Tour de France: Chris Froome completes historic British win

The 2013 champion finished alongside his team-mates on the final stage, behind a sprint won by Andre Greipel.

Mark Cavendish, seeking a fifth win on the Champs-Elysees, finished sixth after the 109.5km race from Sevres.

The win for Froome means a Briton, and Team Sky, have now won three of the last four of cycling's showpiece races.

Froome, 30, beat Colombia's Nairo Quintana to the yellow jersey by 72 seconds with Spain's Alejandro Valverde third.

The final stage ended with 10 laps of a 7km course around Paris but the times for the general classification were taken the first time they crossed the finish line because heavy rain in the French capital had made the roads treacherous.

That meant Froome could not lose time if he was held up by a crash or mechanical problem but he still had to complete the stage.

Inside the last 10km he had to stop to remove a paper bag that had got caught up in his gears, while moments later he rode over a discarded water bottle. If either had caused him to crash and not cross the finish line his title would have been cruelly taken away.

However, he stayed upright and rode over the line arm-in-arm with his Team Sky team-mates several seconds behind the main bunch.

There were a record 10 Britons at this year's Tour, with Geraint Thomas (15th, Team Sky) the highest ranked after Froome. 

The Welshman rode through the pain barrier, and at one point a telegraph pole, in the name of helping his team-mate Froome and was up in fourth until the latter stages of week three.

Froome was also supported by Ian Stannard (128th), on his second Tour, and Luke Rowe (136th) who was making his Tour debut, while Team Sky lost Peter Kennaugh to illness on stage 16.

Sprint specialist Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quickstep, 142nd) had a mixed Tour, having been accused of giving up in a sprint on stage two, something which he reacted angrily to. The Manxman took his record tally of Tour stage wins to 26 by winning on stage seven, but lacked team-mates to succeed on the Champs-Elysees.

Twin brothers Adam Yates (50th) and Simon Yates (89th) not only made it to Paris on their Tour debuts, but often put their Orica-GreenEdge team in front of the cameras with regular breakaways.

A stage win for Stephen Cummings (86th) for his MTN-Qhubeka team on Mandela Day would have made the man from the Wirral a popular man in his camp.

And Movistar's Alex Dowsett, who Bradley Wiggins took the hour record off earlier this year, had to withdraw on stage 12 after a crash earlier in the Tour.

(BBC)