25 years after Stephen Roche became the first Irish winner of the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins yesterday achieved the same honour for Britain.
Wiggins is part of Team Sky which has invested enormously but with great success in the sports of road and track cycling.  One of the main benefits of their sponsorship is the high level of participation in cycling and the affinity which the British team has built with the public.
From Chris Boardman through Sir Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish and Victoria Pendleton, Britain has produced a steady line of world class competitors who have been untouched by issues of doping that continue to linger around other areas of the sport.
Sky announced in May that it was extending its involvement in Cycling for another four years and was on target to increase the number of new regular cyclists on British roads to one million by the end of next year.  That timetable may well have been brought forward by the events of this year’s Tour where no fewer than four British riders landed stage wins and Wiggins took home the main prize.
On a personal level it is estimated Wiggins, whose trademark sideburns give him individual character in public recognition terms, could earn individual endorsement deals from across Britain and Europe of somewhere in the region of £5 million (€6.2 million).
He currently endorses the Fred Perry line of sports and leisure clothing, and is odds on favourite to win the prestigious BBC Sports personality of the year.  That would make him the third cyclist in five years to win the award though it should be noted that an Olympic Gold medallist has won the award in each of the last three Olympic years.
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