Bradley Wiggins has backed Chris Froome to emulate his 2012 Tour de France and Olympic time trial double success but felt his former Sky team mate’s task is more hard as next month’s Games are in Rio de Janeiro.
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Germany’s Andre Greipel won the 21st and last stage, a 113-km ride from Chantilly ending on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
Excluding the disgraced Lance Armstrong, whose results were stricken from the record, the last rider to retain the Tour de France GC title was Spaniard Miguel Indurain in 1995.
“The British rider, who previously won the punishing cycling race in 2013 and 2015, came to dominate the 2016 Tour, finishing more than four minutes ahead of Romain Bardet of AG2R La Mondiale in second place and Team Movistar’s Nairo Quintana in third”.
Another Briton, Mark Cavendish, claimed four stages but he pulled out of the race on the second rest day to prepare for the Olympics, where he will be competing on the track.
Team Sky trio Geraint Thomas, Luke Rowe and Ian Stannard all rode selflessly to help Froome win the race.
“We all love the Tour de France because it is unpredictable but we love the Tour more for what stays the same – the passion of the fans from every nation along the roadside, the beauty of the French countryside and the bonds of friendship created through sport”.
Froome won two stages during the race, taking his personal haul to seven in what was his most dominant performance yet.
The image of Froome off his bike and running toward the finish up Mont Ventoux is already part of Tour de France lore.
“The atmosphere on the roads has been fantastic”, Froome said. “I’ve raced for three weeks for that”, said the Lotto Soudal sprinter.
Firstly, how could they beat the triple Tour champion; and what can be done to stop his team’s domination that stifled the three-week race of excitement.
“The time-trial suits me and though it will be an extremely tough event, I took bronze in London and it would be incredible to medal again”.
The consistency and discipline of Sky’s support riders has been a key aspect of Froome’s victories and the contribution of the domestiques did not go unnoticed by their boss.
Pantano, however, joined him near the top along with Izagirre, who came from behind, and the three went on to contest the stage win on the risky, wet descent.
Although the delay this caused initially led to Froome falling behind rival Adam Yates, race organizers later ruled that he should be awarded the same time as Bauke Mollema who also crashed into the motorbike but was able to carry on.
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For Greipel, who pipped world champion Peter Sagan on the line with Alexander Kristoff third, it was a second successive victory on the final stage, and 11th stage win in total.
