Since the summer of 2012, there have been six overall wins and 27 stage wins achieved by British riders in the Tour de France. That domination is now at an endThe abrupt eviction of Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas from Sir Dave Brailsford’s Tour de France lineup ensures that, for the first time in several seasons, this year’s race will begin without a past British yellow jersey winner in the peloton.Since 2012, British champions have dominated the three-week race, through Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas. That serial success has been interrupted only in 2014 and 2019. Related: Team Ineos: Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas dropped for Tour de France Continue reading...
The England striker is favourite to win Sports Personality of the Year but footballers do not have a great record in the eventEver since England reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, Harry Kane has been a smouldering favourite for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. The Spurs striker has already won the golden boot. No wonder many believe he is a shoo-in to lift the famous silver-plated trophy of a four-turret lens camera engraved with many legends of British sport.Yet history reminds us that footballers and Spoty do not always mix. For while 18 track and field stars have walked away with the award in its 64-year history – with Formula One drivers claiming it seven times...
The route is designed to be more open, with more climbs amenable to attacks, and power meters could be banned. But there is little to cause Team Sky sleepless nightsIn yet another attempt to make the Tour de France a more open race, which will be seen as a further move to break Team Sky’s domination, the organisers are to push for the abolition of the use of power meters. The ubiquitous device which helps a rider to gauge his effort by recording power output as he rides also “annihilates the glorious uncertainty of sport”, according to the Tour organiser, Christian Prudhomme.It remains unclear whether this will be put in place for the 2019 edition, which looks particularly mountainous and...
The Welshman put a history of dramatic scrapes behind him by keeping his cool in the time trial to all but secure Tour victoryGiven the variety of ways he has managed to fall off his bike over the years, it would have been unlike Geraint Thomas to complete a Tour de France without a jitter of some kind, but a disturbing skitter of the back wheel on an early corner in Saturday’s time trial barely registered on his personal Richter scale. The Welshman is legendary for the injuries he has accumulated, among them the broken pelvis with which he completed the Tour in 2013, the collarbone he smashed in the Alps last year and the collision with a metal spring...