Why is Volodymyr Zelenskyy opposing anti-corruption laws? How will US withdrawal affect Unesco? And are shared electric bikes a force for good or evil?

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

A podcast for curious, open-minded people, The Week Unwrapped delivers fresh perspectives on politics, culture, technology and business. It makes for a lively, enlightening discussion, ranging from the serious to the offbeat. Previous topics have included whether solar engineering could refreeze the Arctic, why funerals are going out of fashion, and what kind of art you can use to pay your tax bill.

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped wherever you get your podcasts:

• Spotify
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• Global Player

As the media reports a "surge" in the "dangerous crossings" of migrants, I'm "seeing an invasion of a different sort", said veteran actor Joan Collins in The Spectator: the rental bikes that "litter our pavements".

I've been "almost run over twice" by Lime bikes and I've also tripped over discarded cycles "on the streets of Belgravia". Their riders "seem to care not for road rules, pedestrians, safety, or anyone but themselves".

Take them away

I was hit by a Lime bike and "my knees ate gravel, my side was rammed by a metal basket", my palms only just stopped me from "faceplanting the ground". It "hurt. A lot", said Maddy Mussen in London's The Standard.

Now there are so many of them; "that mass of green scares me", and there have been many "issues". The e-bikes "end up littered on the streets" which is a "real issue for blind and visually impaired people who trip over them", and people "regularly" ride them while drunk.

Lots of riders also wear "AirPods or headphones" so "not only are Limes super-silent, but everyone's walking around with ears full of cotton wool". We're "not ready yet" so until we learn to "use the Limes safely", perhaps they "need to be taken away".

Despite their semi-silent operation, the bikes do cause a noise problem – to the "ire" of many Londoners: the "piercing and persistent" alarm of stolen Lime bikes, which sounds like a "half-bothered fire alarm you accidentally set off", is "everywhere", said Sammy Gecsoyler in The Guardian.

Stop whining

But fans of the rental e-bikes insist that they're a convenient and money-saving mode of transport.

So perhaps we should "stop whining" about them, writes George Hill on Road.cc, because "let's be honest, they're brilliant". I recently took one across London for a journey that would have cost me £20 and 20 minutes in a taxi each way, or 25 minutes by tube, but on a Lime bike, I did it in 12 minutes. It "cost me about three quid" and I arrived without being "sweaty" or "poor".

For many older people they're a "godsend", said Matt Sinha in The i Paper, and their "rapid acceleration gives me a buzz". Wherever you live, thanks to a Lime bike you are "part of the scene" with a "different take on your surroundings".

Also, "touch your mental brakes" on "that thought about poorly parked bikes" because for all the "teens or revellers" who push over a stack of Lime bikes, or people who "create potential obstacles", I can "set an example" by "finding a space" and "stacking one correctly".

So "why not give a Lime bike a spin"? Not only are they "mood enhancers", but they're also affordable, good for the environment and easily available.

What's behind a spate of hate crimes in Australia? Are our phones fuelling a Congolese militia? And why is carbon monoxide the new 'drug' of choice for cyclists? Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

A podcast for curious, open-minded people, The Week Unwrapped delivers fresh perspectives on politics, culture, technology and business.

It makes for a lively, enlightening discussion, ranging from the serious to the offbeat. Previous topics have included whether solar engineering could refreeze the Arctic, why funerals are going out of fashion, and what kind of art you can use to pay your tax bill.

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped wherever you get your podcasts:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Global Player

Following a bumper year for sport that saw the Paris Olympics, Euros and Copa America, and T20 cricket World Cup, 2025 may appear somewhat anticlimactic.

But there are still a host of showcase events from rugby and football to cycling and racing, to appeal to every sports fan. Here are some of the most popular taking place in the UK and around the world in 2025.

Darts: 2024-2025 PDC World Darts Championship final

The sporting year starts with a bang as the PDC World Darts Championship final takes place on 3 January at Alexandra Palace in London. Teenage sensation Luke Littler, who made his breakthrough at the event in January, is odds-on favourite to go one better this time and clinch the title at Ally Pally.

3 January, Alexandra Palace, London

Rugby union: Six Nations

England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales go for glory in the Six Nations Championship. Ireland will be looking to retain their crown, with England aiming to do the same in the Women's Six Nations, having won the Grand Slam in 2024.

Men's, 31 January to 15 March; women's, 22 March to 26 April

NFL: Super Bowl LIX

The NFL's showpiece event, the Super Bowl, takes place for the 59th time in 2025. Kendrick Lamar is set to headline the halftime show, which often draws more viewers than the game itself.

9 February, Caesars Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana

Horse racing: Cheltenham Festival

Four days of National Hunt jump racing will attract thousands of fans to Cheltenham Racecourse. There will be 14 Grade One races, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and Queen Mother Champion Chase.

11 to 14 March, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Horse racing: Grand National Festival

A few weeks after Cheltenham, the world of horse racing will then focus on Aintree for the three-day Grand National Festival. The 2025 National, often described as the greatest Jump race in the world, will start at 4pm on Saturday 5 April.

3 to 5 April, Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool

Snooker: World Championship

Snooker's biggest event, the World Snooker Championship, will be held at the legendary Crucible Theatre in Sheffield for the 49th consecutive time.

19 April to 5 May, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

London Marathon

The London Marathon returns for its traditional April slot on the sporting calendar. Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee has said he will take part. It will be his first professional marathon in his hometown, fresh from winning gold in Paris.

27 April, London

Men's football: Uefa Champions League final

FC Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena hosts European club football's biggest match. It marks the culmination of an expanded and reformatted Champions League, with Real Madrid hoping to continue their extraordinary success in the tournament by clinging on to an unprecedented 16th title.

31 May, Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany

Tennis: The Championships, Wimbledon

Wimbledon, one of the UK's summer marquee events, will see the world's top tennis players head to SW19 for the grass court grand slam event. At the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in 2024, Barbora Krejčíková won the women's singles title and Carlos Alcaraz won the men's.

30 June to 13 July, All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, London

Formula 1: British Grand Prix

The British Grand Prix takes place in July at the spiritual home of motor racing, Silverstone Circuit, in Northamptonshire.

3 to 6 July, Silverstone, Northamptonshire

Cycling: Tour de France

The 112th edition of the Men's Tour de France starts in Lille on 5 July, with the final stage ending on the Champs-Élysées in Paris just under three weeks later.

Men's, 5 to 27 July; women's, 26 July to 3 August, France

Rugby: Women’s World Cup

This autumn will see the Women's Rugby World Cup come to England. Games will be spread across the country, from Brighton and Bristol to London and Manchester.

22 August to 27 September, various locations, England

Men's football: African Cup of Nations  

The 35th edition of Africa's biennial football tournament will be hosted by Morocco for only the second time, and the first since 1988.

21 December to 18 January 2026, various locations, Morocco

The Tour de France is unquestionably the world's biggest bike race. On paper it may not be any more gruelling or difficult than its equivalent three-week races the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, but the Tour has a stature that reaches beyond regular cycling audiences and attracts millions of spectators at the roadside and on television.

It is no wonder then that most of the sport's best riders build their entire year around the Tour. However, "even by the standards of the world’s biggest race" the 2024 edition looks like being one of the most "star-studded" in recent history, said Rouleur. The four best all-round riders in the world – Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Remco Evenepoel and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard – will all be vying to wear the prestigious yellow jersey when the race concludes in Nice on 21 July.

'Open and unpredictable'

Every year the Tour organisers change the route of the race, often tipping the scales in favour of one rider or another, and presenting opportunities for stage wins to riders of all types. 

This year's route – which begins in Florence, Italy on Saturday –  is "all about balance", said Escape Collective, with the combination of mountains, time-trials and flatter stages favouring an "all-around talent" rather than just a specialist, like a pure climber. That could be the platform for the four favourites, all of whom are remarkable all-round cyclists, to provide a spectacular edition of the race.

But all four also have "something holding them back", said Eurosport, heightening the narrative. Race favourite Pogačar may be battling fatigue from winning the Giro in Italy in May, while the other three all suffered injuries of differing severity after a huge crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April. Roglič and Evenepoel have returned to racing since with "varying degrees of success", but Vingegaard will make his comeback at the Tour. It means the overall race (known as the "general classification", or "GC") will take place under a rare "set of circumstances" that have made the "modern-day Tour so open and unpredictable".

However, the beauty of the Tour also lies in its subplots to the overall race. This year's race could feature a particularly historic moment if Britain's Mark Cavendish can "claim the outright record" of stage wins and "go one clear" of the legendary Eddy Merckx by making it 35 victories, said the Daily Mail.

The race will also feature two other outstanding talents, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, who too will look to increase their own stage win tally. A strong field is also bolstered by some of the strongest teams the race has ever seen, with many of those supporting riders capable of making a "challenge for a Grand Tour podium themselves", said Cycling Weekly.

'Different to 20 years ago'

Yet this assembly of generational talent will inevitably bring with it the "question of anti-doping and drug testing", given it is "nearly impossible" to talk about extraordinary performances at the Tour without it arising, said Bicycling. 

Highly publicised doping scandals in the 1990s and 2000s, culminating in the doping admission of the former seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, mean that for many "professional cycling and doping will always be linked", said Cyclist, despite the sport having remained "relatively free from doping headlines over the past few years".

It has meant that recent spectacular performances, including those of Pogačar in 2020 and 2021 and Vingegaard in the past two years, have brought "scepticism surrounding their impressive form", said the Daily Mail. 

That has led to riders regularly being "quizzed" on allegations of doping during the race. Last year, eventual winner Vingegaard said he understood that it was "hard to trust in cycling" because of past scandals, but that he believed "everyone is different than 20 years ago". 

It's early morning and, in central London, "the sun rises sleepily" over Regent's Park's lake and lawns, said Esther Addley in The Guardian. But on the road that encircles the park, the atmosphere is anything but lazy. 

With cars banned until 7am, scores of cyclists are pedalling furiously around the Outer Circle. Many are en route to work, others are members of cycle clubs doing timed laps in groups. 

To some, this scene is a positive sign that growing numbers are keeping fit and minimising pollution by getting on bikes. But the recent inquest into the death of Hilda Griffiths, 81, who was fatally injured by a bike in Regent's Park in 2022, has cast these cyclists into a "political and media storm". 

The cyclist, a banker, was going well over the 20mph speed limit for cars when Griffiths stepped into his path, but was not prosecuted because speed limits do not apply to bikes. Her son has called for a change in the law and, last week, MPs voted for harsher penalties for careless cyclists who cause death or serious injury. 

Rogue road-use

It's about time, said Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph. For too long, cyclists have been acting with impunity on British roads: jumping red lights at speed, going the wrong way down one-way streets, using roads as racetracks. Any motorist who behaved in such a way would fall foul of the police; cyclists, with no numberplates with which to track them, get away with it. 

Long jail terms for those who kill seems like just the start of what is needed to curb rogue cyclists, said Mary Dejevsky in The Independent – especially given the growing menace of ebikes, which tend to be much heavier, and to be ridden faster.

Exaggerated threat

The idea that cyclists are killers is overblown, said Peter Walker in The Guardian. Responsible for less than 1% of the pedestrian deaths on British roads, they are far more likely to be killed than to kill. 

But still, a minority do think the rules of the road don't apply to them, said The Times, and the current two-year jail term for cyclists who kill, under an act dating from 1861, is insufficient as a punishment or deterrent. Cycling is a clean, efficient mode of transport, especially in cities. Its recent boom in popularity should be encouraged; the best way of doing that is to make sure it is safe, for everyone.

The British cyclists Adam and Simon Yates have become the first twins ever to achieve the top two positions in a stage of the Tour de France. Adam, who is the younger of the brothers by five minutes, beat Simon by four seconds in stage one of the tour in Bilbao, taking the first yellow jersey of the 2023 race. Their mother Susan, a civil servant, told reporters that she’d watched their victory unfold on her phone in the car, while being driven by her husband John, the twins’ father, along the stage route. “I was just screaming and shouting,” she said. “I didn’t care who won, I just wanted one of them to win.”

Company clears 13,700 tonnes of plastic pollution from sea

A US-based company that was founded six years ago to clean up the oceans has retrieved 13,700 tonnes of plastic and other man-made waste – more than any other organisation. 4ocean employs hundreds of captains and crew in the US, Guatemala and Indonesia to gather plastic from oceans and rivers. The waste is then taken to processing centres to be sorted. Depending on its type, it is then either recycled, extruded for use in plastic lumber, or responsibly disposed of.

Demand rises for ‘swift bricks’ that provide birds with homes

Demand is growing for “swift bricks”, which can be laid alongside normal bricks in new buildings to provide nesting spaces for the endangered birds. One manufacturer based in Derbyshire makes bricks that – in a design co-created with the RSPB – have a small hole in the front, a grippy entrance to help swifts land, a concave dish to make nest building easier, internal channels for drainage and tabs to aid bricklaying. Next week, a petition to make the bricks compulsory in all new housing in the UK will be debated in Parliament.

A mass crash, a late bike change, sweltering heat and an injury to a teammate combined to make Mark Cavendish’s fourth-stage win at this year’s Tour de France one of his toughest. That’s what Jeremy Whittle said in The Guardian last week – but it was also the one that made history.

Cavendish equalled Eddy Merckx’s all-time record of 34 stage wins, confounding those who had written off his career after years of illness and poor form. “What he is doing now is really crazy,” said the defending Tour champion and wearer of the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogacar, as he considered the 36-year-old’s achievements. “All respect to him.”

A year ago Cavendish was close to retiring, said David Walsh in The Times, worn down by depression and the Epstein-Barr virus that causes glandular fever. He hadn’t won a stage of the Tour since 2016, and he wasn’t even supposed to be competing this year. Cavendish was only selected when the Deceuninck-QuickStep team’s original sprinter, Sam Bennett, was injured.

But an extraordinary comeback reached its zenith on Friday in Carcassonne, said Daniel Matthews in the Daily Mail. After 220 “gruelling” kilometres, and a messy climax in which his teammate Michael Mørkøv nearly finished ahead of him, Cavendish crossed the line. As he “hobbled” to the waiting cameras, Cavendish was too spent to walk or talk. That determination to dig deep has made him the greatest sprinter of all time.

As Cavendish himself admitted in a “note-perfect” press conference, he doesn’t really bear comparison with Belgian legend Merckx, the greatest all-round cyclist the sport has ever known and one who has “become like Lord Voldemort at this race: He Who Shall Not Be Named”, said Tom Cary in The Daily Telegraph.

But we can now say, without hesitation, that 36-year-old Cavendish is “the greatest sprinter the sport has ever known”. And you wouldn’t bet against him breaking the stage record before this Tour is over.

Can he break the record?

After “the best part of a week of brutal stages in the Pyrenees”, Cavendish has two more opportunities during the Tour to take his portfolio of stage victories to 35, Walsh notes in The Times. The first will be during Stage 19 on Friday, a flat route of 207km from Mourenx to Libourne, which “should suit the sprinters unless a breakaway can cling on”.

The second will be at Stage 21, “unofficially known as the sprinters’ world championship”. After racing 108.4km from Chatou to Paris, the race concludes with the final sprint down the Champs Élyéeses. It’s a route that’s served Cavendish well in the past, with four consecutive stage wins in 2009 to 2012 “when the ‘Manx Missile’ was at his near-unbeatable peak”, said David Hughes at iNews.

Cavendish’s career

From Commonwealth success to an unexpected break from the road, Cavendish’s career is marked by success against the unexpected.

As part of Team GB, he won the World Championships with Rob Hales in 2005, and with Bradley Wiggins in 2008. He stayed true to his roots in 2006, and took home a gold medal for the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games in the men’s scratch race. “It’s 20 years since we last won a gold,” he said at the time. “At the end of the day it’s bike racing and as long as I’m doing it I’m happy.”

After wins at the Tour of Britain and Tour of Berlin road races in 2005, Cavendish’s first attempt at the Tour de France came in 2007, and in 2008 he won four of the 21 stages.

The only team member not to go home with a medal from the 2008 Olympics, Cavendish told The Observer: “There’s nothing for me on the track now.” His biggest regret was quitting the Tour to compete with Team GB, he said, so much so that his primary focus from then on became road racing.

In the following three years, Cavendish wracked up a total of 16 stage wins at the Tour de France, earning his first green points in 2011 - the same year he was awarded both an MBE and Sports Personality of the Year. Continued success across global races cemented his position as one of the world’s top sprinters, including a history-making performance in the 2012 Tour as he won the Champs Élyéeses stage in the rainbow jersey. “Every day when training or racing I look down at these rainbow bands once every few minutes and they give me a great sense of pride,” he said. “I just want to do the jersey justice.” In 2016, he experienced another first - wearing the yellow jersey.

