So many horrible things happen in our world today but, as England awoke this bright Monday morning to sunshine and clear blue skies, our national newspaper headlines trumpeted some astounding sporting success. Bradley Wiggins, the 32 year old holder of three Olympic cycling gold medals, became the first ever Englishman to win the Tour de France, arguably the most gruelling endurance test in any sport.

One has come to expect  hyperbole verging on hysteria in the tabloids whenever someone from these shores achieves even a modicum of sporting success but when our more responsible press are referring to “an historic achievement” and asking “Is Wiggins the greatest ever?” winner of the Tour (yesterday’s Sunday Times) you have to sit up and take notice. We’re not supposed to be good at long distance mountainous cycle races, lacking as we do the vast mountain ranges of Europe and beyond, and any cycling successes achieved in the past tend to have been in time trials and sprints. Wiggins’ victory has quite simply transcended anything achieved by an Englishman before in cycling and as the first English winner in 99 years of the Tour de France he deserves all the plaudits and adulation which come his way.

The Tour is however a team event and his colleagues, Mark Cavendish (who won on the Champs-Elysees stage for a record 4th time) and Chris Froomes (who finished second overall and, in another year, could well have won it himself)plus the rest of Team Sky deserve the highest possible praise. They have all done us proud and further pride may well follow in the forthcoming Olympic Games.

Let’s hope that these sporting heroes provide the inspiration for thousands of youngsters to take up the sport (in fact any sport) and shame our Government into ending the continued sale of sports fields across the land and into elevating competitive sport in schools to the highest possible level.