:00:27. > :00:29.Well done, Bradley Wiggins! Congratulations, Bradley Wiggins!
:00:29. > :00:32.That's right, Newsround is only about one man, the amazing Bradley
:00:32. > :00:38.Wiggins, the first British cyclist ever to win the gruelling Tour de
:00:38. > :00:44.France. Over the next ten minutes, we'll look back at this incredible
:00:44. > :00:47.achievement and speak to the next generation of top British cyclists.
:00:47. > :00:52.He did it, Bradley Wiggins went from being this little boy on a
:00:52. > :00:55.bike to this, the winner of cycling's toughest race. Yes, three
:00:55. > :00:59.weeks and 2,000 miles later, he finally lifted his Tour De France
:00:59. > :01:02.trophy. Many people are calling it the biggest achievement in British
:01:02. > :01:12.sporting history. I was in Paris yesterday, soaking up the
:01:12. > :01:14.
:01:14. > :01:18.Welcome to the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, where one of the
:01:18. > :01:22.greatest sporting events on the planet is about to come to an end,
:01:22. > :01:28.and Britain's 109 You wait for victory in the Tour de France is
:01:28. > :01:35.nearly over! As you can say, it's completely packed with people!
:01:35. > :01:39.on, Bradley! I am very excited. This is just great, go Wiggins!
:01:39. > :01:43.Bradley Wiggins can make history by becoming the first Brit to win the
:01:43. > :01:52.Tour de France. Back home, or the newspapers are talking about him,
:01:52. > :01:57.and here all you can see our Union Jacks. I have never seen so many
:01:57. > :02:04.Brits on the Champs-Elysees so early on the last day of the tour,
:02:04. > :02:06.they have just flooded the place, it is superb. Bradley Wiggins has
:02:06. > :02:11.achieved at an incredible thing, but he could never be where he is
:02:11. > :02:15.without the team. The team is made up of other riders, including Chris
:02:15. > :02:20.Froome, who is in second place, and Mark Cavendish, both major reasons
:02:20. > :02:24.for his success. They could have left in but chose to stick together.
:02:24. > :02:30.It is great for British people in general, because everybody is
:02:30. > :02:35.tackling now, it is on the up and up. Hopefully it can inspire the
:02:35. > :02:38.nation. The crowds have been cheering all day for this moment,
:02:39. > :02:44.the climax, it has been an amazing atmosphere, and it is getting
:02:44. > :02:49.better and better. It is all-over, Bradley Wiggins is the champion! He
:02:49. > :02:55.has been on the week -- on a road for three weeks, climbed the
:02:55. > :03:01.equivalent of three Mount Everests. He will be back on the road doing
:03:01. > :03:06.it all over again for Team GB in the London Olympics! It is one of
:03:06. > :03:10.the biggest achievements in British sporting history. For me, it is
:03:10. > :03:15.like, you know, in England it is football, and every child a dream
:03:15. > :03:19.is to lift the FA Cup at Wembley or whatever. This is like my Wembley.
:03:20. > :03:23.That looked like fun, or did you get to keep the hat? Yes, it was
:03:23. > :03:26.amazing! Unlike some of Britain's other sporting superstars, not an
:03:26. > :03:29.awful lot is known about Bradley Wiggins. So here's a Newsround
:03:29. > :03:33.guide. After becoming the first ever British winner of the Tour de
:03:33. > :03:36.France Bradley Wiggins will go down in history as a sporting legend.
:03:36. > :03:40.But did you know, our new hero wasn't actually born in the UK but
:03:40. > :03:43.in Belgium in a city called Ghent? He came over to England when he was
:03:43. > :03:48.very young, though, and from an early age it didn't take a
:03:48. > :03:50.detective to guess what he was going to end up doing. Away from
:03:50. > :03:58.cycling, Wiggins loves his music and in particular bands like The
:03:58. > :04:07.Jam and The Who. And it's those guys that are said to have inspired
:04:07. > :04:10.Wiggo's incredible three-inch sideburns. I am pretty jealous!