The sprinter rose from strength to greater strength, finally taking home his gold at the 2016 Olympics - until a diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus in April 2017 began to slow his success. For the next two years he struggled with illness and fatigue, with injuries and crashes compounding the problem, says Sky Sports’s Peter Smith.

For two years in a row, Cavendish was not chosen to compete in the Tour de France, with speculation that he would “hang up his wheels” after the 2020 snub. “His revival has been one of the feel-good stories of the season,” Smith notes. Success at the Tour of Turkey and Tour of Belgium saw the Manxman slip back “into his old groove”. Now, spectators wait to see if he can find a new groove, by breaking Merckx’s record.

Riding in winter brings challenges with it - changeable weather, colder conditions and shorter days.

To ensure you’re not restricted to riding an indoor exercise bike for these inclement months, equipping yourself with appropriate performance gear is essential.

Here we have put together a shortlist of the best gear for all types of rider to keep you cycling come rain or shine.

Rapha Classic Winter GORE-TEX Jacket

A brand new addition to Rapha’s winter offering, this shell jacket is made from a three-layer GORE-TEX fabric that is wind and water resistant as well as highly breathable. As far as cycling gear goes, its fit is more on the relaxed side, so there’s plenty of room for layering underneath on those colder days, yet it’s snug around the neck and the cuffs are stretchy so fit nicely. There are two handy zippered pockets on the front that are ideal for phone and snacks, and two rear stash pockets on the rear too. It comes in a more unusual brown colour, as well as a bright orange and black.

£270; rapha.cc

Cafe Du Cycliste Gilet Albertine

Cafe Du Cycliste elevates cycling kit beyond the realms of simply cladding riders in functional lycra - its pieces are well suited to the more stylish conscientious rider. This great looking gilet has a cycling specific cut - it’s a really snug fit so doesn’t flap about in the wind, it’s shorter on the front, longer on the back and secure around the arms too, keeping out cold drafts. The front panels are stuffed with breathable insulation which is fully windproof taking the chill out of cold rides, and the rear section is made from a technical merino polar fleece fabric which has nice stretch as well as thermoregulating properties. There are two oversized rear cargo pockets, zipped side pocket as well as a small pop pocket on the front chest.

£176; cafeducycliste.com

Rapha Brevet Long Sleeve Jersey

A versatile classically styled jersey that can be used with just a baselayer on milder autumn or spring rides. However, throw a gilet of jacket over the top and it makes the perfect insulating and comfortable mid-layer. The fabric is a mix of stretch merino for luxury feel and warmth, as well as polyester bringing with it shape holding, long lasting, breathable and non-absorbent qualities. It features three large pockets to the rear as well as an additional bigger pocket above these to stash a vest or windproof jacket.

£140; rapha.cc

Dhb Aeron Alpha Cycling Cap

An insulating and water-resistant cap ideal for the most cold and miserable days. Lined with a soft pile Polarrec Alpha, it’s very warm and comfortable.

£24; wiggle.co.uk

Assos Equipe Rs Winter Bib Tights S9

Swiss brand Assos is reputed for turning out the highest quality gear, and these could well be called the Rolls-Royce of all winter bibs. They use a highly insulating two-layer construction along the knees, thighs, crotch, and hips, with brushed inner, and the back panels use thicker waterproof and windproof fabrics that mean you’re totally protected from the elements. However, these fabrics are still all highly breathable and stretchy too, so your comfort isn’t compromised, and the almost metallic looking outermost layer at the bottom of the leg repels water as well as adhering to booties. The insert offers superior comfort and cushioning for very long days in the saddle - not only do these look the part, they’re exceptionally capable too.

£335; assos.com

Endura Pro SL Overshoe

The overshoe might not be the most aesthetic of accessories, but when riding in winter they’re a must have. These ones are waterproof, so once you’ve pulled the stretchy neoprene over your ankle, the polyurethane panels positioned over the front and toe sections will keep water and breeze at bay.

£42.99; endurasport.com

Sealskinz Waterproof Cold Weather Mid Length Sock with Hydrostop

When it’s cold, or wet, these are a great pair of socks to turn to. Not only are they 100% waterproof, they maintain good breathability to help avoid any sweat building up in them, and the cost inner lining includes merino wool for added warmth.

£42.50; sealskinz.com

Albion Insulated Zoa Jacket

When heading onto the trail, for more adventurous rides such as bike packing or tackling a cold commute, this insulated jacket will be a trusty companion. Plus, with a much more relaxed fit, it doubles up perfectly for casual use too. It features a big rear zipper pocket, a generous hood complete with hood eyelets so you can comfortably wear your helmet over it should temperatures really plummet, two zippered hand pockets as well as chest pocket, and elasticated hem so you can fit it snug around your waist. The insulation and fabrics are made from recycled materials too so your conscious can rest easy.

£175; albioncycling.com

Megmeister Drynamo Winter Long Sleeve Base Layer

A good base layer is the foundation to your winter outfit, and some 20 years ago Megmeister set out to create the very best for performance athletes. This four way stretch Italian made body hugging base layer has a lightweight knitted construction, meaning it’s great at moisture wicking, thermal insulation as well as being anti-odour and antibacterial.

£51.96; megmeister.com

Sealskinz Waterproof Cold Weather Glove with Fusion Control

This substantial and highly insulated glove is ideal for those who tend to get cold fingers in winter. Totally waterproof, if you get caught in a downpour it won’t be a problem, thanks to its three layer part goatskin leather outer, windproof membrane and merino wool liner.

£75; sealskinz.com

SunGod Vulcans

Keeping your eyes protected by riding with a good pair of wrap-around sunglasses is essential, and thanks to a light-sensitive Photochromic advanced lens technology, you’re all set come rain or shine across variable winter conditions with supreme clarity. The Vulcans are SunGod’s large framed cycling specific glasses that offer a huge unrestricted field of vision and are customisable to suit any colour combination you would like. They’re extremely light and sit very securely on your face, plus they come with a lifetime guarantee.

£190; sungod.co

Albion Merino Neckwarmer

Made from 67% merino, there’s also a touch of nylon and elastane too bringing with it a nice bit of stretch, as well as durability so it’s able to take repeated and hard use. There’s also a microfiber insert built in to clean your sunnies.

£30; albioncycling.com

British cycling has a new star and his name is Tao Geoghegan Hart.

In recent years Brits have dominated the sport’s road and track events, with multiple grand tour victories and Olympic gold medals making household names of riders such as Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and the Kennys, Jason and Laura.

Now Geoghegan Hart has joined the elite list following his superb victory at the 2020 Giro d’Italia at the weekend.

After securing the title in Milan, Geoghegan Hart became only the second British man to win the Giro after Froome in 2018. He also follows Froome, Wiggins, Thomas and Simon Yates to become only the fifth British male rider to win a grand tour, one of the three major European cycling stage races - the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

Since Wiggins won the Tour de France in 2012, there have been ten British grand tour victories, says The Independent. You can now make that 11.

Riding for Ineos Grenadiers, Geoghegan Hart admitted it was a dream come true to win in Italy. The 25-year-old said: “Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would be possible when we started. It’s incredible, really incredible.”

‘Leading the way’

Geoghegan Hart’s journey with Ineos Grenadiers - who were formerly called Team Sky and Team Ineos - started back in 2010 when the youngster skipped school to watch the launch of the new team.

Recalling the moment, team principal Dave Brailsford said: “When we first started the team, Tao bunked off school and came along to watch Brad [Wiggins] and the guys when they launched the team. He rode behind Brad, and it’s a story he likes to tell. All of a sudden he was in the team, and all of a sudden he’s in this position. You couldn’t make it up. It’s the stuff of dreams, it really is.”

Hailing Geoghegan Hart’s victory in Italy, Brailsford says the youngster is “leading the way” for a new generation of riders.

“I think one of Tao’s great attributes is that he’s a great racer,” Brailsford told BBC Radio 5 Live. “He’s got a nose for it, he can feel a race. It’s something really cool about a whole new generation of young guys coming along now and they’re really, really good racers. It’s very fun to watch.

“The sport’s changing, it’s getting more dynamic, so he’s leading the way, really, for a new generation of youngsters, which is incredibly exciting to see.”

‘He’s the real deal’

Ten years after riding behind his heroes during Team Sky’s launch in 2010, Geoghegan Hart is now centre of the Ineos Grenadiers’s squad.

The London-born cyclist deserves his success and is the “real deal”, says Axel Merckx, who was Geoghegan Hart’s coach and mentor at Axeon from 2014-16.

Writing in The Guardian, Merckx said: “Tao is someone who touches a lot of people in his life and that’s the main thing you have to remember about him. He’s the real deal. When he rode for us, he rallied the troops, he encouraged his teammates, and he also told us when it wasn’t good enough - not in an angry or negative way, but in a kind and encouraging manner.

“Tao’s got a mature head on young shoulders. He’s older and wiser than most men - even me sometimes. He’s an old soul in a young body.”

The 2020 Tour de France won’t take place in June and July as originally planned and it has been confirmed that cycling’s premier event will now start in August.

When president Emmanuel Macron extended France’s coronavirus lockdown to 11 May he effectively ended the faint hopes that the Tour could still go ahead between 27 June and 19 July.

The Tour’s organisers announced that the 2020 event would now start on Saturday 29 August and finish on Sunday 20 September. This year’s planned route, from Nice to Paris, will remain the same.

The statement said: “Following the president’s address on Monday evening, where large-scale events were banned in France until mid-July as a part of the fight against the spread of Covid-19, the organisers of the Tour de France, in agreement with the Union Cycliste Internationale [UCI], have decided to postpone the Tour de France to Saturday 29 August to Sunday 20 September 2020.

“Over the last few weeks, there has been constant communication between riders, teams, the organisers as well as other relevant third parties all with the support of the UCI, who are responsible for arranging a new global cycling schedule, in which the Tour de France takes pride of place.

“The organisers of the Tour de France are in regular contact with and have reached agreement with all of the different parties involved, from the local communities to the public authorities.

“We would like to thank all of cycling’s stakeholders, the Tour de France’s partners, its broadcasters as well as all of the local authorities for their reactivity and their support.

“We all hope that the 2020 Tour de France will help to turn the page on the difficult period that we are currently experiencing.”

The women’s event, La Course by le Tour de France avec FDJ, will also be postponed to a later date. But it will take place during the 2020 Tour.

The 30th edition of the Etape du Tour cyclosportive, originally scheduled to take place on 5 July, will be postponed to a date yet to be determined.

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The Tokyo Olympics and Euro 2020 have been postponed for a year and Wimbledon is also expected to be cancelled.

Now attention is turning to the Tour de France, one of the most iconic events in the sporting calendar, which is scheduled to start in Nice on Saturday 27 June, two days before the tennis grand slam in London.

When asked yesterday if Le Tour would be scrapped, the French minister of sport Roxana Maracineanu mooted the outlandish idea that the race could be staged without spectators.

“We have [imposed spectator bans] for other competitions before,” said Maracineanu. “Everyone understands the benefits of staying at home and therefore favouring the television show rather than the live show.”

Maracineanu added that “there’s a time for everything, we have a more urgent fight, it’s still too early to decide [about the race]”.

May’s Giro d’Italia has already been cancelled and admirable though Maracineanu’s desire is to stage the Tour de France, the idea of running it without spectators seems unrealistic.

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Running out of time

“I’m an optimist, but I don’t see how they can justify running the Tour de France,” said Patrick Lefevere, the head of Belgium’s Deceuninck-Quickstep team.

“Who can enter France and who can’t? Are we really going to stuff the hotels with people? I can’t imagine someone waving a magic wand in early July and the coronavirus crisis suddenly being resolved.”

The Tour normally draws between ten and 12 million spectators, including tens of thousands from the UK.

At the moment France, along with other EU countries, has imposed a 30-day travel ban by non-EU nationals. That is expected to remain in place for as long as the continent is ravaged by the coronavirus, and cases are continuing to rise in France and most European nations.

Beating pandemic is the priority

The Guardian says that “a deadline of 1 May seems likely for a decision on the Tour, because it will be clear by then whether the outbreak has peaked in France”.

That would allow seven weeks for cyclists to prepare for the race, a daunting challenge given the brutal nature of the three-week tour.

“There needs to be a Tour de France,” Groupama-FDJ manager Marc Madiot told the Guardian, although team leader Thibaut Pinot - whose mother is a nurse and on the frontline of the pandemic in France - was more circumspect.

“The question is not whether the Tour de France can take place at any cost or not,” Pinot said. “My concern lies mainly in the fact that if we cancel the Tour de France, it would mean that the pandemic has not stopped.”

Today’s back pages

Non-league clubs threaten legal action against The FA and England rugby coach Eddie Jones accepts pay cut

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Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas has hailed team-mate Egan Bernal as “the future” after the 22-year-old Colombian won the Tour de France.

Last year’s champion Thomas finished second behind fellow Team Ineos star Bernal - who becomes the youngest rider in 110 years to win the Tour. The Daily Telegraph captured Bernal’s “champagne moment” as he rode into Paris yesterday.

The Guardian quotes Thomas, who predicts that Bernal’s win will be the “first of many”.

Thomas said: “To finish second behind a team-mate makes it OK. Two years ago I had my arm in a sling with a broken collarbone watching Chris Froome win, wishing I was riding and I would’ve taken second then, but it just shows how time and expectations have moved on.

“Egan is the future and when I’m 45 and old and fat and sat in the pub watching him win a 10th Tour de France I can say I told him all I know.”

Anti-fracking protestors are threatening to disrupt the Tour de Yorkshire cycling event in May amid anger over Ineos’s takeover of Team Sky.

The chemicals firm announced on Tuesday that it has bought Team Sky and that as of 1 May it will be known as Team Ineos. The relaunch will take place at the Tour de Yorkshire, starting on 2 May.

The man behind the acquisition, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has rights to frack in sites in Yorkshire - making him a target for anti-fracking campaigners, the BBC reports.

“No doubt there will be protests around the Tour de Yorkshire and the World Championships to be held in Yorkshire later this year,” said Steve Mason of Free Frack United.

“I for one will not be letting my kids watch cycling anymore with Team Ineos taking part and I won’t be alone.”

Frack off

One of the world’s biggest manufacturers of chemicals and plastics, Ineos plans to explore for shale gas at sites in Cheshire, Yorkshire and the Midlands.

According to the BBC, Ineos “has yet to start because of planning disputes, with Ratcliffe criticising the government’s fracking rules last month”.

The firm refused to comment when contacted by the broadcaster, but a Welcome to Yorkshire spokesperson commented: “We understand the complex issues around fracking and remain in close contact with the National Park Authorities and local authorities.

“As a tourism body, we organise the Tour de Yorkshire to promote the county to a worldwide audience.”

Friend or foe of the earth?

It’s not the first time that Ratcliffe, reputedly Britain’s richest man, has fallen foul of environmental campaigners over his patronage of sports.

Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace called for Ineos to be banned from sponsoring Sir Ben Ainslie’s 2021 America’s Cup bid when the £110m investment was announced last year, accusing the company of contributing to ocean pollution.

Four-time Olympic champion Ainslie rejected the charge, saying of Ineos: “They understand the problem better than anyone else and they can really make a difference. And I know they are doing everything they can to tackle this.”

Greenwashing

Friends of the Earth fossil free campaigner Tony Bosworth has accused Ineos of “greenwashing”, and appealed to the team’s star cyclists to take a stand.

Bosworth said: “Taking over Team Sky is the latest blatant attempt at greenwashing by Ineos. It’s a harsh change of tone that may see Sky’s Ocean Rescue campaign to clear plastic pollution from our oceans ditched from the team jersey in favour of Ineos - one of the biggest plastic producers in Europe.

“This is also a company that wants to frack large swathes of northern England and the east Midlands. Ineos has also been lobbying hard for the government to relax safety rules so fracking companies can trigger larger earthquakes before having to down tools.

“Cycling is one of the UK’s most successful and popular sports, but do the likes of Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome really want to be associated with a planet-wrecking company like Ineos?”

Wall of money

Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph says that Ineos’s takeover of Team Sky is also causing disquiet among rival cycling teams.

Jonathan Vaughters, who runs EF Education First Pro Cycling, believes the buyout is a game changer that should lead to the introduction of a budget cap in the sport.

“You’re looking at an almost impenetrable wall of money,” said Vaughters. “You can basically go buy all the best riders. The question for the sport is if they are all on one team, is it fun for spectators to watch?

“I think a financial fairness rule would be helpful. In the NFL there are hard caps, so every team operates off the exact same budget.”

The future of one of cycling’s most successful outfits has been cast in doubt after Sky announced today that its backing of Team Sky will finish in just over a year’s time, on 31 December 2019.

