In terms of live audiences, the Tour de France has been the world's biggest sporting event for many years. Upwards of 12 million people line the streets, avenues and mountain passes of La belle France every year, even in the lean years when Lance dominated the event, and the even leaner ones when it emerged that several other "winners" had also cheated. Yet in just three days of touring the moors of Yorkshire and the leafy lanes of the home counties, nearly half that total, ie 6 million people, had waited patiently for the few brief moments when the peloton came racing through their towns and villages.
Cycling has never been as popular in Britain. We've seen our first ever winner of Le Tour in the shape of Bradley Wiggins, then Chris Froome notching up his own victory the following year. We've seen Mark Cavendish demonstrate his awesome sprinting skills too, to say nothing of Britain's extraordinary successes in the velodrome. But I think the way the British people have taken to the three stages here to their hearts has been truly wonderful, as the pictures from one village and town after another attest.
I used to cycle a lot, especially in my teens. In the 90s I rediscovered it with my son, but two bike thefts and some near-death experiences on crowded roads put me off badly. Too many British car drivers (and HGV drivers to a lesser extent) seem to view cyclists as mere sub- human impediments to their goal of getting from A to B as quickly as possible, but this is in stark contrast to the attitude on the continent of Europe where cyclists in the main are actually treated as human beings with a right to be on the road. When we finally arrive at that position, cycling will truly have arrived in Britain and I will buy myself a new bike. Let's hope it's soon.
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