:04:10. > :04:13.More amazing than these, though, is the fact that despite winning the
:04:13. > :04:17.world's biggest bike race in their own back yard, the French love
:04:17. > :04:20.Wiggo almost as much as we do. He does many of his interviews in
:04:20. > :04:24.fluent French, and the people there call him Le Gentleman. Well, back
:04:24. > :04:27.off, France, he's ours! Wiggins' win in Paris topped off an
:04:27. > :04:30.incredible decade for British cycling. Team GB have become such
:04:30. > :04:34.masters of both track and road racing, often their only serious
:04:34. > :04:40.competitors are each other. But this hasn't always been the case,
:04:40. > :04:43.and it's taken a lot of hard work and money to get them this far. 20
:04:43. > :04:48.years ago, the British cycling team came back from the 1992 Olympics
:04:48. > :04:52.with a single gold medal to its name. There was no money in the
:04:52. > :04:56.sport, and cycling looked and felt unloved. Fast-forward two decades,
:04:56. > :05:02.the sport is the jewel in our Olympic crown and the envy of the
:05:02. > :05:06.Gone are the days when athletes travelled to championships on their
:05:07. > :05:10.own. Now they live in a world of sports science geekery, where no
:05:10. > :05:13.stone is left unturned. Over �1m has been spent on making the bikes
:05:13. > :05:16.more aerodynamic, and in the buildup to the 2008 Games an exact
:05:16. > :05:21.copy of the Beijing BMX track was built in Manchester for medal hope
:05:21. > :05:24.Shanaze Reade to practise on. National Lottery funding has
:05:24. > :05:30.massively helped the British cause, but it was a huge clear-out of
:05:30. > :05:33.riders and coaches back in 2001 that was really the changing point.
:05:33. > :05:36.The 2004 Games in Athens brought Britain's first two-gold haul on
:05:36. > :05:44.the track since 1908, with Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy claiming
:05:44. > :05:49.With another 14 medals coming in Beijing, as far as the track was
:05:49. > :05:53.concerned, Team GB were undoubtedly the best in the world. But then
:05:53. > :05:55.came another challenge, road racing. Mark Cavendish won the green jersey
:05:55. > :06:00.in last year's Tour de France and with Bradley's Wiggins yellow
:06:01. > :06:04.jersey success yesterday, it seems the Brits have conquered that, too.
:06:04. > :06:07.So the focus now returns to the Olympic Games, and nation will be
:06:07. > :06:12.expecting the cycling team to carry on from where they left off in
:06:12. > :06:16.China. Wiggins' win is bound to get loads
:06:16. > :06:20.more of us loving cycling and out on our bikes. Cycling is one of the
:06:20. > :06:23.fastest growing sports in the UK, but you don't have to go all the
:06:23. > :06:27.way to the French mountains to get in on the action. I've been to meet
:06:27. > :06:36.some of the kids hoping to become the next big stars, at his local
:06:36. > :06:40.Even before Bradley Wiggins crossed the finish line this weekend, the
:06:40. > :06:44.celebration party at his cycling club was in full swing. These guys
:06:44. > :06:48.are part of Bradley's home cycling club, the Wigan Wheelers. But today
:06:48. > :06:58.just like Bradley, it's back business. They're training hard so
:06:58. > :07:02.
:07:02. > :07:11.that one day they'll be hot on his He never gives in, he tries as hard
:07:11. > :07:21.as they can all time, which is what I want to do. We could grow to do
:07:21. > :07:26.the same thing. Patrick, you are already won a 10 mile and a 20 mile
:07:26. > :07:31.race, so you are a bit of an expert. Any tips for me? You just need to
:07:31. > :07:40.keep calm and do not think about the others around you. Let's give
:07:40. > :07:43.The over the past six months in the run-up to the Olympics, there has
:07:43. > :07:47.been a massive increase in the number of people getting on their
:07:47. > :07:56.bikes. At the moment 2 million people are getting on their wheels
:07:56. > :07:59.at least OK, I'm not quite ready for the Tour de France yet, but
:07:59. > :08:09.Bradley Wiggins' latest win will no doubt get even more people will be
:08:09. > :08:11.
:08:11. > :08:14.99 years the Tour De France has been held, starting in 1903. Four
:08:14. > :08:16.coloured jerseys to win in the competition. White for best young
:08:16. > :08:21.rider, green for best sprinter, spotty for king of the mountains,
:08:21. > :08:25.and yellow for the overall winner. 198 riders take part in the race,
:08:25. > :08:29.of which only 153 managed to cross the finish line at the Champs
:08:29. > :08:34.Elysees yesterday. On each stage the riders used about 8,000
:08:34. > :08:37.calories a day. So they need to eat the equivalent of 83 bananas every
:08:37. > :08:47.day, or 45 croissants to keep them going over the 2,173 miles of
:08:47. > :08:52.
:08:52. > :08:56.So Bradley Wiggins made it to his historic Tour de France win, thanks
:08:56. > :08:58.to the sporting behaviour of his British team-mates. Over on the
:08:58. > :09:08.Newsround website today, we're asking, are you inspired by
:09:08. > :09:28.
:09:28. > :09:33.She is growing sideburns? That is an achievement! We thought we would