After a decade in professional cycling, the broadcaster will end its ownership and sponsorship of Team Sky. But if a new backer is secured, the team could continue from 2020 and race under a different name.

Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford said in a statement: “While Sky will be moving on at the end of next year, the team is open minded about the future and the potential of working with a new partner, should the right opportunity present itself.

“We aren’t finished yet by any means. There is another exciting year of racing ahead of us and we will be doing everything we can to deliver more Team Sky success in 2019.”

The BBC reports that Sky’s decision has been “partly influenced” by Comcast’s £30bn takeover of the broadcaster. The Daily Telegraph added: “There was never any guarantee that the new owners would be as committed to handing over £30m-plus every year.”

Sky’s group chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: “The end of 2019 is the right time for us to move on as we open a new chapter in Sky’s story and turn our focus to different initiatives including our Sky Ocean Rescue campaign.”

Decision before the Tour de France

In an open letter to their fans, Team Sky said: “This news will no doubt come as a surprise to many people but... there has been a lot of change at Sky recently. It is the start of a new chapter for the company and sometimes it is inevitable that change brings further change with it.

“This news has only just been announced; we can’t predict what will happen from 2020 and there are no guarantees. Whatever happens, we will make sure there is clarity one way or the other about the future of the team before the Tour de France next July.”

Success and scandal

After launching in 2010, Team Sky has achieved 322 all-time wins, including eight Grand Tours, 52 other stage races and 25 one-day races.

Highlights include six Tour de France victories for British cyclists: one for Bradley Wiggins (2012), four for Chris Froome (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017) and one for Geraint Thomas (2018).

Despite their tour wins and domination, Team Sky have also had their controversies, says the Telegraph. These include the “mystery Jiffy bag” scandal and “historic use of Therapeutic Use Exemptions”.

The BBC’s sports editor Dan Roan says Sky’s decision marks the beginning of the end of an era of “success and scandal”. Roan added: “As well as being arguably the most successful current professional team in British sport, they are also the most controversial. Maybe Sky had simply had enough of the bad headlines, despite so many wins.”

A police investigation has been launched after the Tour de France trophy won by Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas was stolen in Birmingham.

Thomas was awarded the “Coupe Omnisports” after winning Le Tour in July and it was loaned by Team Sky to sponsors and bike manufacturers Pinarello to display at the Cycle Show held at the NEC in Birmingham from 28-30 September.

Also on show were the Vuelta de Espana and Giro d’Italia trophies won by Thomas’s Team Sky team-mate Chris Froome. However, it was only Thomas’s gong that was taken.

The Welsh rider said it was an “incredibly unfortunate” incident and hoped the trophy would be returned. The 32-year-old added: “It goes without saying that the trophy is of pretty limited value to whoever took it, but means a lot to me and to the team.

“Hopefully whoever took it will have the good grace to return it. A trophy is important, but clearly what matters most are the amazing memories from this incredible summer - and no-one can ever take those away.”

In a statement Team Sky confirmed the theft: “Regrettably, during the clear-up operation at the end of the event, Geraint Thomas’s Tour de France trophy was momentarily left unattended and stolen. The matter is obviously now subject to a police investigation. In the meantime, Team Sky are liaising with all relevant parties to agree on the best course of action to resolve the issue.”

Richard Hemington, managing director of Pinarello (UK), said the company were “devastated” about the trophy being stolen. “We accept full responsibility and have personally apologised to Geraint,” he said. “Obviously we all hope that the trophy can be recovered.”

The BBC reports that West Midlands Police believe the trophy was taken sometime between 6.30pm and 7.30pm on 29 September.

After completing his first grand tour victory at the Vuelta a Espana, Simon Yates admitted he was “in shock” when he made British cycling history.

Following Chris Froome’s win at the Giro d’Italia in May and Geraint Thomas’s Tour de France win in July, Yates’s victory was a fifth grand tour success in a row for British riders (Froome also won last year’s Tour and Vuelta).

Yates, who is 26, suffered “real heartbreak” at the Giro d’Italia earlier this season with a “spectacular and very public” implosion just days from the finish in Rome, The Daily Telegraph reports.

But after securing the Vuelta ahead of Spain’s Enric Mas, Mitchelton-Scott team rider Yates said: “It feels great. Really unbelievable. I think it’s still sinking in. I have no words, it’s just really unbelievable.

“I like to race on my instinct and I hope that I continue to do so and achieve more big results like today at the Vuelta a Espana.

“I came back from real heartbreak from the Giro d’Italia and I am still in shock that I’ve managed to pull it off... I get really nervous up on the stage but it was a very special moment that I will cherish forever.”

‘Extraordinary season’

The Telegraph reports that Yates has “rewritten history” and his win in Spain caps “an extraordinary season for British cycling”.

Telegraph cycling correspondent Tom Cary writes: “Only twice before have riders from the same country won all three of cycling’s grand tours but this is the first time it has been done by three different cyclists.

“There were no British winners in any of the first 259 grand tours, yet following Yates’s victory in Madrid this weekend a British rider has now been victorious in nine of the last 20.”

Unfinished business

After the heartbreak in Rome, Yates told The Guardian he was plotting a return to the Giro d’Italia and that would be his priority next year.

“My gut feeling is that I’d like to go back to the Giro because I have unfinished business there,” he said. “I’ve not thought about it too much because I’ve been concentrating on this and the world championships [in Innsbruck in two weeks’ time]. But my gut feeling is that’s where I’d like to try again.”

British cyclist Mark Cavendish will take an indefinite break from the sport after being diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).

Medical tests have shown the presence of the virus, which can cause glandular fever. CyclingNews.com reports that it’s the second time the 33-year-old has been diagnosed with EBV.

Cavendish rides for Team Dimension Data. In a statement the team said: “Following medical examination we can confirm that Mark Cavendish will miss the upcoming immediate race schedule due to the presence of Epstein-Barr virus.

“The medical results have indicated too that Cavendish will also have been unknowingly training and racing with EBV over recent months, and as a result of these findings he has been advised to rest in order to fully recover ahead of a return to training.”

Cavendish, who has won 30 Tour de France stages and competed in Olympics and Commonwealth Games, added: “This season I’ve not felt physically myself and despite showing good numbers on the bike I have felt that there’s been something not right.

“Given this and on the back of these medical results, I’m glad to now finally have some clarity as to why I haven’t been able to perform at my optimum level during this time. Having received expert medical advice as a result of the findings I’ve been advised to take a period of total rest in order to fully recover.

“I’m now looking forward to taking the time necessary in order to get back to 100% fitness before then returning to racing again at peak physical condition. I’d like to thank everyone for the incredible support I’ve received and I look forward to seeing you all out on the road again soon.”

What is the Epstein-Barr virus?

Science Daily reports that EBV is a virus of the herpes family and is one of the most common viruses in humans. Science Daily adds: “Most people become infected with EBV, which is often asymptomatic but commonly causes infectious mononucleosis. Epstein-Barr can cause infectious mononucleosis, also known as ‘glandular fever’, ‘Mono’ and ‘Pfeiffer’s disease’. Infectious mononucleosis is caused when a person is first exposed to the virus during or after adolescence.”

According to Medical News Today the symptoms of EBV include:

• swollen glands
• sore throat
• fatigue
• fever
• skin rash

Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas got a hero’s welcome as he arrived back in Cardiff today, but the main talking point in the Welsh capital is his future plans.

After becoming the first Welsh cyclist to win in France, the 32-year-old is being lined up by new Poland-based outfit CCC WorldTour to lead their team in next year’s race.

His current deal with Team Sky expires this season and CCC have made a “serious contract offer” for Thomas to ride with them in 2019, Cycling News reports.

CCC sports director Piotr Wadecki told the website: “It’s true, we spoke with his manager and that’s true we gave the offer to Geraint. We know his contract ends. Our team is concentrated on Greg Van Avermaet for the Classics and we are looking for a leader for the stage races like the Tour. So why not give an offer for Geraint?

“We wait for an answer. If it’s working, it’s OK. Our offer is on the table, and if he says yes, it’s really nice, and we can still hire two or three guys to help him in the stage races.”

If Thomas signs for CCC, he will be the team’s sole general classification leader for the 2019 Tour de France. Wadecki added: “That’s a really clear situation and that’s something. I don’t know if that’s so clear in Team Sky.”

The BBC reports that Thomas was due to be congratulated by First Minister Carwyn Jones after arriving home today, followed by celebrations outside Cardiff Castle.

Thomas takes Tour de France title

Eleven years after his first Tour de France, Geraint Thomas finally won the most prestigious title in cycling in Paris yesterday.

The 32-year-old Welshman is the third British winner of the Tour in the last seven years after Bradley Wiggins and four-time champion Chris Froome. His victory means that Britain has provided every winner since 2012 barring Vincenzo Nibali’s success in 2014.

‘On cloud nine’

“When I rode the Champs-Elysees for the first time in 2007 that was insane just to finish the race and just to be a part of it,” said Thomas. “To now be riding round winning it is just incredible. It won’t really sink in for a few months, it’s just a whirlwind now. I seem to be floating around on cloud nine.

“Maybe when I’m like 70 sat in a corner of a pub telling some 18-year-old what I used to be it’ll sink it. It’s incredible, the stuff of dreams.”

There have been plenty of nightmares for Thomas en route to his first Tour de France title. In 2013 he fractured his pelvis on the opening day, but continued until stage 20 in order to help Froome’s successful title bid. In 2015 and 2017 his tours were also violently curtailed by accidents.

Peaked in the Pyrenees

This year, however, he rode a flawless race. Although yesterday’s 116km stage was completed with the customary leisurely pace – including glasses of champagne for Thomas and his Team Sky teammates – the Welshman had all but secured his overall victory on Friday in a brutal stage through the Pyrenees.

The mountainous stage had broken Froome, who nonetheless recovered sufficiently for Saturday’s time trial to ensure he finished third overall, but the former champion was consistently second best to Thomas throughout the Tour.

“Big respect to Froomey,” said Thomas, when asked about the teammate he had deposed. “It could’ve got awkward, there could’ve been tension, but you were a great champion and I’ll always have respect for you.”

Sandwiched between the two Team Sky riders in the general classification was Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, while Sunday’s final stage was won by Norway’s Alexander Kristoff in a sprint finish on the Champs-Elysees.

Anything is possible

Thomas was further back, on cruise control, having done the hard work in the preceding three weeks, but later, as he stood on the podium, draped in the Welsh flag, he talked of how he had reached the pinnacle of professional cycling. “You just keep going and keep believing,” he said. “Anything is possible, with hard work everything pays off in the end.”

What they are saying about Geraint Thomas

Welsh footballer Gareth Bale, who went to the same school as Thomas: “Incredible achievement from a fellow Whitchurch High pupil! What a win!”

2012 Tour winner Bradley Wiggins: “Difficult to sum up how incredible this guys performance over the last 3 weeks has been, amazing to have seen how hard this man has worked over the last 15 years. A truly amazing athlete, congrats.”

Team Sky’s Chris Froome: “It was a great moment being up on the podium with G. It’s amazing to see how far he’s come and I’m so proud of him.”

Team Sky director Dave Brailsford: “[It’s] the most emotional of all our victories… Geraint, growing up in Wales, worked so hard for such a long time – he’s a classic ‘make the sacrifice, it’s worth it’ kind of guy.”

Former Olympic champion turned TV pundit Chris Boardman: “He’s the most popular winner for years. No disrespect to those who have gone before him but he’s always laid it down for someone else and sacrificed himself for someone else.”

Geraint Thomas tightened his grip on the Tour de France lead as Chris Froome’s hopes of a fourth successive title all but disappeared in the Pyrenees yesterday.

It was a brutal day for the defending champion, who started stage 17 in second place overall, but finished in third, two minutes and 31 seconds behind Thomas.

In between the two British riders is Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin, who trails Thomas by a minute and 59 seconds, after he tried and failed to break the Welshman on the final five kilometres of a short but savage 65km stage.

No risk strategy

Instead, it was Thomas who finished the stronger of the pair, ahead of his nearest rivals but behind stage winner Nairo Quintana and Irishman Daniel Martin.

“I didn’t want to risk anything, which was why I left it as late as possible,” said Thomas, when asked about his strategy. “Especially at altitude, as soon as you kick and go deep for five seconds, it can bite you in the arse. So I didn’t want to risk anything. It was about just leaving it as late as possible and then going for the line and trying to get the seconds.”

He did just that, extending his overall lead by 20 seconds and taking him ever more closer to claiming his first Tour title in Paris on Sunday.

“I think I am in a good position now,” said Thomas. “But I am not going to change my approach. As soon as you start getting carried away that’s when it goes downhill… I am feeling good but I am not going to get carried away, keep fuelling and eating and drinking as best as I can and just not let any complacency creep in.”

Froome falters

For most of the stage Froome and Thomas rode side by side in the peloton, but as they climbed the third of three towering peaks in quick succession, the Col du Portet, Froome began to falter.

“Froomey said on the radio maybe with four or five kilometres to go that he wasn’t feeling super and that gave me confidence,” admitted Thomas. “Because if Froomey was suffering, everyone was suffering. And I was feeling good… It was a tough start to the climb, and everyone was on the limit. But as the climb went on I was feeling better and better.”

Thomas said while he didn’t like seeing Froome having “a bad day”, he nonetheless took heart from the four-time champion’s troubles. “It shows we’re honest with each other,” said Thomas. “We genuinely are good mates and honest and open. I think that’s the main reason for our success so far at this Tour.”

Mellow about yellow

Froome, whose day went from bad to worse when he was accidentally knocked off his bike by a policeman at the end of the stage, admitted it had been “very intense”.

But despite his personal disappointment, he pledged his loyalty to his Team Sky buddy.

“G has ridden such an amazing race and he deserves to be in yellow – and, fingers crossed, he holds it now until Paris,” said Froome. “That’s what a team is all about. I’m happy just to be in this position. I’ve won the last three Grand Tours I’ve done now, so it’s certainly been tough build-up for me but I’m still going to try and fight for the podium and try to keep G up there in yellow.”

Today’s 18th stage of the Tour de France is a 171km route from Trie-sur-Baise to Pau.

‘It’s going to be war’

The Tour de France gets going again today after a rest day and race leader Geraint Thomas has warned “it’s going to be war out there”.

The Welshman leads his Team Sky teammate Chris Froome by one minute and 39 seconds but the defending champion will fancy his chances of overhauling his colleague in the daunting mountains of the Pyrenees.

The pair will also face stern challenges from the rest of the peloton. They may also have to deal with hostility from race fans, a handful of whom have spat, slapped and jeered Team Sky as they’ve cycled through France.

Froome still believes he can emulate the great Eddy Merckx and win his fourth consecutive Tour title but Thomas has been the form rider thus far. During yesterday’s rest day in the southern town of Carcassonne he insisted they were buddies not rivals.

“We’re good mates,” said Thomas, when asked about his relationship with Froome. “We’ve ridden in the same team for a number of years now and we’ve generally lived in the same areas. We get on – for now, anyway.”

Never say die

Thomas praised Froome’s “mental strength and his never-say-die attitude”, two qualities that he will need to show in the coming days if he’s to enter Paris triumphant on Sunday.

Today’s 16th stage takes the peloton 218km from Carcassonne to Bagneres-de-Luchon, which contains two category one climbs and then a spine-tingling 10km descent to the finish line.

As The Guardian says, given his position Thomas should be favourite to win the Tour, but he has never finished higher than 15th in a three‑week tour and has a “persistent reputation for always having one ‘bad’ day”.

If there’s such a day this week expect Froome to make his move. But Froome swerved out of the way of such questions yesterday. “All this talk of attacking or not attacking… we’re in an amazing position, we’re one and two,” he said. “It’s not up to us to be attacking. It’s for all the other riders in the peloton to make up time on us and dislodge us from the position we’re in.”

Confidence and belief

Thomas’s biggest test is likely to come on Friday, a 200km stage from Lourdes to Laruns that asks the riders to climb the legendary Col du Tourmalet and Col d’Aubisque.

For the Welshman it will be as much a mental as a physical test given what has happened in previous Tours. “I had lots of bad luck,” he said. “But here I have won two mountain stages back to back, which is nuts for me, so I’ve got more confidence and belief.”

Has Thomas allowed himself to dream of glory in Paris? “Obviously the closer you get, the more you want to stay on the podium,” he said. “But winning is still not something I’m really thinking about.”

Team Sky’s Gianni Moscon has been disqualified from the 2018 Tour de France after he punched a rival cyclist.

The Italian was filmed striking Team Fortuneo-Samsic rider Elie Gesbert just 800m into the 181.5km stage from Millau to Carcassonne yesterday. Astana’s Magnus Cort won the stage.

Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford called the incident “unacceptable” and said further action could be taken against the 24-year-old when the Tour finishes.

In a statement Brailsford said: “We support and accept the decision by the race organisers to exclude Gianni Moscon from the Tour de France.

“Gianni is desperately disappointed in his behaviour and knows that he has let himself, the Team and the race down.

“We will address this incident with Gianni once the Tour is complete and decide then if any further action should be taken.

“I would like to offer my sincere apologies to both Elie Gesbert and Team Fortuneo Samsic for this unacceptable incident.”

In a video posted on Team Sky’s Twitter account Moscon apologised for his actions. He said: “What happened was wrong. I make no excuses for it and accept the decision from the race organisers.”

It is the latest controversial incident in Moscon’s cycling career, the BBC reports. Last year he was given a six-week suspension by Team Sky for racially abusing a rival and was also disqualified from the world championship road race after “hanging onto a team car”.

Welsh cyclist Geraint Thomas extended his lead in the Tour de France with a second successive stage win – this time on the famous Alpe d’Huez – but, after being jeered and spat at, he called for a “bit of decency” from the fans.

It was another great ride from the Team Sky man, who finished four seconds in front of team-mate Chris Froome to tighten his grip on the leader’s yellow jersey.

But his team’s unpopularity spilled over as he and in particular reigning champion Froome were targeted by spectators, with one appearing to throw a punch at Froome.

“Both riders were spat at, Froome was shoved, shorts were dropped in their direction,” reports Jeremy Whittle in The Guardian, “yet it was Vincenzo Nibali who ended up prone on the tarmac, after tangling with spectators, as the leaders were blinded by smoke from flares.”

Nibali, winner of the Tour in 2014, was later forced to abandon the race with a fractured vertebra.

The iconic 21-bend climb to the top of Alpe d’Huez is “a traditional lightning rod for rowdy behaviour from fans who often spend days camping out waiting for the arrival of the peloton”, says Tom Cary of The Daily Telegraph.

“Team Sky have been given a rough ride in France ever since they began dominating the Tour in 2012, and even more so since revelations about the Therapeutic Use Exemptions used by Sir Bradley Wiggins to win that first race.”

Froome’s Salbutamol investigation has not helped public perceptions and “Alpe d’Huez was always likely to be the flashpoint for the worst behaviour and so it proved, with punches and spit greeting the riders, although in truth it was probably no worse than it has been in recent years”.

But Josh Burrows of The Times describes some of the roadside behaviour as “utterly despicable”.

Thomas, who was booed as he received the yellow jersey after the stage, later called for calm.

“If people don't like Sky and want to boo that’s fine, boo all you like,” he said. “But just let us race. Don’t affect the race, don’t touch the riders, don’t spit at us. Have a bit of decency, like.”

But despite the attitude of the fans, Thomas has every reason to be pleased with himself, even if he insists that he is still just a support rider and that Froome is the team’s leader.

“The only other man to have won a summit finish up here while leading the Tour de France is Lance Armstrong,” says Burrows. “Thomas is the first Briton to take the honours at the Alpe and the Welshman’s name will now be immortalised on one of the plaques that mark each of those 21 famous switchbacks.”

Chris Froome has been cleared to ride in the Tour de France after cycling’s world governing body dropped anti-doping proceedings against the Team Sky rider.

Last September the British star, 33, was found to have had twice the permitted level of the asthma drug salbutamol in his system, but Froome and his team denied any wrongdoing. A sample collected during the Vuelta a España on 7 September was “reported to contain a concentration of salbutamol in excess of 1000ng/ml”.

In a statement issued this morning, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has confirmed that the case against Froome has now been closed.

The statement read: “Whilst the UCI would have obviously preferred the proceedings to have been finalised earlier in the season, it had to ensure that Mr Froome had a fair process, as it would have done with any other rider, and that the correct decision was issued. Having received [the] World Anti-Doping Agency’s [Wada] position on 28 June 2018, the UCI prepared and issued its formal reasoned decision as quickly as possible in the circumstances.

“The UCI understands that there will be significant discussion of this decision, but wishes to reassure all those involved in or interested in cycling that its decision is based on expert opinions, Wada’s advice, and a full assessment of the facts of the case.

“The UCI hopes that the cycling world can now turn its focus to, and enjoy, the upcoming races on the cycling calendar.”

In response to the news Froome tweeted: “Grateful and relieved to finally put this chapter behind me, it has been an emotional 9 months. Thank you to all of those who have supported and believed in me throughout.”

‘I would never dishonour a winner’s jersey’

Team Sky have also welcomed the UCI’s decision to clear its rider. In his official statement Froome said: “I am very pleased that the UCI has exonerated me. While this decision is obviously a big deal for me and the team, it’s also an important moment for cycling.

“I understand the history of this great sport - good and bad. I have always taken my leadership position very seriously and I always do things the right way. I meant it when I said that I would never dishonour a winner’s jersey and that my results would stand the test of time.

“I have never doubted that this case would be dismissed for the simple reason that I have known throughout I did nothing wrong. I have suffered with asthma since childhood. I know exactly what the rules are regarding my asthma medication and I only ever use my puffer to manage my symptoms within the permissible limits.

“Of course, the UCI had to examine these test results from the Vuelta. Unfortunately, the details of the case did not remain confidential, as they should have done. And I appreciate more than anyone else the frustration at how long the case has taken to resolve and the uncertainty this has caused. I am glad it’s finally over.

“I am grateful for all the support I have had from the Team and from many fans across the world. Today’s ruling draws a line. It means we can all move on and focus on the Tour de France.”

Team principal Sir Dave Brailsford added: “We have always had total confidence in Chris and his integrity. We knew that he had followed the right medical guidance in managing his asthma at the Vuelta and were sure that he would be exonerated in the end, which he has been.

“This is why we decided that it was right for Chris to continue racing, in line with UCI rules, while the process was ongoing. We are pleased that it has now been resolved.”

The 105th Tour de France starts on Saturday 7 July. It is made up of 21 stages and will cover 3,351 kilometres.

Chris Froome’s hopes of competing in this year’s Tour de France are in doubt after he was barred from the race by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the tour organisers.

Although the Kenyan-born British rider has appealed the decision, The Guardian says that “the mood in France is hardening against Team Sky”.

Froome’s supporters, and British cycling enthusiasts in general, might claim that it’s a desperate attempt by the French to prevent the four-time winner adding another title to his collection, but that overlooks the trauma still felt in France by the Lance Armstrong affair.

As the Guardian notes, Tour de France organisers now acknowledge they were “made fools of” by the American and they don’t want a repeat. It’s also about what image they want to project, and allowing a rider tainted by doping allegations wouldn’t sit well with the Tour’s commercial partners.

Twice the permitted level of the asthma drug salbutamol was found in his system last year, but Froome denied any wrongdoing. This morning the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) issued a statement saying anti-doping proceedings involving Froome “have now been closed”.

In January the president of the UCI, the Frenchman David Lappartient, called on Team Sky to suspend Froome, which they didn’t, and in February Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour, voiced his disquiet about Froome’s situation.

“We need a response, for all race organisers, so that there isn’t a rider that they’ll say later shouldn’t have been at the start,” said Prudhomme. “It’s mad, completely grotesque.”

Yet Team Sky, says the Guardian, are dismissive of the furore, despite “the damning findings of the DCMS select committee report” in March that portrayed them in a dubious light. Nonetheless there is a strong chance Froome will win his appeal and be cleared to compete when the race starts on Saturday in the Vendée.

How he will be received by the French is another matter. The Guardian says that “in France there is little interest in listening to Froome’s point of view”, and one of the rival team bosses, Marc Madiot of Groupama-FDJ, has praised ASO for its stance.

“I pay tribute to what ASO is doing,” he said. “It would be better for him not to be there for the general quietness of the Tour.”

Neither ASO nor Team Sky has commented on the situation but Froome’s wife, Michelle, also his agent, stated at the weekend that “Chris will ride the Tour”.

UCI closes case against Froome

In a statement issued this morning, the UCI has confirmed that the anti-doping proceedings involving Froome “have now been closed”.

The statement read: “Whilst the UCI would have obviously preferred the proceedings to have been finalised earlier in the season, it had to ensure that Mr Froome had a fair process, as it would have done with any other rider, and that the correct decision was issued. Having received WADA’s position on 28 June 2018, the UCI prepared and issued its formal reasoned decision as quickly as possible in the circumstances.

“The UCI understands that there will be significant discussion of this decision, but wishes to reassure all those involved in or interested in cycling that its decision is based on expert opinions, WADA’s advice, and a full assessment of the facts of the case.

“The UCI hopes that the cycling world can now turn its focus to, and enjoy, the upcoming races on the cycling calendar.”

Belgian cyclist Michael Goolaerts has died after suffering a cardiac arrest during the Paris-Roubaix race yesterday.

The Independent reports that the 23-year-old had apparently crashed around 110km (68 miles) into the 257km (160 miles) race and received medical assistance on the roadside. Goolaerts was found unconscious by race doctors after falling on the second set of cobbles during the one-day classic, in northern France, says the BBC.

He was airlifted to hospital in Lille but passed away last night, according to a statement from his team, Veranda’s Willems-Crelan.

“It is with unimaginable sadness that we have to communicate the passing of our rider and friend Michael Goolaerts,” the statement read. “He passed away Sunday evening at 22:40 in Lille hospital in the presence of his family members and loved ones, who we keep in our thoughts. He died of cardiac arrest, all medical assistance was to no avail.

“For now there will be no further communication as we want to give his close ones time to deal with this terrible loss. We thank you in advance for respecting the privacy of his relatives.”

David Lappartient, the president of the sport’s governing body Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), said: “On behalf of the UCI and the cycling family as a whole, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the family, team and loved ones of Michael Goolaerts, who left too early. We share their immense sadness.”

The Paris-Roubaix race was won by world champion Peter Sagan.

Twitter users paid tribute to Goolaerts.

Former Team Sky coach Shane Sutton agrees that Bradley Wiggins did not cheat, but he has called on the cyclist and the team’s former doctor to “tell the truth” about the controversial use of an anti-asthma drug.

Earlier this week Wiggins and Team Sky were accused in a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee report of “crossing an ethical line” by using triamcinolone to “enhance performance rather than for medical needs”.

The use of triamcinolone is not against doping rules if registered as a “therapeutic use exemption” (TUE). According to the DCMS report - called Combatting Doping in Sport - Team Sky’s application for the TUE to use triamcinolone didn’t violate any World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code, but did cross the ethical line set out by Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford.

In an interview with the BBC, Wiggins, an asthma sufferer, denied that he has ever cheated and that the use of triamcinolone was “completely under medical need”.

Criticising the parliamentary process, he told the BBC: “I would have had more rights if I had murdered someone than in this process. I am having to deal with the fallout. I am left in the middle trying to pick up the pieces. It is a malicious allegation made by an anonymous source… who are these sources? Come out. Go on record. This is serious stuff.”

Sutton, who was questioned by MPs last year about the subject, believes that Wiggins and Team Sky’s former doctor Richard Freeman should have come forward and explained the use of the drug in detail.

Sutton told Sky Sports: “I’ve no axe to grind with Brad. Brad and the doctor had the chance to come forward. They never came forward. They had a chance to defend Dave Brailsford and myself. It should have been them in front of the select committee - not myself and Dave.

“That aggrieved me a little bit but not to the point where I wouldn’t sit down with Brad and have a drink. There is no problem there whatsoever. As I said, I watched him on TV last night - he looked very stressed. I’m calling for him and the doctor to come forward now and tell the truth.”

Meanwhile, American cyclist Floyd Landis believes Wiggins should be stripped of his 2012 Tour de France victory.

Landis tested positive for testosterone and lost his 2006 Tour de France title and he believes Wiggins should receive the same fate. He also thinks that after the report’s revelations, Team Sky won’t compete at this year’s Tour de France.

He told Cyclingnews: “People shouldn’t downplay what has gone on. He [Wiggins] was using steroids. They kicked me out and they took my title for that. They better f****** take his.

“This has to be the end of the team. I’m 100% sure that there will not be a Sky team at the Tour de France this year. The little pieces add up and no one with more than two brain cells would add it all up and conclude that it was all just coincidental.”

Bradley Wiggins has come out fighting after accusations he and Team Sky “crossed an ethical line” after drugs were used to enhance performance before the cyclist’s 2012 Tour de France victory.

The parliamentary report found no evidence of medical need in the use of the drugs with the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee saying that Wiggins used the “powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone to enhance performance rather than for medical needs”.

In a tweet yesterday morning Wiggins said he “strongly refute[d] the claim that any drug was used without medical need. I hope to have my say in the next few days & put my side across”.

True to his word, the 2012 Olympic champion granted an emotional interview last night to BBC sports editor Dan Roan in which he declared that “not at any time in my career did we cross the ethical line”.

Swearing that “100%” he did not cheat, the 37-year-old suggested he was the victim of a vendetta. “This is malicious, this is someone trying to smear me,” he said, adding that his children are getting “a hammering at school” as a result of the report’s publication.

Wiggins was permitted a therapeutic use exemption (TUEs) shortly before the 2011 Tour de France and his 2012 Tour win, in order to take the corticosteroid triamcinolone, which is used in the treatment of allergies and respiratory issues.

“It was completely under medical need,” he said, before criticising the entire parliamentary process. “I would have had more rights if I had murdered someone than in this process,” he told the BBC. “I am having to deal with the fallout. I am left in the middle trying to pick up the pieces. It is a malicious allegation made by an anonymous source… who are these sources? Come out. Go on record. This is serious stuff.”

Much has been made during the process of a mysterious jiffy bag that was delivered to Wiggins at the Criterium du Dauphine in 2011, what the press have, rather predictably, labelled ‘jiffy-gate’.

Team Sky claimed it contained the legal decongestant fluimucil although the DCMS report concluded it was “not in a position” to determine its contents.

Asked by the BBC what was in the bag, Wiggins replied: “God knows. Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t run the team, I was busy doing my job that I was paid to do.”

Insisting he was treated legally with fluimucil, he said: “I didn’t even know there was a package until I was asked about it. It has become such a mess - it is ludicrous.”

There is further unwanted publicity for Wiggins in The Times with the paper reporting that he “invested in a notorious tax avoidance scheme that used a charity as a front in an attempt to deprive the taxman of £100 million”.

According to the paper the five-time Olympic champion was an investor in the Cup Trust, a charity that was closed down by the Charity Commission in 2017 after it was involved in a tax avoidance scam.

An explosive report has found that Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky “crossed an ethical line” after drugs were used to enhance performance before the cyclist’s 2012 Tour de France victory. According to the report, there was no evidence of medical need in the use of these drugs.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee said that Wiggins “deliberately used medical exemptions”, The Times reports, to prepare for the race in 2012. The DCMS report added that British Olympic hero Wiggins and Team Sky riders used the “powerful corticosteroid triamcinolone to enhance performance rather than for medical needs”.

The Guardian reports that Team Sky “abused the system” of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs), which are in effect “a doctor’s note allowing a banned substance to be used for the treatment of a legitimate medical condition”.

According to the DCMS report, which is called Combatting Doping in Sport, Team Sky’s application for the TUE to use triamcinolone didn’t violate any World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code, but does “cross the ethical line” set out by Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford.

What does the DCMS report say?

The DCMS select committee believes that the “powerful” corticosteroid (triamcinolone) was used to prepare Wiggins, and possibly other riders supporting him, for the Tour de France.

The long-awaited 52-page report states: “The purpose of this was not to treat medical need, but to improve his power-to-weight ratio ahead of the race. The application for the TUE for the triamcinolone for Bradley Wiggins, ahead of the 2012 Tour de France, also meant that he benefited from the performance-enhancing properties of this drug during the race.”

The report adds: “This does not constitute a violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency code, but it does cross the ethical line that David Brailsford says he himself drew for Team Sky. In this case, and contrary to the testimony of David Brailsford in front of the committee, we believe that drugs were being used by Team Sky, within the Wada rules, to enhance the performance of riders, and not just to treat medical need.”

What do Wiggins and Team Sky say?

Wiggins, an asthma sufferer, and Team Sky deny they used triamcinolone to enhance the cyclist’s performance, Sky Sports reports.

The 37-year-old said on Twitter: “I find it so sad that accusations can be made, where people can be accused of things they have never done which are then regarded as facts. I strongly refute the claim that any drug was used without medical need. I hope to have my say in the next few days & put my side across.”

Team Sky’s statement read: “The report details, again, areas in the past where we have already acknowledged that the team fell short. We take full responsibility for mistakes that were made.

