2012

Bradley Wiggins Wins Tour de France



Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins has been confirmed as the first British Tour de France champion.

The 32-year-old triple Olympic champion made it safely through the final 120-kilometre 20th stage from Rambouillet to Paris - indeed he did much more than that, being a key part of the lead-out which delivered Mark Cavendish to his fourth successive sprint victory on the Champs-Elysees.

It was Wiggins' 13th day in the yellow jersey after he took the lead on stage seven and he finished the race with an advantage of three minutes 21 seconds over Chris Froome as Team Sky claimed a famous 1-2. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) was third at +6:19.

Wiggins and Froome are the first Britons in Tour history to stand on the podium.

The stage was ridden at pedestrian pace until reaching Paris, with Wiggins starting out with the winners of the classifications - Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) in the green points jersey, King of the Mountains star Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and best young rider Tejay van Garderen.

Wiggins also rode alongside 2011 Tour champion Cadel Evans, a man the Londoner took inspiration from while watching at home after crashing out of the first week last year with a fractured collarbone.

Wiggins' Team Sky colleagues deservedly shared in the limelight too, with the Londoner indebted to his seven team-mates for their support since the June 30 start in Liege.

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