And so to the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, awash with ‘Allez Wiggo’ banners and Union flags. It was, said Wiggins, ‘goose-pimple time’ amid congratulatory hugs, an exhilarating afternoon in glorious sunshine to fulfil those dreams he had savoured as a bike-mad mod pedalling around a Kilburn council estate. But after an intense 20 days, it’s hard to come out of the bubble when you’re still with your team, still on your bike, still feeling great. And there were still some tactics to execute. Wiggins, not only the first Briton to win but also the first Olympic gold medallist from the track to win the Tour de France, was going to lead out the first British World Champion in 46 years to sprint to his own record victory. The yellow jersey would set up a sprint for the rainbow jersey.
‘I watched Bradley cross the line the day before and thought “great”, because he would be there to support Cav too!’ said Bernie Eisel. ‘We could rely on him. The Champs-Elysées is like Cav’s living room, but the day started with me thinking, ok, just keep riding, because at the end Bradley will be supporting too.’ Christian Knees was not so sanguine. Wiggins’s ever-diligent protector did not start to accept the victory until he’d seen his team leader safely cross the line on the Paris cobbles. ‘Even there I was working, I came out to the front and Brad pushed me in front downhill … I was thinking “Keep your fucking hand on the handlebar!” It was brilliant to be riding there with him on the back wheel, a real honour to be first on the Champs-Elysées. It was a very happy moment for me.’
No rider had ever won three times consecutively on the Champs-Elysées, but in 2011 Mark Cavendish snatched that record. Could he possibly achieve a fourth? Could he add another magical record to Team Sky’s day of glory? The answer was yes. ‘The Champs-Elysées is special for every rider, because you reach those cobbles and you know you’ve got to the finish of the Tour de France. To win there, though, is the Holy Grail for every sprinter,’ he said. ‘It’s not easy. The distance from the far corner is too far … you have to time it right … you have to be instinctive. It’s tricky because it’s man-to-man stuff. We wanted to go out with a bang. The break went away, Brad led me out in the yellow jersey, then Edvald went so fast around that corner … On other sprints you don’t want to go 100 per cent, you’ve still got a Tour to get through, but on the Champs-Elysées there’s nothing to hold back for. It was super.’
The scene was extraordinary, too much to take in. A one-two for Wiggins, Froome, Team Sky and Britain on the podium. A record victory for Cavendish, making him, in terms of all-time stage wins, the best sprinter in the history of the Tour. A city full of Union flags, buzzing with patriotic fervour. A nation back home invigorated by another British cycling show of world-class domination.
‘It’s difficult to know what to feel,’ said Wiggins in a state of shock. ‘The thing that’s struck me most is just what my win means to other people around me, like the Team Sky photographer breaking down in my room and my mechanic being in tears. You just think, “Fucking hell, everyone else around me is living it too.”’