“However, the report also makes the serious claim that medication has been used by the Team to enhance performance. We strongly refute this. The report also includes an allegation of widespread Triamcinolone use by Team Sky riders ahead of the 2012 Tour de France. Again, we strongly refute this allegation.

“We are surprised and disappointed that the Committee has chosen to present an anonymous and potentially malicious claim in this way, without presenting any evidence or giving us an opportunity to respond. This is unfair both to the Team and to the riders in question.”

What next for Wiggins and Team Sky?

Following the publication of the DCMS report, the reputation of Britain’s most decorated Olympian, Team Sky and its principal Brailsford is under threat.

The Guardian says that the report is a “potential death knell” for Team Sky while the BBC calls it “a devastating blow to the reputations of some of the biggest names in British sport”.

The Daily Telegraph adds that Wiggins’s reputation, and Team Sky’s very future, are “hanging by a thread”. This comes after former Team Sky coach Shane Sutton “effectively admitted” that the “notorious Jiffy bag” delivered to Wiggins at the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine contained triamcinolone.

Athletics’s reputation is badly damaged

The Daily Mail believes that athletics’s reputation is “in tatters” after Sebastian Coe was condemned by MPs for “suppressing doping revelations”.

Coe, who is president of athletics’s world governing body, the IAAF, “misled” MPs about his knowledge of doping in Russian athletics. The Mail says that Coe was “heavily criticised” by the select committee after it expressed “deep concern” over the IAAF’s “willingness to share information with anti-doping agencies”.

The DCMS also questioned whether the IAAF were “fully committed to investigating difficult issues when they arise”, the Mail reports.

British sport is far from perfect

The BBC says that the report concludes by highlighting “the failure of sports bodies in their governance and policing of anti-doping rules”.

The Beeb’s sports editor Dan Roan adds: “For years we have been told that British sporting success is down purely to world-class preparation, wise investment choices and raw talent. This is a sobering reminder that when it comes to standing up for clean sport, Britain is far from perfect.”

One of Chris Froome’s biggest rivals has said the way his positive drugs test is being handled is a “scandal”.

German rider Tony Martin, a four-time world time trial champion, posted a scathing message on Facebook yesterday after learning that the British cyclist had double the allowed level of legal asthma drug salbutamol in his urine when he won September’s Vuelta a Espana.

“I am totally angry,” said Martin. “There is definitely a double standard being applied in the Christopher Froome case. Other athletes are suspended immediately after a positive test.

“He and his team are given time by the UCI to explain it all. I do not know of any similar case in the recent past. That is a scandal, and he should at least not have been allowed to appear in the World Championships.”

In fact, UCI’s anti-doping rules stipulate that the presence of specified substances such as salbutamol in a sample doesn’t mean a mandatory provisional suspension.

Froome and Team Sky have said they can explain the positive result but Martin said that he had the “impression that there is wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes”.

Martin also questioned whether Team Sky and Froome had a “special status” within the sport, which explained why it took nearly three months for the case to be made public.

BBC Sport, noting that Brian Cookson stood down as UCI president on 21 September, the day after Froome was “notified of the adverse analytical finding”, asked the Briton if he was aware of his compatriot being treated differently.

“As UCI president I therefore had no role or influence in any individual case,” said Cookson,

“I had then, and still have today, confidence in the integrity of all those involved, that they would always follow the correct procedures in every case, and that no rider was treated in any way differently from any other.”

But Martin believes that the whole affair has dealt a “major blow to the difficult anti-doping fight” and he criticised the way it had been handled by the UCI.

“We need a consequent and transparent approach by the UCI,” said the 32-year-old. “What is going on here is inconsequent, not transparent, unprofessional and unfair.”

Meanwhile, The Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC), an organisation with strict doping controls and which counts nine of the 18 World Tour teams among its members, told The Times that they had invited Team Sky to join last month but received no response.

“We invited Team Sky to join the MPCC as they are the best team in the world right now but we received no reply,” said MPCC’s president Roger Legeay. “We believe it would help the credibility of the sport as our members have stricter rules.”

According to The Times Team Sky have no plans to join “because they believe that their internal anti-doping policies are at least as effective as those of the MPCC”.

Legeay appears to believe that is not the case, expressing his surprise that Froome’s doctor had advised him to increase his use of Salbutamol “because then there is a risk he could go above the line”.

British cyclist Chris Froome failed a drugs test at the Vuelta a Espana in September after he was found to have had elevated levels of the asthma drug Salbutamol in his system.

A joint investigation by The Guardian and Le Monde revealed the Team Sky rider had double the permitted 1,000 nanograms per millilitre of in a urine test.

The sport’s governing body, the UCI, is seeking an explanation. Froome says it is “absolutely right” to question the results.

He said: “It is well known that I have asthma and I know exactly what the rules are. I use an inhaler to manage my symptoms [always within the permissible limits] and I know for sure that I will be tested every day I wear the race leader’s jersey.

“My asthma got worse at the Vuelta so I followed the team doctor’s advice to increase my Salbutamol dosage. As always, I took the greatest care to ensure that I did not use more than the permissible dose.

“I take my leadership position in my sport very seriously. The UCI is absolutely right to examine test results and, together with the team, I will provide whatever information it requires.”

Team Sky principal Sir Dave Brailsford added: “There are complex medical and physiological issues which affect the metabolism and excretion of Salbutamol. We’re committed to establishing the facts and understanding exactly what happened on this occasion.

“I have the utmost confidence that Chris followed the medical guidance in managing his asthma symptoms, staying within the permissible dose for Salbutamol. Of course, we will do whatever we can to help address these questions.”

Should the test result be upheld, Froome could face a long ban and have to forfeit his Vuelta title. He could also miss next year’s Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.

In a statement, the UCI confirmed Froome was notified of an “adverse analytical finding” on 20 September, but he would not face a mandatory provisional suspension.

“The analysis of the B sample has confirmed the results of the rider’s A sample and the proceedings are being conducted in line with the UCI anti-doping rules,” it said.

“As a matter of principle, and while not required by the world anti-doping code, the UCI systematically reports potential anti-doping rule violations via its website when a mandatory provisional suspension applies.

“Pursuant to article 7.9.1. of the UCI anti-doping rules, the presence of a specified substance such as salbutamol in a sample does not result in the imposition of such mandatory provisional suspension against the rider.”

Chris Froome pedalled further into the pantheon of cycling greats yesterday when he won the Vuelta a Espana.

Not only was it the first time that Froome has triumphed in Spain’s most prestigious event, but he is also the first British cyclist to win the race and only the third rider in history to take the Vuelta and the Tour de France titles in the same year.

The last man was Bernard Hinault in 1978, but the Frenchman had an easier itinerary (as did compatriot Jacques Anquetil, the other rider to do the double) because up until 1995 the Vuelta a Espana was in April, three months before the Tour de France.

Froome’s achievement is all the more remarkable because he won his fourth Tour de France title just a few weeks ago, a victory he described at the time as “my toughest challenge yet”.

But despite the savage punishment he took in France, Froome - who finished second in the Vuelta in 2011, 2014 and 2016 - was able to summon up the stamina and will to win the Vuelta a Espana, all but clinching the title on Saturday’s penultimate 20th stage.

Prior to embarking on yesterday’s processional stage, which took the peloton 118km to a finish in Madrid, Froome reflected on what he has achieved in the last few weeks in Spain.

Calling the race “probably the toughest Grand Tour I’ve ever ridden”, the Briton added: “There was something different happening every day. I’ve had good days and then I’ve been lying on the ground, bleeding, thinking my race might be over.”

Yesterday’s final stage was won by Italian Matteo Trentin, with Froome easing home in 11th surrounded by his Team Sky teammates. The result meant he finished more than two minutes ahead of Vincenzo Nibali of Italy in the general classification, with Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin third.

Veteran Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador ended his notable career with a fifth-place finish, and the 34-year-old was duly accorded a rapturous lap of honour by his home crowd.

Froome, who led the race from stage three and endured broiling sun and freezing rain along the way, celebrated his historic win with a pizza, tweeting a photograph of the culinary delight along with the message: “Job done!”

Later, he told reporters what doing the Grand Tour double meant to him. “I’ve been trying for years and I’ve been second three times, so to win the Vuelta now is incredible,” he said.

“For me it certainly has been harder to win the Vuelta than the Tour. Up until now my focus has been 100% on the Tour de France and trying to survive the Vuelta, whereas this year the plan was to start the season later.

“Maybe I wasn’t quite at my top, top for the Tour de France, but it means I’ve been able to hold my form for longer and that has shown in this year’s Vuelta.”

If Froome wants to go down as history as arguably the greatest cyclist in history, his target may be to win an unprecedented three Grand Tours in the same year, by also claiming the Giro d’Italia title.

It’s never been done before, but such is Froome’s dominance that Hinault challenged the Briton to go for it.

“The three weeks’ rest between the Tour [de France] and the Vuelta give a rider the chance to win both,” said the Frenchman in The Times. “I even think it’s possible to win the three Grand Tours.”

As Team Sky celebrate a fifth Tour de France triumph, their boss Dave Brailsford has lashed out at what he regards as the softening of the ethos in British cycling.

Brailsford was in Paris on Sunday to see Chris Froome stand on the podium in his fourth Yellow Jersey but in an interview on the way back to Britain with the Daily Mirror, he addressed recent allegations of bullying within British cycling.

The claims were made by Jess Varnish, who was dropped from the world-class performance programme last year and subsequently accused former-technical director Shane Sutton of directing sexist language towards her. That prompted an independent review into the culture of British cycling, the outcome of which was a pledge by the sport to undergo governance reform including more emphasis on athlete welfare.

The saga has clearly irked Brailsford who said: "What we have got to be a little bit careful of is getting a bit too PC about it all. Then all of a sudden the coaches, a bit like a teacher in a classroom, can't do anything. If we get too fluffy, then we might as well accept we just go for participation rather than winning."

Declaring that the review had simply allowed people the chance to "air grievances from the past", Brailsford pointed to the astonishing transform of British sport since the 1996 Olympic Games.

"When we set out, we won only one gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. For a nation of 60-odd million people, that's not great. To go to what happened in Rio 20 years later is a phenomenal transformation. We were the gallant losers, and somebody had to come along and say: 'We are going to change this now'."

Pointing out that "winning is a brutal game", the Team Sky principal said: "We need to recognise that the system we have is world class and we should be doing everything we can to keep that… Let's not go too far in the other direction or we will lose the very essence of what it took to win in the first place."

Few people know about the brutality of what it takes to be a winner than Froome, and in hailing his achievements Brailsford said he always put success before celebrity.

"I'm proud of Chris Froome. He's a great ambassador for the sport, and this is the greatest victory I've been involved in. It's not a popularity contest – you have to look at the sporting achievement and Chris is right up there with the greats."

Chris Froome confirmed his reputation as one of the greatest cyclists in history by winning the Tour de France for a fourth time on Sunday.

Froome triumphed for the third year in a row, having opened his account in 2013, as he safely crossed the finish line on the Champs Elysees behind stage winner Dylan Groenewegen following a gruelling battle over the past three weeks.

The British rider is now clear of three-time winners Philippe Thys, Louison Bobet and Greg LeMond with only Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain ahead of him on five.

Froome's domination of the famous race will ensure his place in the sport's record books, says William Fotheringham in The Guardian, but the manner in which he achieved it means he is unlikely to receive the credit he deserves.

"He is a champion who has versatility and grit, if not charisma or popularity. As Froome's fourth win loomed large, it was inevitable that at least one French newspaper would describe the Tour winner using Antoine Blondin's sublime pun, 'gérant de la route' – a wordplay on the verb gérer, meaning to manage or regulate, and the hoary French cliche for the Tour riders, les géants de la route. An English translation might be accountancy on wheels."

In contrast to his previous victories, Froome did show moments of vulnerability this year, which his rivals might have been able to take advantage of but for the strength of Team Sky and his trusty lieutenant Mikel Landa in particular.

He was tested by Fabio Aru – who took the yellow jersey off him for one day before handing it straight back – Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran but made sure of victory and with it confirmed his status as the most complete rider across all disciplines in the time trial on the penultimate stage in Marseille.

His Team Sky team-mate Geraint Thomas – who wore the yellow jersey early in the race before crashing out - says in the Daily Telegraph that Froome's achievements cannot be under-estimated.

"I have said it countless times, but he does not get half the credit he deserves in this country. He is on the cusp of legendary status now. If he joins the five-time club next year, or even goes beyond that and beats the record held by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain, he will have to be regarded as one of the greatest sportsmen this country has ever seen. To my mind he already is."

While the British public are strangely cold to Froome's phenomenal success, compared to the hero-status awarded to the country's first Tour winner Bradley Wiggins, the French are openly hostile towards him.

In previous years Froome has had urine thrown at him by spectators and was once again booed during some of the mountain stages but his latest victory at least brought a kind of grudging respect from Le Figaro.

"Installed behind the legendary Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain, Froome will never have the elegance of the Norman, the versatility of the Belgian, the violence of the Breton or the power of the Spaniard. With his own style, he often gives the impression of pushing a trolley in a supermarket. Elbows spread, upper body straight, head wagging. Without grace but with formidable efficiency."

The ongoing strength of British cycling was confirmed with Simon Yates finishing seventh behind Froome and in doing so emulating the achievement of his twin brother Adam 12 months ago by winning the white jersey for best young rider while Team Sky took the team award.

The ninth stage of the Tour de France turned into a savage Sunday for the peloton as they negotiated three fearsome climbs in the Alps during the 181.5km between Nantua and Chambery.

The good news for British cycling fans was that Chris Froome retained the yellow jersey with a ride of real guts but the bad news was his compatriot and Team Sky teammate Geraint Thomas crashed out of the tour. The Welshman broke a collarbone in a nasty fall and he wasn't the only rider to come to grief on a brutal day's racing.

Also out is Dutch rider Robert Gesink, who finished second in Saturday's stage eight but skidded off the wet road early on in Sunday, and Australia's Richie Porte. The BMC rider suffered a horrific crash as he descended the Mont du Chat towards the end of the stage, hurtling into a rock face at an estimated speed of 45 mph and breaking his collarbone and pelvis .

According to The Guardian, the front wheel of Porte's bike "dropped off the left-hand side of the tarmac on a sinuous stretch of road" and he careered out of control, skewing across the tarmac to his right, smashing into the rocks before bouncing into the road where he was hit by Dan Martin. The Irishman was unsaddled but was able to remount and finish the race. "I was very, very lucky to get away as lightly as I did," Martin said later. "Richie lost it on one corner - it was so slippery. I guess the organisers got what they wanted. It was so slippery under the trees."

As riders continued to hurtle down the mountain, medics put a neck brace around Porte and stretchered him into an ambulance that transported him to hospital. The horror crash overshadowed the climax to the stage that saw Colombian Rigoberto Uran just edge out Frenchman Romain Bardet on the finishing line. Froome came home in third and in doing so picked up four bonus seconds to extend his overall lead over Italy's Fabio Aru to 18 seconds. Third is Bardet, who lies 51 seconds behind the Briton.

"Questions must be asked of race organisers Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) for including a treacherous final descent after one of the toughest climbing stages in recent Tour history," says The Guardian.

"Relieved to finish safely but thoughts are with everyone that crashed today, especially Geraint Thomas & Richie Porte," tweeted an exhausted Froome. The defending teammate has relied heavily on his Welsh teammate throughout his Tour career and he is good friends with Porte.

In a statement posted on the Team Sky website, Thomas spoke of his "devastation" at being forced to abandon the race and he then described what happened: "Everyone was nervous, everyone wanted to be at the front and a few people were battling to get between myself, Froomey and the rest of the boys," he said. "I let [Rafal] Majka in and then he came down right in front of me on a straight bit of road. I had nowhere to go, went over the top of him and landed on my collarbone...I got back on the bike and carried on down the descent, but when I got on the flat I knew something was wrong. Then the race doctor said exactly the same, so I ended up stopping then, went for a scan and it’s broken."

Serious though Porte's injuries are, a statement released by his team, BMC, said: "At this stage, the injuries will not require surgery. The plan is to re-evaluate Richie tomorrow morning [Monday] and confirm that he is stable enough to be transferred home… if everything goes to plan, Richie could be back on the bike at the beginning of August and slowly build his fitness up from there."

Stage four of the Tour de France ended in bloodshed and acrimony after a sickening collision between Mark Cavendish and world champion Peter Sagan.

X-rays revealed Cavendish had broken his right shoulder and has been forced to withdraw from the race.

"I feel I was in a good position to win and to lose that and even having to leave the Tour, a race I've built my whole career around, is really sad," he said.

His sadness won't be eased by the expulsion of Sagan for causing the crash but nonetheless Cavendish will feel that justice has been served on the Slovak rider.

