Was 2012 the Pinnacle of British Cycling or Is There More to Come?

by Callum Cross

Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins
(source: BBC)

2012 was arguably the best year to date for cycling in the UK. With great success on the track with Sir Chris Hoy equalling Sir Steve Redgrave’s record number of Olympic golds and creating history on the road with a Tour de France win by Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome placed second. It has been said that British competitive cycling will never reach the same dizzying heights that it had in 2012. 

However I am not so sure.

So far, Mark Cavendish has notched up 1 stage in Argentina, 4 Stages in Qatar and the Overall too. Chris Froome has taken the Overall of the Tour of Oman with a dominant performance against previous Tour de France winners, Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans, not only this but last year’s Tour winner, Sir “Wiggo”, helping him out in the mountains. More lately, a very young British track team came away with 5 golds at the World Championships in Minsk and John Dibben, born and raised in Fareham, managed to place fourth in his event.

With a total of 17 British road wins from January to the end of February (5 more than last year), it is shaping up to be a great season. But with this in mind how far can we go this year? Well there should be a Giro d’Italia win for Sir Bradley Wiggins, and a few classics wins shared amongst the rest. With Cav on a new team designed to deliver him to stage wins there should be plenty for him this year as he rapidly approaches his hundredth professional win. Chris Froome is shaping up to potentially win the Tour and with 3 more top tier pro teams this year I think things can only get better.