Mark Cavendish kept his record perfect, winning for the fourth straight year on the Champs Elysées, sealing the 2012 Tour de France for Sky Procycling.
As always, there was a breakaway of brave riders who hoped they might outpower the rest of the peloton, and they very nearly succeeded. Sky kept the suspense high; they didn’t catch the breakaway until the last half of the last six-kilometer lap through downtown Paris.
Once the break was caught, the British team dominated just as it had through the final two-thirds of the 2012 Tour. Sky lined up its leadout train, something it hadn’t done during the Tour, showing that if it hadn’t been focused on winning the General Classification, it could have delivered Cavendish to the line in every sprint stage.
Bradley Wiggins, resplendent in his race leader’s yellow jersey, took over in the final 1500 meters and drove the pace so high no one could pass him. Edvald Boasson Hagen led Cavendish into the final kilometer, and Cav launched early, with Orica GreenEdge sprinter Matt Goss on his wheel.
The Manx Missile just kept accelerating; Goss had to go all-out just to stay on Cav’s wheel. Peter Sagan, the 22-year-old phenomenon from Liquigas, showed incredible speed, bridging a gap of a couple dozen meters to pass Goss just at the line, but no one could touch Cavendish— the sprinter rode away from everyone else in a sustained burst of unmatchable speed. The Manx Missile is still the Fastest Man in the World.
Cavendish is also the only rider in Tour history to win four times on the Champs Elysées. This 23rd Tour stage win moves the Sky rider into fourth in career stage wins.
Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome finished first and second in the General Classification. Wiggins took over the yellow jersey in Stage Seven and never gave it up.
Sky performed perfectly in every stage; protecting Wiggins on the flat stages, controlling the mountain stages, and making sure that the team leader kept his advantage into the two long time trials, where Wiggins showed that he was the fastest time trialer in the race by far.
Sky’s teamwork was faultless. Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome gave up their chances for stage wins to work for Wiggins. Discipline was not exclusive to his teammates; Wiggins himself set the tone for the team by totally devoting himself to winning the Tour, after crashing and breaking his collarbone in the first week of the 2011 race.
Wiggins essentially gave up his personal life to mold himself into a Tour-winning rider. He put his wife, children, and his own pleasure on hold to achieve the biggest goal in cycling. His teammates followed his example in the Tour, and it paid off.
Wiggins is the first British rider to win the Tour in the 99 times the race has run. Froome is also British, and Sky is a British-based team. Much of the team will represent Great Britain in the London Olympics next week. The year of sacrifice will pay off hugely for this dedicated group of riders if they perform at this level in London.
Even if the team doesn’t dominate the Olympics they way it dominated the Tour de France, Sky has grabbed the crown jewel of cycling, and many of the lesser gems. Bradley Wiggins and his teammates completely dominated the 2012 Tour and have earned their places in the history books.