"A crash is a crash,” said Cavendish immediately after the collision. “I have a good relationship with Peter, I'd just like to speak to him about it.

"I get on with Peter well but I'm not a fan of him putting his elbow in me like that."

It was Sagan's right elbow that did the damage, appearing to send Cavendish crashing into the safety barrier 200 metres from the line.

According to The Guardian, "he hit the road so hard he folded the spider and the chainring of his chainset so that they were pointing backwards".

Sagan, who won Monday's third stage, was initially handed a 30-second penalty and relegated from second place in the stage to 115th (last place in the lead group) but on review the race jury decided that the gravity of his misdemeanour warranted expulsion from the Tour.

"We've decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the Tour de France 2017 after the tumultuous sprint, here in Vittel," they said.

"He endangered multiple riders, Mark Cavendish and others who were implicated in the crash, in the final metres of the sprint. We applied article 12.104, irregular sprints, in which case commissaires are allowed to enforce a judgement to disqualify a rider and amend a fine."

"It’s not nice to crash like that," Sagan said immediately afterwards. "It’s the sprint. I just didn’t know that Mark is behind me. He’s coming from the right side. Mark was coming pretty fast from the back and after I just didn’t have time to react, to go left, and he just came [into] me and after into the fence."

Amid the chaos there was also cause to celebrate, at least for French cycling fans. Arnaud Demare, from the FDJ team, won the stage, becoming the first Frenchman to win a bunch sprint stage for 11 years. “It’s extraordinary, it’s marvellous!” declared Demare, who finished second in the sprint finish in Sunday's second stage.

Overall leader Geraint Thomas also fell in the closing stages of the 207.5km stage from Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel as the road narrowed downhill and turned sharply, but he was able to get back on his bike and cross the finish line. As the fall occurred within the final three kilometres he will be given the same time as the winner.

"I went to the ground, but there was no serious damage,” said Thomas, who retains the yellow jersey, with Chris Froome, his Team Sky team-mate, still in second, 12 seconds behind the Welshman.

Defending champion Froome will be more at home in today's fifth stage, which takes the peloton into the Vosges mountains.

The Tour has come this way before, in 2012 and 2014, and on both occasions the race leader at the summit - Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Vincenzo Nibali in 2014 - has gone on to win the Tour.

Geraint Thomas is still wearing the Tour de France yellow jersey, although the British rider couldn't prevent world champion Peter Sagan winning stage three in a dramatic sprint finish uphill.

The 27-year-old Slovak, who rides for Bora-Hansgrohe, powered over the line in front of Australia's Michael Matthews, with Ireland's Dan Martin third. Thomas finished eighth, two seconds behind Sagan, with Chris Froome ninth.

Remarkably, Sagan won the stage even though his right foot slipped off the pedal as he launched into the final sprint 300m from the finish line in Longwy. Keeping his cool, Sagan clipped his shoe back in and held off Matthews for his eighth stage win in the Tour de France.

"After Richie Porte attacked I decided to go and I said to myself I was going too early," said Sagan. "But I sprinted and my foot came out, another mistake, but I got my foot back in and I won. Matthews almost got me but I'm happy for the victory."

Also happy is Thomas, who will wear the leader's jersey for today's fourth stage, which takes the peloton on a 207.5km route from Mondorf-les-Bains to Vittel.

"It was a hectic day," said Thomas. "When those three guys got across, the peloton had to speed up a lot. It was not relaxing, so I am happy to get through it with Froomey. One day down, and it’s certainly good to get through days like that unscathed."

The Welshman is 12 seconds clear of defending champion and Team Sky team-mate Froome, who is second overall.

Froome kept out of trouble for most of the race, tracking Belgian riders Philippe Gilbert and Greg van Avermaet, Spain's Alberto Contador and Australia's Richie Porte, who was the first to attack as the leaders jostled for position on the twisting climb to the finish.

"It wasn’t at all [premeditated]," Porte said of his bid for glory. "The guys put me in a fantastic position, and I felt good. But then with 500 metres to go, it was a little far out. It was probably out of the question for me once Sagan came up."

Froome described the finish as "interesting", and the three-times champion was clearly relieved to have got the stage out of the way, especially given Sunday's spectacular mass pile-up that unseated him from his saddle.

"Everyone was nervous," he said. "Everyone saw what happened yesterday [Sunday] in the last 25 kilometres and everyone wanted to be on the right side of that if that was to happen again."

While some eyes are focussed on Andy Murray's progress at SW19 for the next few weeks, ​there's British sporting excellence ongoing elsewhere.

Geraint Thomas became the eighth Brit to lead the Tour de France when he won Saturday's opening stage, and he's joined some illustrious company...

Tom Simpson

Days in yellow: 1

One of Britain's greatest ever cyclists, Tommy Simpson spent just a single day in the Maillot Jaune in 1962, a daring attack up the Col du Tourmalet in the race's first mountain stage saw him become the first Britain to don the famous leader's jersey.

Simpson finished sixth that year, 17 minutes behind five-time winner Jacques Anquetil. He would only finish one more Tour de France in his career, registering a DNF in 1965, '66 and '67; the year in which he died while ascending Mont Ventoux on the 13th stage.

Chris Boardman

Days in yellow: 6

A superlative time-trialist, Boardman ended Britain's 32-year wait for a Tour leader in 1994 when he thrashed around a 7.2km prologue in Lille to put 15 seconds between him and second-placed Miguel Indurain.

He held that jersey a further two days before being unseated by classics specialist Johan Museeuw, but came back to snatch the yellow jersey in the 1997 and 1998 prologues.

Sean Yates

Days in yellow: 1

You wait 32 years for a British yellow jersey wearer, then two come along in a week.

A punishing 270.5km stage six in 1994 saw Yates jump into a breakaway early on, finishing sixth in the stage behind Gianluca Bortolami - but ended the day one second ahead thanks to a better prologue performance the previous Saturday.

David Miller

Days in yellow: 3

Another tour beginning with a time trial, another Briton in yellow. The 16.5km stage against the clock in Futuroscope was Miller's first experience in the famous race, and saw him beat a pre-doping scandal Lance Armstrong by two seconds.

It wasn't until a team time trial three days later that he was deposed, Laurent Jalabert taking advantage of the strength in depth of his ONCE-Deutsche Bank team to wear yellow for the next two days.

Bradley Wiggins

Days in yellow: 13

Track star turned time-trialist turned Grand Tour contender, Wiggins took the lead at the ski resort of La Planche des Belles Filles in stage seven of the 2012 event - a stage which was actually won by his teammate Chris Froome.

He and his Team Sky squad never relinquished that lead, their dominance such that they took a rare one-two with Froome in second place.

Chris Froome

Days in yellow: 44

In the absence of Wiggins in 2013, Froome stepped up as Team Sky's leader in style. A dominant team display saw him wear the maillot jaune from the eighth stage through to Paris - a feat he repeated in 2016.

2015, though, was possibly Froome's crowning moment. Bouncing back from the disappointment of an injury-enforced exit the year before, the Nairobi-born Brit spent all but five days of the race in yellow across two different spells. Don't bet against a fourth success in 2017.

Mark Cavendish

Days in yellow: 1

The absence of an opening time trial in the 2016 edition of the Tour gave the sprinters a chance to snatch the lead early, and Cavendish grabbed that opportunity with both hands to beat out Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan - his first of four stage wins last year.

Geraint Thomas

Days in yellow: Ongoing

A masterful performance in the driving rain in Düsseldorf on Saturday saw the Welshman become the eighth Brit to wear one of sport's most recognisable strips. Don't expect him to hold it through to Paris though - he'll be riding in support of his team leader Froome.

Sir Dave Brailsford has launched a staunch defence of himself and Team Sky ahead of the start of the Tour de France.

The team principal has endured a torrid few months, with many questioning the credibility of British cycling after a string of unsavoury revelations.

Team Sky have been the dominant outfit in the Tour de France in recent years and on Sunday will embark on their attempt to win a fifth yellow jersey in six years.

Sir Bradley Wiggins won the first of those in 2012 but he and Team Sky have subsequently been heavily criticised for their use of therapeutic use exemptions. In December Brailsford was called before a Culture, Media and Sport select committee to answer doping questions and explain the contents of a package delivered to Wiggins before the first of his two wins at the Criterium du Dauphine in 2011. The package was a "decongestant", explained Brailsford, who has always emphatically denied any wrongdoing. "I've been involved in this sport a long time, and I've tried to do it absolutely in the way that I've always thought it should be done," he said. "I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. I'm proud of cycling in Britain, I'm proud of everything that's been achieved, I'm proud of these guys, proud of Team Sky. I love it, I'm going nowhere."

Nonetheless, Team Sky will be under greater scrutiny than ever at this year's Tour after what The Guardian describes as "eight months of scandal including a UK Anti-Doping inquiry". That was prompted by revelations that Team Sky had acquired 55 doses of the corticosteroid triamcinolone over three seasons, yet were unable to provide the paperwork to account for its use. “We’ve always been under more scrutiny than other teams," said Brailsford. "We’ve raced in France this year, we’ve raced abroad, there’s been a very positive reception on the roadside. That’s how I would see it.”

Tour champion Chris Froome, who is chasing his fourth Tour de France title this year, said he had "no trust issues" with Team Sky but said he understood why some cycling fans may be sceptical. "I do sympathise with people who have had their doubts because I've had my doubts as well about performances post the early 2000s," said Froome, who has yet to win a race this season. "I can see where those questions are coming from [but] I don't have any trust issues."

Froome has been called a doper by French cycling fans in recent years and in 2015 he had urine thrown over him during the Tour. "Certainly I've learned to grow a thicker skin over the years and I understand where it's coming from, given cycling's history," he said. As for his chances of retaining his title, the Briton said: "This is potentially a fourth Tour de France title that I’m here to try and get. The challenge is bigger, the level of my rivals is higher on a difficult course so I’m here with all the motivation I’ve had before, if not more."

An investigation into the "culture of fear" within British Cycling has been accused of a whitewash "after many criticisms contained in a draft report were removed", reports The Times.

The Cycling Independent Report (CIR) says there was a lack of "good governance" at the board of British Cycling, which failed to act over warnings of bad behaviour in 2012.

It also criticises the board for its "inappropriate" response to an inquiry held after former rider Jess Varnish claimed she had been the victim of sexism and bullying.

"However a number of damning statements in the draft report have been removed, including that the board had been 'shocking and inexcusable' and had 'sanitised' the findings of the internal investigation into Varnish’s claims," says Martyn Ziegler of the Times. "The draft also seriously questioned whether the board were fit to govern the sport."

Ben Rumsby of the Daily Telegraph claims the official version of the report is seven pages shorter than its predecessor.

"Criticism of former performance director Sir Dave Brailsford was all but expunged, although serious accusations made against [ex-technical director Shane] Sutton - who denies using discriminatory language - remain," he says.

Rumsby adds that British Cycling last year found Sutton guilty of only one of nine charges of using discriminatory language.

The Cycling Independent Report has taken 14 months to compile after claims of discrimination from Varnish and other Olympic and Paralympic riders, says Martha Kelner in The Guardian.

The investigation was led by former British Rowing chairman Annamarie Phelps, who has denied the whitewash allegations.

However, Kelner says there have been "subtle but significant changes in the wording of the new report".

She adds: "Whereas the draft report concludes there 'was and remains a culture of fear' at the programme, the new report states 'many staff members said there was a culture of fear'."

Despite the reaction, UK Sport, "which is in the midst of a duty of care crisis in many Olympic sports, has promised to conduct a root-and-branch review of culture across the high-performance system", says the journalist.

Lance Armstrong faces the prospect of "financial ruin" after he failed to block a $100m (£80m) lawsuit brought by the US government against him and his former team.

The claim, which dates back seven years, was initially brought by fellow cyclist Floyd Landis and relates to the sponsorship of Armstrong's team by the publicly funded US Postal Service.

"Landis, himself a former doping cheat who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title, sued Armstrong under the federal False Claims Act, alleging Armstrong and his team committed fraud against the government when they cheated while riding under the Postal Service banner," says ESPN.

The US Postal Service first sponsored Armstrong's team in 1996. It signed a new deal worth around $32m in 1999, after the cyclist won the Tour de France for the first time. It ran from 2000 to 2004.

"The law allows Landis and the government to sue to get that money back and for 'treble' damages, or triple the amount, and Armstrong could be forced to pay all of it," says ESPN. "Landis stands to receive up to 25 percent of any damages awarded."

Armstrong, who was stripped of the seven Tour de France titles he won between 1999 and 2005 after he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs, had argued that the financial benefits of the sponsorship deal outweighed the costs thanks to the media exposure it earned the US Postal Service.

While, he tried to prevent a trial and applied to have the case decided by summary judgment, Armstrong now seems destined for a court appearance and could be ruined if the case goes against him, says the London Evening Standard.

"Armstrong's net worth was estimated at $125m at its peak but he is already thought to have shelled out £8m in damages and settlements," adds the paper.

"Armstrong had already put his £6m Austin home on the market last year as he began to feel the pinch following his admission, with the loss his sponsorship deals."

Olympic cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins has been forced to quit the winter sports reality show The Jump with a broken leg, reinforcing the programme's reputation for injuries and adding to the former Tour de France winner's woes.

Wiggins said he was "gutted" to be forced out of the show after sustaining a "small leg fracture" in snowcross training.

Revealing the news on Twitter, Britain's most decorated Olympian said he would not need surgery or even wear a cast, but had been told he needed three to six weeks' rest. He will not appear on the show past episode four.

"The eight-times Olympic medallist and 2012 Tour de France winner joins a long list of contestants to have suffered painful injuries while participating in the Channel 4 show," says The Guardian. "The former Olympic gymnast Beth Tweddle required neck surgery after a crash during a training session for the programme in February 2016."

Despite a safety review after the 2016 series, Wiggins is the second celebrity to withdraw from the show this year. He will be following in the footsteps of model Vogue Williams, who pulled out of The Jump with a knee injury.

Wiggins's decision to take part in the show came after his reputation and that of British Cycling and Team Sky took a battering over rumours about a mysterious package sent to him on the eve of a major race and revelations about his use of "therapeutic use exemptions" for banned substances.

"[If] Wiggins went on The Jump to rehabilitate his public image, it wasn't a terribly successful mission," says the Daily Telegraph. "Wiggo claimed to be "gutted" by his withdrawal from the series but didn't ever seem thrilled to be taking part. He looked distinctly cheesed off during his interview with presenter Davina McCall.

"The sulky, sideburned cyclist should have taken some tips from the likes of Robbie Fowler and Gareth Thomas – retired sportsmen who are taking The Jump in the right spirit and winning new fans."

It's been a great year for UK sport, but a dark cloud still hangs over British Cycling.

While not lessening the achievements of Laura Trott, Jason Kenny and Tour de France winner Chris Froome, 2016 will go down as the year the wheels came off for the governing body of the country's most successful sport, says Dan Roan of the BBC.

"One drugs test was failed, several were missed, there were accusations of bullying, sexism, discrimination and misappropriation of kit, several investigations, bitter recriminations, and finally, two major resignations; of technical director Shane Sutton and chief executive Ian Drake."

The cracks first appeared when Sutton was accused of bullying and sexism by rider Jess Varnish after she was dropped from the Olympic team in March. He left the organisation in April, but an internal investigation this month upheld only one of nine accusations against him. Varnish has vowed to appeal.

However, while that controversy was playing out, British Cycling and its leader, Dave Brailsford, were caught up in a separate row over medications. The lightning rod for the controversy was the contents of a jiffy bag delivered to Team Sky rider Bradley Wiggins on the final day of the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine.

"The controversy around the package has impacted on both British Cycling and Sky because of the crossover between the two organisations - British Cycling coach Simon Cope was asked by Sky to deliver the mystery package - and the fact that at one stage Brailsford was the boss of both," says the Daily Mail.

Brailsford told a parliamentary committee this week that the package contained the decongestant Fluimucil.

However, "plenty of questions remain and the reputation of both his team and the sport's governing body has taken a battering", says Roan of the BBC.

One question involves the lack of paperwork surrounding the package. "Records should exist of the Fluimucil being ordered and prescribed but UK Anti-Doping investigators have been unable to find a paper trail confirming that it was the drug contained in the package carried to France by a British Cycling coach," says The Times.

"If no such records exist, that could point to a failure by British Cycling and medical staff to maintain the necessary paperwork and the governing body would at least be expected to provide a satisfactory explanation as to why they are not available."

Meanwhile, the pressure on British Cycling "has intensified with one former coach recalling a culture of 'lies, bullying and harassment' at cycling's national governing body", says the Daily Telegraph. His claims have been passed to the independent inquiry looking into the culture at the organisation.

