REVIEW: Wiggins becomes first British Tour winner

CYCLING - Bradley Wiggins is the winner of the 99th edition of the Tour de France, a remarkable feat considering that no riders from Great Britain had previously reached the podium in ‘La Grande Boucle’. Peter Sagan won the Points Classification, Thomas Voeckler the Mountain Classification and Tejay Van Garderen the Youth Classification.

First British riders finish in Tour’s top three

Coming into this year’s Tour de France, the best general classification by a British rider was fourth place - by Robert Millar in 1984 and Bradley Wiggins in 2009. Now, with Wiggins and Chris Froome, Great Britain has two riders in the top three. It is the first time since 1984, that the top two riders in the GC hail from the same country. Back then, the Frenchmen Laurent Fignon and Bernard Hinault achieved the feat. For the first time since 1996 (Bjarne Riis-Jan Ullrich), riders from the same team occupy the top two spots in the GC.

More British success

Riders from Great Britain won a record seven stages in the 2012 Tour de France (three by Mark Cavendish, two by Bradley Wiggins, one by Chris Froome and one by David Millar). Cavendish joins André Greipel and Peter Sagan as riders to win three stages in the 2012 Tour de France

Nibali takes third, Van den Broeck fourth, Van Garderen fifth

Vincenzo Nibali is the first Italian rider to ascend the Tour podium since Ivan Basso in 2005. Jurgen Van den Broeck is the best Belgian in fourth place, equaling his best ever result, however leaving Belgium without their first top three finish since 1981 (Lucien Van Impe). Van Garderen wins the Youth Classification and becomes the third American rider to do that in the Tour de France (Greg Lemond in 1984 and Andy Hampsten in 1986).