Froome wins 2nd Tour de France

Pre-Tour talk focused on a possible four-way battle between Froome, Quintana, 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali and two-time victor Alberto Contador, but it was Quintna, a 25-year-old Colombian, who again won the Tour’s white jersey as the best young rider and gave Froome a run for his $494,000 first-place prize money.

The climate of suspicion is a legacy of the drug-assisted era of cycling, but Froome insists he is clean after finishing one minute and 12 seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

However, the Tour quickly turned into a duel after the double Tour victor from Spain and the Italian defending champion cracked in the Pyrenees.

Cheered on the Champs-Elysees under suitably rainy skies for Britain’s third win in the 112-year-old race, Froome took it easy on the last Stage 21, his work done having grimly resisted Quintana’s last-ditch assault on his hard-won Tour lead on Saturday on the final Alpine ascent.

Froome, who also secured the polka dot jersey for the mountain classification, was already in prime position after the opening block of racing in which he was expected to struggle.

The GoPro footage shows the exciting sprint finish along the Champs-Elysees in which Germany’s Andre Greipel powered his way to victory, claiming his fourth win of the 2015 Tour.

It was remarkable that Kenyan-born Froome, who began dreaming of racing in the Tour when he first saw television images of the race when he was “16 or 17” and at a boarding school in South Africa, maintained his calm and focus through it all.

The British press toasted Froome’s victory nonetheless in the Monday editions, with tabloid The Sun sporting the headline “I’m no cheat: Froome victory dig”, while the Telegraph chose “Believe in me”. “I just had a bacon butty this morning and it felt fantastic just to have something I haven’t had in many months”.

The early pace was so pedestrian that Froome had time to raise a glass of Champagne in the saddle and to stop to put on a raincoat under the iconic yellow jersey.

Normally, riders’ times would have been taken at the finish line after 10 loops up and down the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. Future Tours could have more time trials, which Froome excels at.

“I’ve made some life-long friends here and it’s just such a great way to finish it off”, Porte said as reported by Cycling News.

Team Sky Principal Sir Dave Brailsford has also urged caution, wanting his top rider to enjoy his free time before committing to the Vuelta.

“Rio could very well develop into a really serious goal for me”, Froome said in 2013, according to Sky Sports.

But right from the foot of the climb to Alpe d’Huez Quintana launched the first of four attacks.

“For me, that’s what this is all about, that’s a side of cycling I love”.

“It has been disrespectful, to come under the criticism, and for people to say the things they have said about him with no foundation. I wanted to spend so much time on the bike that my molecules and the bike’s molecules became fused together”.