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| Tour de France 2013: Chris Froome's incredible journey to victory | |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| When he is on his bike, Chris Froome's face rarely changes: his jaw set, features fixed in total concentration. As he rounded the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday night for the first time, in 20th place in the pack, with his Tour de France victory all but in the bag, the long, painfully lean cyclist's expression was the same as it had been for so many of the 84 hours he had spent in the saddle since leaving Corsica 22 days earlier. | When he is on his bike, Chris Froome's face rarely changes: his jaw set, features fixed in total concentration. As he rounded the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday night for the first time, in 20th place in the pack, with his Tour de France victory all but in the bag, the long, painfully lean cyclist's expression was the same as it had been for so many of the 84 hours he had spent in the saddle since leaving Corsica 22 days earlier. |
| The ecstatic smile and the tears would come later on this balmy evening, after 10 laps of the Champs Élysées. It is rare for a Tour winner to lose any time on the final stage but, in the final kilometre, Froome slipped off the back of the pack on purpose in order to share the final moments with his Team Sky teammates, crossing the line as a unit. Dropping back those few hundred metres meant the young Colombian Nairo Quintana closed by 43sec to be 4min20sec behind Froome in the standings, but that barely counted in the context of the previous 3,400km. | The ecstatic smile and the tears would come later on this balmy evening, after 10 laps of the Champs Élysées. It is rare for a Tour winner to lose any time on the final stage but, in the final kilometre, Froome slipped off the back of the pack on purpose in order to share the final moments with his Team Sky teammates, crossing the line as a unit. Dropping back those few hundred metres meant the young Colombian Nairo Quintana closed by 43sec to be 4min20sec behind Froome in the standings, but that barely counted in the context of the previous 3,400km. |
| The Champs Élysées in the gloaming: a dream venue for a romantic evening. Tonight the Parisian sunset greeted the 169 survivors of the Tour, in a race climax put back by several hours to finish as the sun dipped over the French capital's western edge, as part of the celebration of the race's 100th edition. It was a gamble made with television images in mind and it paid off, with le couchant, or setting, bathing the riders in a golden haze for the final miles. | The Champs Élysées in the gloaming: a dream venue for a romantic evening. Tonight the Parisian sunset greeted the 169 survivors of the Tour, in a race climax put back by several hours to finish as the sun dipped over the French capital's western edge, as part of the celebration of the race's 100th edition. It was a gamble made with television images in mind and it paid off, with le couchant, or setting, bathing the riders in a golden haze for the final miles. |
| The previous evening Froome spoke of his "incredible journey", from mountain biking as a 12-year-old on Kenya's dirt roads to wearing the yellow jersey of the Tour de France. It is a voyage with a unique conclusion: the Tour has never had a finish quite like this. To mark the 100th Tour, the riders were made to race around the Arc de Triomphe, in Place d'Étoile rather than doing a U-turn hundreds of metres short of the great monument as is usually the case, to provide the most symbolic backdrop possible. | The previous evening Froome spoke of his "incredible journey", from mountain biking as a 12-year-old on Kenya's dirt roads to wearing the yellow jersey of the Tour de France. It is a voyage with a unique conclusion: the Tour has never had a finish quite like this. To mark the 100th Tour, the riders were made to race around the Arc de Triomphe, in Place d'Étoile rather than doing a U-turn hundreds of metres short of the great monument as is usually the case, to provide the most symbolic backdrop possible. |
| As Froome pedalled round the arch, wearing a specially designed yellow jersey dolled up in sequins to glitter in the night lights, the smoke from the red, white and blue vapour trails left by a flypast of la patrouille blanche, or White Patrol – the French equivalent of the Red Arrows – was slowly dissipating in the balmy breeze. The union flags flapped over the barriers in front of the bistros as they had done 12 months ago for Wiggins. | As Froome pedalled round the arch, wearing a specially designed yellow jersey dolled up in sequins to glitter in the night lights, the smoke from the red, white and blue vapour trails left by a flypast of la patrouille blanche, or White Patrol – the French equivalent of the Red Arrows – was slowly dissipating in the balmy breeze. The union flags flapped over the barriers in front of the bistros as they had done 12 months ago for Wiggins. |
