THE SEARCH FOR BRITAIN’S NEXT TOUR DE FRANCE STAR
Since Mark Cavendish’s haul of four stage wins in 2008, nine British riders including the Manx Missile have collectively won a total of 53 stages of Le Tour. It warrants repeating: 53 stages – the equivalent of winning every stage of the race two and a half times over. In 2016, five of the first eight stages were won by a Brit, and no fewer than six times between 2012 and 2018, the Union Jack was hoisted above the finishing podium on the ChampsElysees in Paris. Trailblazer Bradley Wiggins became Britain’s first Tour winner in 2012, paving the way for Chris Froome’s four titles and Geraint Thomas’s triumph in 2018 – a particularly special year because British riders topped the general classification in all three Grand Tours, with Froome winning the Giro d’Italia and Simon Yates the Vuelta a Espana. It truly was a boom period, perhaps never to be repeated.
That’s not to say that British Tour success is rare these days – Adam Yates (and his dog, see pic) wore yellow for four days during the 2020 and 2023 Tours, placing him among four riders who have won at least one stage since Thomas’s 2018 victory. But the wins have come less frequently
