Hats doffed then to a great achievement by Cadel Evans in becoming the first Australian to win The Tour de France. Our own Mark Cavendish deserves praise too, becoming the first Englishman to win the Green Jersey. And what an exciting three weeks its been for all us lovers of cycle racing, and in particular the greatest race of them all - The Tour.
There's been immense drama as each stage has unfolded; the crashes, the pain and suffering, the cat and mouse tactics, the passion and pageant - all there in bucketfuls. The stages through the Alps were my personal favourites, seeing Andy Schleck make his breakaway I thought for sure he was going to take the yellow in Paris. Then Contador came back, then Evans.... it was just edge of the seat stuff.
It's also heartening to note that Cadel Evans is the oldest winner since World War 2 - at 34 its unlikely that he'll be able to repeat his performance, but boy did he look strong in the Alps when he clawed back Schleck's lead, and his time trialling on the penultimate stage was superb. He was the strongest rider, simple as that really.
I'm going to miss my daily 'fix' from Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen and the contributions from Chris Boardman and Ned Boulting were excellent. A big thanks to ITV4 for supporting cycling too.
It all started in 2011 - we decided to ride Lands End to John O Groats, since then we've completed a number of 'challenges' raising over £15,000 for various charities. You can read about our adventures here, and also our on-going efforts to keep on cycling!
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