Team Sky's attempts to present a united front in the face of an escalating crisis appear to have backfired after triple Tour de France winner Chris Froome failed to back Sir Dave Brailsford amid rumours about his future as team principal.

With the team's reputation in "tatters" following a UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) investigation and a series of damaging sessions in front of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, Cycling News website reports that riders are considering asking the coach to resign.

According to the site, with Brailsford "at the centre of a major controversy over the team's medical practices", several riders have "held discussions" over whether to ask him to step down.

"According to a source among the riders, the continued questions over the team's credibility have started to impact on performance," it says.

Following the claim, riders including Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe took to Twitter to stand up for Brailsford - but the story soon took another twist when it was suggested they may have been following team orders.

"The crisis around Team Sky showed no signs of abating last night as riders were urged to tweet support for Sir Dave Brailsford," says Matt Dickinson in The Times. "But Chris Froome, the three-times Tour de France winner, was notable by his silence."

Tom Cary in the Daily Telegraph says riders had been urged to "show public support" amid fears that Team Sky faces "oblivion".

He adds: "Brailsford, the mastermind behind the enormous success of both British Cycling and Team Sky over the past decade, is under immense pressure following revelations concerning UK Anti-Doping’s drugs probe into both organisations."

Nicole Sapstead, the chief executive of Ukad, last week told MPs investigators had met "resistance" from Team Sky and British Cycling and they "could not establish the contents of the infamous Jiffy bag flown out to Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2011, and that there had been a shocking lack of medical record-keeping which raised worrying questions", adds the Telegraph.

Froome's failure to back his boss is the latest blow for Brailsford, who was urged to quit by William Fotheringham in The Observer on Sunday.

He argued the coach's position was "shaky" after it emerged Wiggins had used therapeutic use exemptions, became "untenable" when he was forced to address the issue of the Jiffy bag sent across Europe to Wiggins in 2011, and was now "impossible" after the events of the past week.

Fotheringham will not have been surprised by Froome's Twitter silence – he interviewed the cyclist in January and says "his backing for his boss did not even match that of a prime minister about to throw a chancellor to the men in suits".

Team Sky and British Cycling stripped of all credibility

2 March

The credibility of Team Sky and British Cycling is in "tatters" and its funding in doubt after another bruising day of evidence to the Culture Media and Sport select committee. During the session, UK Anti-Doping chief executive Nicole Sapstead revealed that the team had no records of what drugs were given to riders.

The day began with cycling coach Simon Cope, the man who transported the notorious jiffy bag apparently containing an over-the-counter medication halfway across Europe to Bradley Wiggins, joking that he sometimes fiddled his expenses.

Cope admitted he had no idea what was in the package and agreed that he had been "hung out to dry" by his superiors. But Sapstead, who has overseen a five-month investigation into Team Sky and British Cycling, is the "demolition agent" who destroyed the reputation of British Cycling and Team Sky, says William Fotheringham of The Guardian.

Yesterday's evidence was devastating. "By the end of an extraordinary session of damaging revelations, fraudulent expenses were the least of cycling's problems," says Matt Dickinson of The Times. "This became a horrendous afternoon when a doctor's professional reputation was battered, medical practices at British Cycling and Team Sky exposed as chaotic and compromised, and a new cloud of suspicion placed over the ethics of both organisations.

"And still Sir Bradley Wiggins was saying no comment even though he is the rider at the heart of it all, the cause of this storm with his three controversial injections for triamcinolone and the medical package delivered to him and Dr Richard Freeman in June 2011."

Team Sky's aim when it was set up in 2009 was to prove that cycling races could be won "clean", says Fotheringham of the Guardian. Against that backdrop, Sapstead said it was unfortunate that the team had no records of what medicines its doctor, Richard Freeman, administered to his athletes. The only documentation was on his laptop, which was stolen in 2014, she was told.

She described the situation as "odd". But "that was an understatement," says Fotheringham. "There have been no positive drug tests, so according to the letter of the law the mission has been achieved, but there has been a persistent, gradual erosion of the team's credibility."

Committee chairman Damian Collins said British Cycling and Team Sky's reputation was in "tatters" following the evidence of Cope and Sapstead.

And there could be repercussions. UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said the lack of record keeping at British Cycling and Team Sky was “shocking”. She threatened to withdraw funding for the next Olympic cycle "unless it gets its house in order", reports the Daily Telegraph.

"British Cycling's new chairman, Jonathan Browning, agreed with her that the evidence heard by MPs was 'unacceptable' and said his organisation would carry out a thorough review of its medical practices," adds the paper.

That may not be the end of it. There are claims the General Medical Council could also get involved as the absence of records breaches its guidelines.

Nicole Cooke makes explosive claims against British Cycling

25 January

Nicole Cooke, the ex-Olympic cycling gold medallist, has rounded on senior figures at British Cycling, accusing the organisation of being institutionally sexist and casting doubt on its claim to be the cleanest team in the sport.

Her comments to MPs "cast grave doubt on Sir Bradley Wiggins's use of therapeutic use exemptions", says The Times as she made a series of "explosive" accusations against senior figures within the organisation.

She said she was "sceptical" over injections of triamcinolone given to Wiggins shortly before the 2011 and 2012 Tours, and the 2013 Giro d’Italia. Cooke also expressed disbelief over the saga of the jiffy bag sent to Wiggins in 2011, which team boss Sir Dave Brailsford says he was told contained an over-the-counter medication, although no paperwork has been found.

"I think the stance of being the 'cleanest' team and yet the team principal not knowing what the riders were treated with, definitely makes it hard to back up that claim," she said.

Cooke also described cycling as "a sport run by men, for men". She recounted her experience of having to pay for flights and accommodation and said: "The facts are they did nothing for the women."

"Throughout a one-hour appearance before the department of culture, media and sport select committee, Cooke was measured and convincing," says The Guardian. "But her evidence ended up being damning for some of the most respected organisations in British sport."

It was another blow for "one of the great success stories of British sport", says Matt Dickinson of The Times. "One MP said she was 'horrified' while others claimed to be 'shocked' by the disparity between the gleaming facade and the mangled internal workings as painted by this Olympic road race champion.

"This glaring clash of perceptions is only likely to get worse with the imminent publication of a report into the culture within British Cycling due out next month, which has heard from Cooke, and more complainants, about discrimination."

A "painful dissection of the truth lies ahead", says Dickinson. "It will get worse before it gets better for a sport which manages to be both Team GB's most successful and, in the past 12 months, most troubled."

Some may choose to ignore Cooke, says Tom Cary of the Daily Telegraph. After all she is "about as feisty an individual as you could wish to meet" who has made similar allegations in the past. Some of her evidence was "certainly debatable" he says, given that since 2008 the women's team have won 62 medals at Olympic and world championships, one fewer then the men's team, despite having fewer events.

"What is certain is that to dismiss Cooke's evidence on Tuesday out of hand as that of a bitter and twisted rider, or a 'troublemaker' as she described herself, is to miss the point entirely.

"Taken as a whole, the accusations paint a disturbing picture – especially taken in conjunction with other recent testimony from the likes of Jess Varnish and Victoria Pendleton – and at the very least they prompt much-needed debate about the way elite sport is run, policed and funded in this country."

Brailsford fights back as Wiggins jiffy bag saga rumbles on

11 January

Under fire Team Sky cycling chief Sir Dave Brailsford has hit back at criticism from the head of UK Anti-Doping as controversy continues to swirl around his team.

Ukad chairman David Kenworthy described some of the claims made by Brailsford to MPs investigating allegations of wrongdoing in cycling as "extraordinary" over the weekend, prompting the Team Sky supremo to suggest that Kenworthy was undermining the select committee probe.

The latest row represents yet another chapter in the saga of the jiffy bag sent to Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2011. Appearing before MPs before Christmas, Brailsford revealed that the package contained an over-the-counter medication called Fluimucil.

"To say that the evidence given by Brailsford and others, including British Cycling's president Bob Howden, had left some unconvinced would be an understatement," says Tom Cary of the Daily Telegraph. "Three months after beginning its investigation, Ukad has still not been able to verify that claim and last weekend, the chairman of Ukad himself, David Kenworthy, admitted his organisation was no closer to getting to the bottom of the mystery, describing the evidence given to MPs as 'extraordinary'."

Kenworthy's intervention may only add to the confusion as it could prompt MPs to recall Brailsford and other witnesses. In the meantime, and despite the distractions, Team Sky are attempting to prepare for the new season.

"Speaking during Team Sky's media day in Mallorca, Brailsford asserted that he has no intention of resigning from his post with the team," says William Fotherington of The Guardian. "These are far from routine times at the team that has dominated the Tour de France since 2012."

Against that backdrop it is time for the man at the centre of the claims to give his version of events, says Matt Dickinson of The Times. "It is about time we heard more from Wiggins himself, who should be explaining if it was really the simple decongestant Fluimucil that he needed bringing all the way from Manchester to France in June 2011, and why," he says.

"Wiggins has just signed up to a new PR agency and, despite insisting that he would never be seen dead on a celebrity TV show, taken on the dangers of The Jump, presumably in the hope of deflecting from the dents in his reputation."

Bradley Wiggins: MPs to quiz British Cycling over TUE use

28 October

British Cycling chiefs have been ordered to appear before a parliamentary hearing to explain the "full facts" surrounding Sir Bradley Wiggins's use of a powerful corticosteroid before three races. According to The Times, the culture, media and sport select committee will summon officials to their inquiry to discuss the contents of a medical package delivered by a British Cycling coach to Team Sky in France.

The package was handed over shortly after Wiggins had won the Criterium du Dauphine race in 2011 and the Times says it "will intensify pressure on British Cycling to disclose exactly what was in the package". The hearing is part of the committee's inquiry into doping in sport and will take place before Christmas. The list of those to be summoned has yet to be finalised but the committee is expected to examine the close links between British Cycling officials and Team Sky.

Last month Russian hackers revealed that Wiggins, Britain's most decorated Olympian, had been given therapeutic use exemption (TUE) in order to receive injections of triamcinolone.

The first TUE was issued before the 2011 Tour de France and he received further exemptions before the 2012 Tour and the 2013 Giro D'Italia. The 36-year-old has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, explaining that he took the drugs for a pollen allergy and to compete on what he described as “a level playing field” with other riders.

Speaking to the Times, Damian Collins, the committee's newly elected chairman, said: “As part of the inquiry into doping, the select committee wants to look at the ethics of the use of TUEs and the way this is policed by British Cycling. We can ask British Cycling about any incidents in the past where we believe it is important how the governing body oversees their sport."

British Cycling officials will be obliged to cooperate fully with the committee and failure to do so could result in them being held in contempt of parliament. "We welcome any opportunity to support anti-doping efforts," said a spokesman for the organisation.

But this latest development will only increase the scrutiny on British Cycling, which is also being investigated by UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) over allegations of wrongdoing concerning the package that was delivered by Simon Cope, then a British Cycling women's coach and now head of Wiggins's team. The Times says that Ukad investigators are "looking at whether the package was requested for Wiggins by Richard Freeman, the Team Sky doctor."

British world road cycling champion Lizzie Armitstead will be able to compete in the Rio Olympics after she won her appeal against an anti-doping rule violation.

The 27-year-old Yorkshire rider, who won silver at the women's road race event in London four years ago, had faced a ban after missing three out-of-competition tests. The UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) provisionally suspended the world champion on 11 July this year after she failed to attend a third doping control in 12 months.

Armitstead missed her first doping control at a World Cup event in Sweden on 20 August, 2015. The second was in October last year and the third was on 9 June this year after what the rider described as a "an emergency change of plans due to a serious illness within her family". While Armitstead did not appeal against the second and third controls she contested the first missed test in Sweden last summer saying that the correct procedure had not been followed.

A British Cycling-funded legal team backed Armitstead in her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), reports Cycling Weekly. It says her team managed to show that the UK Anti-Doping official did not make sufficient efforts to contact the rider while she slept in a hotel last August.

Armitstead submitted to a test the following day after a UCI Women’s World Cup event in Sweden. However, Cycling Weekly says that the second and third failures remain on the record though Armitstead claims the second "was a filing fault on her part on the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System".

In a statement released after her successful appeal, Armitstead said: "I have always been and will always be a clean athlete and have been vocal in my anti-doping stance throughout my career." Criticising UKAD for "not following proper procedure", the cyclist issued a plea for better guidelines for tests although she acknowledged her own role in the incident.

"I understand how important it is to be vigilant in my role as a professional athlete and realise the potential implications this could have had," she said. “I am very much looking forward to putting this situation behind me and firmly focusing on Rio again after what has been an extremely difficult time for myself and my family."

UKAD issued a statement of their own in which they said: "We recognise that mistakes do happen and plans can change at short notice, which is why an athlete can accrue a combination of three missed tests or filing failures in 12 months under the World Anti-Doping Code. But athletes have a responsibility to ensure they support and follow the system, or they risk a possible two-year ban."

The news that Armitstead is now free to compete for Team GB in the women's road race at the Olympics in Rio on Sunday was welcomed by most in the UK, although as one Cycling Weekly reader noted: "If Lizzie were Russian but you kept all the other details the same, I'm sure the press reaction in the UK would be a fair bit more cynical."

By Gavin Mortimer

What links Italy, Spain, the US, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Australia and the UK? Mais oui, as every disgruntled French cyclist will tell you, they've all produced a Tour de France winner in the last 31 years.

That's an impressive peloton of winners - unless, of course, you're that disgruntled Frenchman.

The last time cycling's most prestigious event was won by a home-town peddler was 1985, a long way short of the 77 years it took the UK to produce another Wimbledon men's singles champion after Fred Perry's success in 1936 but nevertheless how France aches for an Andy Murray in Lycra.

On the surface it's mystifying that France can't find a winner. They're still way out in front of overall winners, with 36 Tour successes from 21 different cyclists. But Bernard Hinault was the last homeboy to cross the finishing line on the Champs-Elysees in the fabled yellow jersey.

Hinault, who won five Tours, marked the end of a long line of French winners stretching back to the resumption of the race after the Second World War. Louison Bobet won three consecutive Tours in the 1950s and Jacques Anquetil scooped four in the following decade before Bernard Thevenet, Laurent Fignon and Hinault rose to prominence in the mid-1970s, winning nine titles between them.

But why have French riders been left behind since then? It's not as if the country can trot out the British Wimbledon excuse - the one about lack of facilities denying kids the opportunity to play tennis. A poll last year reported that 11.8 million French people cycled, making it the third most popular activity in the country behind rambling and swimming.

Mountain biking was tenth on the list with 4.4 million followers so added together, a quarter of the French population is regularly in the saddle.

Yet still they can't produce a Tour winner - and how it rankles, particularly when three of the last four competitions have been won by Brits. So the French press resort to innuendo, wondering out loud about Chris Froome's durability or how it is that Sir Bradley Wiggins won his first in his 30s.

The same accusations plagued Lance Armstrong - and of course, in his case, they turned out to be true. But Froome is as clean as any other rider and certainly cleaner than two-time winner Fignon, who was twice banned for taking amphetamines and admitted in his autobiography to using other stimulants.

The real reason is to do with grassroots sport.

While it's true Britain has invested heavily in sport in the last two decades, helped in no small part by National Lottery funding, France's steady decline as a sporting nation is down to its school system.

It's why the men can't produce a Tour de France winner, a tennis star (Yannick Noah's French Open title in 1983 was their last major success), a Formula 1 champion (Alain Prost, 1993) and why they've slipped down the Olympic medal table in the last 20 years, from 15 golds in 1996 to 11 in 2012 – during which time the UK increased its gold tally from one to 29.

The curriculum in France's schools doesn't include organised and competitive sport. There are no football, rugby, netball or athletic matches against other schools, thereby depriving children the opportunity not just to practise their motor skills, but more importantly to develop the psychological make-up required to become a champ: grit, guts and a never-give-up attitude.

As the Daily Telegraph reported last week, British sport has never been stronger. Yes, the England football team are a bunch of pathetic, pampered prima donnas, but in the real world of international sport, Britain is great.

France, on the other hand, is on the road to nowhere.

The extraordinary sight of cyclist Chris Froome in the Tour de France yellow jersey running up Mont Ventoux without a bike will go down as one of the most bizarre episodes in the race's history.

The moment, which followed the British cyclist's crash with a motorbike, produced some memorable commentary from astonished commentators. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"97403","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

You don't need a degree in French to appreciate the astonishment in the commentator's voice as he realises what is happening, or to understand his description of events as "incredible", "unimaginable" and "surreal".