| In the middle of Place Charles de Gaulle, a vast tricolour flapped below a list of Napoleon's victories on the Aarch's pediment. With the Eiffel Tower poking coyly over the horizon, it was the most French of settings for the latest instalment in Britain's spectacular summer of sport, in the wake of Andy Murray's Wimbledon, the Lions' win, and Justin Rose's victory in the US Open. | In the middle of Place Charles de Gaulle, a vast tricolour flapped below a list of Napoleon's victories on the Aarch's pediment. With the Eiffel Tower poking coyly over the horizon, it was the most French of settings for the latest instalment in Britain's spectacular summer of sport, in the wake of Andy Murray's Wimbledon, the Lions' win, and Justin Rose's victory in the US Open. |
| Froome had quipped the previous evening that his brothers were both chartered accountants "and that's probably what drove me to ride my bike". But it had been easy to do the maths over the previous three weeks: Froome had dominated the 20-stage race, taking three stage victories – one at the distinctive Mont Ventoux mountain top in Provence to clock up the biggest winning margin in 16 years. It was a perfect reflection of the form book, as the Kenyan-born Briton has dominated multi-day cycle racing this season, winning four major events before he even started the Tour, where he was the clear favourite. | Froome had quipped the previous evening that his brothers were both chartered accountants "and that's probably what drove me to ride my bike". But it had been easy to do the maths over the previous three weeks: Froome had dominated the 20-stage race, taking three stage victories – one at the distinctive Mont Ventoux mountain top in Provence to clock up the biggest winning margin in 16 years. It was a perfect reflection of the form book, as the Kenyan-born Briton has dominated multi-day cycle racing this season, winning four major events before he even started the Tour, where he was the clear favourite. |
| Wiggins' view after his Tour triumph was that kids from Kilburn don't win the Tour de France. Nor do scions of the Safari Simbaz, a disparate group of young mountain bikers with whom the 28-year-old Froome, born in Nairobi and educated in Johannesburg, began riding back in Kenya at the age of 12. | Wiggins' view after his Tour triumph was that kids from Kilburn don't win the Tour de France. Nor do scions of the Safari Simbaz, a disparate group of young mountain bikers with whom the 28-year-old Froome, born in Nairobi and educated in Johannesburg, began riding back in Kenya at the age of 12. |
| As the first winner born in Africa, Froome's advent takes the Tour, founded in 1903 but missing 10 editions due to the world wars, into a new and still more exotic dimension than its first winner from the other side of La Manche. Wiggins' past as a cycling nerd with posters of Miguel Indurain on his walls seems almost conventional compared with his successor's tales of keeping pet pythons – Froome's were called Rocky and Shandy – and catching scorpions with his brothers. | As the first winner born in Africa, Froome's advent takes the Tour, founded in 1903 but missing 10 editions due to the world wars, into a new and still more exotic dimension than its first winner from the other side of La Manche. Wiggins' past as a cycling nerd with posters of Miguel Indurain on his walls seems almost conventional compared with his successor's tales of keeping pet pythons – Froome's were called Rocky and Shandy – and catching scorpions with his brothers. |
| Froome received his final yellow jersey with the Arc de Triomphe lit up against the night sky in honour of the 100th edition of the Tour. Vast projectors installed on the Qatari embassy bathed the great monument in a spectacular son et lumière. This had been billed as a tourist's Tour de France, taking in France's most iconic sights, including Mont Saint Michel, Lyon's Basilica and the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The climax was no exception, beginning by the sumptuous splendour of Louis XIV's formal gardens at Versailles and closing below Napoleon's arch. | Froome received his final yellow jersey with the Arc de Triomphe lit up against the night sky in honour of the 100th edition of the Tour. Vast projectors installed on the Qatari embassy bathed the great monument in a spectacular son et lumière. This had been billed as a tourist's Tour de France, taking in France's most iconic sights, including Mont Saint Michel, Lyon's Basilica and the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The climax was no exception, beginning by the sumptuous splendour of Louis XIV's formal gardens at Versailles and closing below Napoleon's arch. |
| The next time the Tour caravan convenes, the race will have a grittier ring to it; on 5 July 2014, the 101st edition race begins with a 120-mile (190km) run from Leeds to Harrogate, which will be followed by visits to Sheffield and London: from the home of fine wine to the land of Last of the Summer Wine. | The next time the Tour caravan convenes, the race will have a grittier ring to it; on 5 July 2014, the 101st edition race begins with a 120-mile (190km) run from Leeds to Harrogate, which will be followed by visits to Sheffield and London: from the home of fine wine to the land of Last of the Summer Wine. |
| Whether or not Froome makes it a double next year, 2012 to 2014 will go down in the race's history as Les Tours Anglais. | Whether or not Froome makes it a double next year, 2012 to 2014 will go down in the race's history as Les Tours Anglais. |