The evenings will seem empty now, with no more of ITV4's nightly 7:00 Tour Highlights. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin, one of the best double acts in sports commentary - "That's an excellent move there by the Belgian cyclist...", "There'll be very tired legs in the peloton now...", "And he's gone! Cadel Evans is off the back of the leading group..." - with Paul Sherwin's strange habit of addressing his remarks at Liggett - "Well Phil, what we're seeing now..." They're all good, though: Gary Imlach, Chris Boardman: even the slightly annoying Ned Boulting is slightly annoying in a good sort of way.
But really, what can you say? Everything's gone right for British cycling this Tour. Wiggins never put a foot wrong. Mark Cavendish seemed at first like he'd signed for the wrong team, and had maybe lost some of his power in slimming down a bit for the Olympics, but no: he was top class. That stage 18 win coming into Brive was astonishing: one of the best I can remember. And the final win on the Champs-Elysees was, as we commentators like to say, the icing on the cake. Even good old David Millar won a stage. And Chris Froome: I'd never even heard of him three weeks ago, and now here he is in second place on the podium behind his team leader. The brief controversy about whether he was the stronger rider may have taken up some column inches but was never really a serious issue. Could be a problem for Sky next year though.
In effect cycling in Britain has been through something similar to the revolution in French football in the Eighties and Nineties that culminated in their 1998 World Cup win. Football had no deep roots in French culture, just as cycling has no deep roots in British culture. A few visionaries - in particular David Brailsford - saw what needed to be done and set about doing it. First it was the Olympics - British cycling successes in 2004 and 2008 - and now this. But who could have predicted that everything would go quite so well?
There have been some rumblings about the machine-like efficiency of the Sky team, with no place for the old dramatic individual breakaways so beloved of the French, but it's probably worth bearing in mind that much of the romantic stuff was from riders like Richard Virenque or Marco Pantani, who turned out to have a less-than-scrupulous relationship with performance-enhancing drugs. I don't think there's any doubt that the Sky team are clean, even if there are still traces of the old drug culture still lingering on elsewhere. And now this is the way of the future for the Tour. There'll always be room for individual heroics, but other teams will have seen what Sky have done and will learn the lesson: it's all about organisation and teamwork. Though it's worth pointing out that Wiggins is hardly a trail-blazer. Five-times Tour winner Miguel Indurain set the template for the rider who isn't interested in the normal road stage wins, but will just stay near the front and then kill the opposition on the time trials.
It's good, too, that the British riders all seem likeable blokes. David Millar - the doper who came clean - is always a good interviewee. With Cav, the Manx Missile...well, I can understand why some people might not warm to the guy, and he's not exactly Mr Articulate, but I like that Tiggerish enthusiasm. And now Bradley Wiggins, who used to seem a bit on the anodyne side, comes across as amusing and intelligent, and not afraid to speak his mind.
It may never be quite this perfect again, but from now on British cyclists will be up there with the rest of them when it comes to the three week July ride with Phil, Paul, and rest of the team. Who knows, they might even move it over to ITV1.
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