The sun shines again on this Sunday before the commencement of the 2012 London Olympic Games and I am particularly thrilled because Sky is going to show the games in 3D via Eurosport thus it gets over the BBC broadcasting monopoly. The BBC will have one channel for every sport, all 24 as well as endless repeats and highlight programmes. It is going to be amazing. It already is when one of the great events of all time in the history of sporting achievement by a British Athlete took place as Bradley Wiggins rode into the centre of Paris to win the Tour De France.
This is also the day when the nation gets into gear for the start of the Olympic Games on Friday and is also a special day because the Olympic Torch passed through Croydon where I was born and on to Wimbledon via Sutton for the Andy Murray and Venus Williams to parade the Torch around the famous tennis stadium. The live feed crashed out over lunchtime. From the map they went down Duppas Hill from South Croydon to Waddon and along to south Wallington via Beddington Park to Carshalton and then to Sutton.
The crowds throughout the day have been huge and among those carrying the Torch was Patrick Stewart in Croydon, Andy Murray and Venus Williams and Tim Henman. The details of all 8000 Torch bearers is available on the 2012 Torch Relay site except for the name of the individual who will light the Olympic Flame at the Athletic stadium
Bradley Wiggins had ridden flat out for most of the 3000 kilometres apart from to day when in the 50 kilometre of the ride before reaching Paris the riders relax. They then complete a seven times circuit in which the first is more ceremonial before the serious racing in which Bradley and the Team grouped together in order to provide the opportunity for Mark Cavendish the World speed champion to successfully win the final stage for the fourth year in succession. Moreover standing on the platform with the overall winner was the British rider Chris Froome as second. Before this the highest placed rider in the completion has finished 4th. Bradley had become the overall race leader on stage 8 a position which he held throughout the rest of this 20 stage competition made up of mountain climes, time trial, distant stretches and speed finishing. Mark won three speed finish stages with Bradley 2 and Froome 1 with fellow Olympic Team member David Miller riding for a different team also winning stage thus British riders one every three stages in the race. The achievement of Mark Cavendish was also extraordinary as he has now won more stage in this competition than any other speed rider and no one before has won three let alone 4 consecutive stages.
As a school boy I dreamed of owning bicycle and I had to wait until I was thirteen or fourteen and had a cerise Raleigh with dropped handlebars and eventually a double clanger gear change. I used the bicycle first to go to school and back but on leaving school I joined a cycle club and had several memorable trips of over 100 miles in the countryside around London. I was not involved in racing other than getting up early to stand at some junction to wave the rider in a race in the right direction. My closest friend and a relative came on one open meeting when we met up with Catholic cycling clubs from throughout the greater London area. As with many activities and sports there was a unique culture and camaraderie which I have continued to remember with affection As I reached my forties I took up cycling again this time with a stronger and low level cycle rather than lightweight hill climbing multi gear racing vehicle than mine became.
Because of this experience and my interest in achievement in sports I followed the Tour de France for many years until it become enveloped with drug taking and as with Boxing and Athletics decided that it was wrong to support something which had proved such a bad example for young people.
The first cyclist who caught the British imagination in what had remained a minor sport until the 2008 Olympics was Reg Harris a sprint racer on the Track from Birtle nearly Bury in Lancashire. He became a world champion and in 1948 won a silver Medal at the London held games and as well as in the Tandem sprint, He was a voted a top Sportsman by Journalists.
It was Tom Simpson who finished 6th in the Tour de France until Robert Miller in 1984 who finished 4th who achieved International success in the road racing branch of the sport. He was the first cyclist to win BBC Sportsman of the Year in 1965. He became the Elite Men’s World Champion that year after winning a bronze in the 1956 Melbourne Games.