There was widespread incredulity on rival channel RTS Un as well, with the commentary team spluttering their surprise at the sight of Froome pelting towards the finish line. "Froome's on foot... what is happening?" was their opening gambit. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"97398","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

The Italian commentator also initially had trouble processing what was happening, blurting out: "No" on seeing the yellow jersey on foot, before admirably regaining his composure to describe it as "a disaster". [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"97399","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

True to form, the Dutch TV team were more laidback, with the commentator at one point paraphrasing Shakespeare in typically sardonic fashion: "My kingdom for a fiets [bike]," he remarked. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"97400","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

Even the typical British reserve was lost for a second as the British TV team realised what was happening. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"97401","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

Chris Froome won the Tour de France on Sunday and joined a small and elite band of riders who have won cycling's most prestigious race three times. The Briton, victor in 2013 and 2015, crossed the finish line on the Champs-Elysees just behind the peloton and surrounded by his Sky team-mates to clinch a 4min 5sec victory ahead of Tour runner-up Romain Bardet.

The final stage started at its customary slow pace and the racing only began when the peloton arrived for the first of eight laps of a seven kilometre finishing circuit around the Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde. When it came to the sprint finish Germany's Andre Greipel of the Lotto Soudal team was first across the line.

There were no hiccups for Froome during the day, except perhaps from the beer that he sipped as he and his teammates embarked on the 113km stage from Chantilly to the French capital. But while there was never really any doubt that Froome would seal victory in Paris his win was nonetheless a special moment in the life of the 31-year-old. "It could have been the first one all over again," he told reporters. "The same sort of emotions. It hits you how big this feels."

Froome is the first rider to retain the Tour title since the great Miguel Indurain achieved the feat in 1995, and there was more British success with 23-year-old Adam Yates (who finished fourth overall) becoming the first from his country to win the best young rider's white jersey.

But the day belonged to Froome, who joins Greg Lemond, Louison Bobet and Philippe Thys as the only men to have won three Tours. His next target will be the five victories achieved by Indurain, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil. "I'm proud to be British," said Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford. "Chris is a phenomenal, talented guy. It's been the most complete team performance we've ever had."

Once on the podium under the warm Paris sunshine, Froome dedicated the win to his son, Kellan, who was born in December last year, but he then referenced the traumatic terrorist attacks in Nice earlier in the month. "This Tour has obviously taken place against the backdrop of terrible events in Nice and we pay tribute to those who have lost their lives," he said. "These events put sport into perspective but it also shows the value of sport to free society. We all love the Tour because it is unpredictable but we love the Tour more for what stays the same - the passion from fans, the French countryside and the bond created by sport. These things will never change."

And then, having delivered his victor's speech in English, Froome concluded it with seven words in French: "Vive Le Tour et vive la France. "

Final classification

1 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, 89:04:48

2 Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +4:05

3 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +4:21

4 Adam Yates (GB) Orica-BikeExchange, +4:42

5 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing, +5:17

6 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +6:16

7 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +6:58

8 Louis Meintjes (RSA) Lampre-Merida, same time

9 Dan Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step, +7:04

10 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff, +7:11

Chris Froome within sight of third Tour de France triumph

22 July

Thursday saw Chris Froome tighten his iron grip on the 2016 Tour de France with his second stage victory of this year's race, winning the stage 18 time trial by 21 seconds from Belgian Tom Dumoulin.

The Team Sky rider has now extended his lead in the battle for the yellow jersey to three minutes and 52 seconds over Bauke Mollema in second place, pulling out an extra 85 seconds on the Dutchman in the race against the clock.

Britain's Adam Yates finished two seconds faster than Mollema to stay in third place, and he is now just 24 seconds away from making it a historic British one-two on the podium in Paris - although climber Nairo Quintana (a further 21 seconds back) is likely to have something to say about that.

As if the race for the podium wasn't crowded enough, Romain Bardet and Richie Porte both sit withing 25 seconds of the Colombian Quintana ahead of Friday's brutal Alpine stage - with sparks sure to fly in the hunt for the minor placings.

While the chasing pack scrap it out for minor spoils, Froome's third Tour win looks all-but certain. William Fotheringham writing for the Guardian says: "The Kenyan-born Briton has consistently been the strongest of the overall contenders at every key moment, and in this mainly uphill test he timed his effort to perfection and had every right to punch the air in triumph just after he crossed the line."

It is hard to see how anyone can catch him now says, Stuart Clarke of Cycling Weekly. "Waiting until the final climb on the short 146km stage to Mont Blanc on Friday won’t be enough and it might be hard to gain much time on the final stage to Morzine given the descent to the finish line," he argues.

Mark Cavendish quits Tour de France to save Olympic ambition

20 July

A day after Tour de France leader Chris Froome said that most of his rivals were too "tired" to launch attacks against him, fellow Briton Mark Cavendish has quit the race, saying that continuing would undermine his chances at the Olympics.

The Manx rider has won four stages but has decided to forego the chance to add to his tally in the final week of the race, which features four tough days in the Alps.

"After the heat and intensity of the previous stages, we analysed my fatigue levels and decided I'm at a point that would have a detrimental effect on my other big goal for the year, the Olympic Games," he said.

He added he was leaving the Tour with "great sadness", but, The Guardian reports, "with a career tally of 30 stage wins and second only to the legendary Eddy Merckx on 34, he has little more to prove between Berne and Paris".

It is thought that by leaving now, the cyclist hopes to appease both his sets of backers, his Dimension Data team and British Cycling.

"In the build-up to this year’s Tour, Cavendish was the subject of a tug of war as he fought to balance Tour de France commitments to his sponsor against his Olympic ambitions with British Cycling," says The Times.

But the decision does not come as a surprise. "Quitting the race before the Alps... had always been the original plan," claims the Daily Telegraph. "In fact, Cavendish might have left sooner had he not been in such scintillating form."

Froome, meanwhile, hopes to cement his lead in the Alps.

"Counterintuitive though it might sound, Froome said that the general state of fatigue within the peloton came down to the fact that there had not been a major summit finish in the first two weeks of the race," says The Guardian.

"The first two weeks were full gas,” said the rider, adding that with fewer steep climbs, the race had been "harder to control".

Chris Froome runs up Mont Ventoux after Tour de France crash

15 July

The Tour de France descended in farce on Thursday as race leader Chris Froome was forced to abandon his bike and run up Mont Ventoux on foot after a crash caused by a spectator and a camera motorcycle.

Footage of the bizarre incident swept across social media but once the dust had settled and the race organisers agreed that Froome should not suffer the consequences of a crash that was not his fault.

Froome, Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema all collided with motorbike that had braked suddenly to avoid the huge crowds swarming across the last kilometre of the stage. All three riders fell and although Mollema was able to continue, Porte lost almost a minute and Froome was left without a ride as his bike's frame broke in the crash.

With his rivals closing in on him, his support car way down the mountain and the finish in the distance Froome then took the extraordinary decision to start running.

The defending champion was overtaken by rivals Adam Yates and Nairo Quintana in the aftermath of the collision and when Froome eventually found a replacement bike that worked, having been given a neutral bike that did not fit his cleats, he crossed the line shaking his head, fearful he had lost his overall lead in the race. Froome finished one minute and 40 seconds behind Trek-Segafredo's Mollema and 44 seconds shy of BMC's Porte.

It was fortunate that one did get through before he reached the line as according to UCI rules a cyclist can only cross the finishing line on foot if he has his bike with him.

"Each time at Mont Ventoux there is a surprise," commented Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford afterwards. "Perhaps next year Chris will do the Paris Marathon."

The rider's team-mate Geraint Thomas declared: "Well he's from Kenya, so he should be good at the running."

But the jokes only came after the shambles at the end of the 12th stage had been sorted out. Initially it appeared Froome had lost the yellow jersey amid the chaos as he staggered up the mountain on foot with other riders passing him.

Team Sky can laugh about the incident in the cold light of day but on Thursday afternoon fury and incomprehension were the overriding emotions.

But race organisers quickly announced that in light of the circumstances of the crash, Porte and Froome would be given the same finishing time Mollema, which was five minutes and five seconds behind stage winner Thomas De Gendt. Consequently stage 12 turned out well for Froome, who has actually extended his a 28-second advantage over Yates to 47 seconds.

Asked by French TV to describe the collision, Froome said: "I was with Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema and all three of us went into the back of the motorbike. I got hit from behind by another motorbike that broke my bicycle. I told myself, 'I don't have a bike and my car is five minutes behind with another bike - it's too far away, I'm going to run a bit'."

On hearing that the race jury had given him the same time as Mollema, Froome said: "I think it's right. Thanks to them and thanks to the Tour de France organisation."

Brailsford agreed with his rider, telling reporters: "I think the jury and everyone on the organisation has played the fair play card. It's right; it's correct."

Nonetheless the incident raises concerns about race security with Porte describing the crash as "crazy". Mollema tweeted a photo of the collision, with the message: "This may NOT happen in the biggest race of the world!! There has been too many accidents with motos last year!"

Tour de France calls off Mont Ventoux climb because of wind

14 July

Tour de France leader Chris Froome's hopes of blowing away his rivals on the climb to Mont Ventoux have been dashed after the organisers cut short today's mountain stage because of high winds at the summit.

However, the British rider, who has a history of breaking his rivals on the Tour's iconic climbs, believes the decision to shorten today's 12th stage because of high winds in Provence was correct.

The race was scheduled to finish at the summit of the legendary Mont Ventoux but the stage has fallen victim to the exceptionally bad weather that has ravaged France this summer. Winds of up to 120km/h are expected to sweep across the region and consequently the stage will finish six kilometres down the mountain at Chalet Reynard.

"The riders' safety is paramount," explained Tour director Christian Prudhomme. The ascent is now just under 10km long as opposed to the initial 15.7km, and Froome has hinted that he may now reserve his energy's for Friday's time trial instead of attempting to drop his rivals on the mountain.

The last time the Tour tackled Mont Ventoux, where in 1967 British rider Tommy Simpson collapsed and died on his way to the summit, was in 2013. On that occasion Froome reached the peak first but the British rider said the decision to shorten today's stage was "the right thing to do".

The defending champion, who is currently clad in the Yellow Jersey, continued: "Everyone wants to see a great show but the most important thing for the riders is safety. Of course I was looking forward to doing Ventoux - it's the most iconic climb, the most legendary climb in this year's race. There are gale force winds and it just wouldn't be safe for the riders, so thank you to the organisers for making the decision."

Froome starts today's stage with a 28-second advantage over Briton Adam Yates, his nearest rival, having extended his lead by 12 seconds on a flat but breezy 11th stage.

Asked what the abbreviated 12th stage will mean for the race, Froome replied: "I don't think the ascent to the Ventoux being shortened will change the race much. Climbing to the Chalet Reynard is already very hard and there might be even more wind than today [Wednesday], with even more possibilities for the bunch to split before the climb. The change of finale will only make the racing more intense because it will be shorter. To win even at halfway to the Mont Ventoux remains something special."

Thursday's climb is followed by a 37.5km individual time trial from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont-d'Arc on Friday, and Froome said that will come into play as the peloton tackles today's gruelling ascent.

"At the back of all our minds, there will be the time trial of the day after," he said. "Anyone going too deep will pay for it later... maybe my rivals will try to take seconds on me on the Ventoux. Everyone has a tactic, but I'll keep the time trial in mind."

Tour de France: Mark Cavendish wins his 29th stage

08 July

Mark Cavendish sprinted to a stirring victory in the sixth stage of the Tour de France - and achieved another landmark in his cycling career in the process.

With 29 stage victories, the Dimension Data rider is now second in the race's all-time standings. He stands one ahead of France's Bernard Hinault but five behind Eddy Merckx of Belgium, with his impressive 34 wins, reports the BBC.

"Oh my God, that was terrifying," said Cavendish. "That was like the old days, just wheel surfing.

"There are almost two finish lines and I was a little bit too far back so it was carnage in the final straight. There were guys coming from everywhere."

Cavendish outpaced Germany's Marcel Kittel in a chaotic sprint for the line, with fellow Brit Dan McLay coming home in third and Alexander Kristoff in fourth.

"I was fighting to be on Marcel Kittel's wheel," said Cavendish. "I wasn't sure if they were that organised, but I knew it would be the right thing to go early because it was downhill.

"I went for the line and I had to come again, I did what Marcel has done to me in the last four years and held on."

With the sixth stage from Arpajon-sur-Cere to Montauban producing little in the way of climbs, it was a day for sprinters, so the results had little effect on the Tour's overall standings.

Belgian Greg van Avermaet remains in the yellow jersey, with the BMC rider five minutes and 11 seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe of Etixx-Quick-Step and Alejandro Valverde of Movistar a further two seconds behind.

Defending champion Chris Froome is fifth overall, five minutes and 17 seconds behind Van Avermat, but sure to come into his own today when the tour enters the Pyrenees for the first time this year.

Cavendish's stage victory means he now wears the green jersey, taking it from Slovakia's Peter Sagan of the Tinkoff team, and the 31-year-old Manxman lavished praise on his Dimension Data sports directors for rejuvenating his career.

"There’s a reason why I’ve had Rolf [Aldag] around me most of my career," he said. "He sees things that I even don’t. He’s a guy who will listen to me moan and will do his utmost to sort out any problems that I have.

"With Rolf and Roger Hammond, we’ve got the most formidable couple of directors on the course to make decisions. It’s not like I’m just making decisions in the final - we have a plan each day and the race goes pretty much to how those guys say it will, which is testament to them and I’m fortunate to have them on my side.”

The Tour de France begins on Saturday, with Chris Froome hoping to join an elite band of riders who have won the race three times.

This year's event involves nine flat stages, one hill, nine mountain stages - including four summit finishes - and two individual time trials, says the BBC, to finish, as ever, on the streets of Paris on 24 July.

So who are the favourites for the yellow jersey in this year's race?

Chris Froome: Odds 6-4.

The Team Sky rider is aiming to be the first man to win back-to-back tours since Miguel Indurain in 1995. "The Kenya-born Briton starts the race with what is, conceivably, the strongest Tour de France team ever assembled," says the Daily Telegraph.

With Geraint Thomas as his deputy, Froome has a great chance, says The Guardian: "After a slow start to 2016, Froome's recent victory at the Criterium du Dauphine suggests he is still the man to beat."

Nairo Quintana: Odds 7-4

Colombian Quintana is a narrow second favourite to Froome and will have excellent support from his Movistar team. "There are nine climbing days in this year's Tour, which is a big plus for the Colombian. And while there are also two time trials, the fact they are both uphill should mean that Quintana stays competitive in both," says the Guardian.

He may be best suited to life in the mountains, but Quintana will be on the charge from the beginning this year, says the Daily Mirror. "The 26-year-old started slowly last year and ultimately it cost him. He finished second overall but will be hoping to go one better this year with a course that suits his strengths."

Alberto Contador: Odds 9-2

"The multiple grand tour winner arrives at this year's race much fresher than 12 months ago having skipped the Giro d'Italia," says the Telegraph. "Although his rival Chris Froome will start with a stronger all-round team, the Spaniard has proved time and again that he has the race craft and guts to beat anybody."

However, the Guardian suggests his Tinkoff team may have half an eye on winning the green jersey with Peter Sagan. At 33, Contador's age is also against him and he was fifth behind Froome in Criterium du Dauphine earlier in the season.

Fabio Aru: Odds 16-1

The Astana rider "is young and improving fast", says the Guardian. and will enjoy the mountains. But will the Italian, who has a fairly combustible temperament, be able to handle Le Tour? The Daily Mirror is not sure. "This year has been one to forget for Aru and he will need a huge improvement to challenge Froome and co," it says.

The influence of his number two in the Astana team, Vincenzo Nibali, will be critical.

Richie Porte: Odds 18-1

The former Team Sky rider has joined BMC racing and "now has the opportunity to test himself against friend and former team-mate Chris Froome on the biggest stage of them all", says the Telegraph. "The Aussie, though, has a tendency to always have at least one bad day – or un jour sans as they say en France – and that could cost him dearly."

And Froome's old domestique could once again be forced to sacrifice his ambitions if he starts badly. "The former Team Sky rider is technically joint BMC leader with Tejay van Garderen and may end up supporting the American," says the Mirror.

Thibaut Pinot: Odds 20-1

"He can time trial, he can climb and now, after exorcising his demons, can descend too, but can Thibaut Pinot make the podium at this year's Tour de France?" Asks the Daily Telegraph. "Possibly not, but France will enjoy cheering him along the journey."

The lack of quality in his team may also be a hindrance. "FDJ are not at the level of Sky or Astana, and you certainly won’t see them putting five riders at the front of the peloton before the first mountain-top finish," says the Guardian. "If Pinot does get into yellow he will struggle to control the race compared with the other GC contenders."