The next Champion was Hugh Porter who became world pursuit champion in 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1973 as well as two silvers and a Bronze. Born Wolverhampton he combined a track and road, He was inspired after watching Reg Harris. He married the British swimming gold medallist Anita Lonsbrough after meeting her at the Tokyo games in 1964
The next individual in the hall of cycling fame and who can be said to have launched the modern era of British Cycling. Born in 1968 at Hoylake in the Cheshire Wirrral Chris Boardman won a Gold medal in 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona 4000m individual pursuit and he became World Champion for this event in 1994 and 1996. His attention turned to the Tour De France where he won three stages. He developed osteoporosis at the age of 30. The treatment would have involved taking a banned substance so he attempted to continue without the treatment until the 2000 Olympics two years later to end on a high note, He finished 11th. In addition to his riding achievements he introduced the Superbike when he won gold in 1992. He continues to hold the world record for the covering the greatest distance in an hour both using the old form cycle and the new.
This brings me to the 2008 Olympic Games when Chris Hoy led that extraordinary team with thirteen of the fourteen members gaining a medal and this included eight golds bearing in mind that back in in 1996 the entire British team covering all the sports included gained one Gold Medal which was understandable regarded as a national Disgrace. Chris was knighted and will lead out the GB team on Friday having been voted to carry the flag by a majority of the other British Team Members. Other who became famous in 2008 included Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins. The most famous until then was Mark Cavendish from the Isle of Man who was World Champion in 2005, 2008 and again in 2011. He proved to be the only member of the 2008 team who returned without an Olympic Medal.
He has become the most successful rider in the Tour De France not just in the UK but almost without Peer in the world has won 23 stages in his career as well as winning the four final stages into Paris in succession as previously mentioned. He will compete for the first medal of the games to be decided this Saturday and if this is achieved he will ignite the goal of the British team to win more medals in more sports than achieved in 2008.
The so far unsung hero of the 2012 Tour de France is Chris Froome born in Kenya of British parents he moved to South Africa and it was only last year that be burst into International attention with a second overall place in the Grand Tour events, He joined Team Sky in 2008,. His achievement finishing second to Bradley Wiggins is even more remarkable having lost a minutes early on because of a puncture and then had a bad crash on stage 3. It was Bradley the year before who broke his collar bone after a crash and had to leave the tour. Froome won his first stage on the Tour this year and is considered a good prospect for being the overall winner in the future.
I should also mention the other stage winner who was not a member of the Sky Team but is a member of 2012 Olympic Squad, David Miller, controversial because he was banned for two year after an admission he had taken a banned substance. He has won seven stages in the Tour De France and has worn all the available Jerseys as some point his during ten year road racing career at International level.
This brings me to Bradley Wiggins both 28th April 1980, Bradley has an English mother and an Australian father added to which he was born in Ghent where his father was professional cyclist. His mother and father separated when he was only two years of age and he paid tribute to her winning the Tour as well as in a special documentary which has featured on ITV 4 over the past week. He was brought up in Kilburn by his bother, stepfather and grandparents, He has a half brother.
He joined the famous Herne Hill Cycling club at the age of 12 years and rode for Camden in the London Youth Games. At 20 he came third in the team pursuit at 2000 Olympic Games. In 2004 he became the first British Athlete to win three Medals at one game since Mary Peters 40 years before including an individual gold and team gold plus a bronze. He was made an OBE in the New Year Honours. And he won these same two Golds again in 2008. He has six World Championship Medals, three silvers and a bronze. His OBE was converted to a Commander in 2009.
The success of Team Sky came about because of the genius of the main had managed the British Cycle team in 2004 and 2008 and who will do so again this week, David Brailsford. Born in 1964 be commenced a professional cycling career at 19 and then commenced a degree in sports sciences and psychology and then followed this up with a Master in Business studies. Awarded an OBE in 2004 this was increased to a CBE in 2008 when he was also awarded the BBC Sports Personality Coach of the Year. He is the next most likely candidate for a knighthood although it can be expected that Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish will also find themselves recognised in similar fashion when their careers end if not before. I should also mention Sean Yates the Sky Team Director of Sport with experience of riding in 9 Tours de France and a British National Road Race Champion.
The enlarged British Olympic Team is not expecting the same level of dominance as in 2008 because other teams have progressed with the technology of the bicycles, the preparation which including nutrition and psychology to same level. However it is unlikely any other sport will be as successful, including rowing and sailing.
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