Look what he did

Lewis Hamilton has won the British Grand Prix after competing in 14 other Grand Prix in the previous fortnight. The press were keen to express that this was an impossibility and his tyres must have been pumped up with some magical air which transcends the laws of physics. Driving round in circles and then having to then hump one of the Pussy Cat Dolls or The Saturdays or someone else equally vapid must be tough though, so don't think driving in circles isn't tricky.

Andy Murray has also hit some balls over a net and this is deemed a gargantuan achievement, especially as in one game the ball boy didn't give him his Wimbledon branded towel to mop his mono-brow between points. To be fair, it is a tough game that Tennis. Some of the games last a couple of hours and involve some really high intensity grunting and on one occasion the Robinson's Barley water was a bit tart to say the least.

So Froome wins on the Ventoux, one of the starkest, toughest climbs in professional cycling after defending the yellow jersey for several days and the accusation is "he must have been on the juice." On a day which sees two of athletics' top sprinters test positive, the innuendo gathers pace. Sadly he is paying for the sins of his fathers and lazy journalism.

"It's sad that we're sitting here the day after the biggest victory of my life talking about doping." Chris Froome.

A cyclist rides up a hill....  Froome sticks it to the peloton.

The strength in depth of British cycling is embarrassingly good. But somehow we just can't accept that at last Britain is good at something. Not just good but really good. And for once the "something" is something other than getting on a plane from Luton to Marbella and then demanding "I waaaaaaant Hammo, Eggo and Chippos you [insert racist insult]! I came here on a plane you bast@rd." Although this is something that we excel at as a nation (plus the added bonus of getting sunburned within two minutes of any sighting of solaris. It's not something we should be particularly proud of (except in Essex some parts of the UK (n.b. Phin Wenlock complained about this bit but he is from Dorset or somewhere anyway but I like him and have recanted), where this is actually viewed as a rite of passage akin to a Victorian "Grand Tour").

The national dish.

To prove the point about the depth of GB talent, Cavendish has hit 25 TdeF stage wins, Pete Kennaugh has achieved super-domestique status in his first TdeF and Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard have kept pushing on despite injuries which would even make Ray Wilkins sober up rapidly.

Is the reason Froome isn't getting the plaudits a question of timing? Some people have stood around in a field in Nottinghamshire having their Cricket game littered with a series of cucumber sandwiches, tea and occasional sunbathing getting more column inches? Is it because Cesc Fabregas may join Everton United this week? Who knows...

All I know is that Chris Froome won a stage of the world's hardest race, on Bastille Day, in France, in the Centenary edition being chased down by two former winners (the disgraced Alberto Contador and the spent  2011 winner Cadel Evans). This is the equivalent of a Frenchman flying a Spitfire over Trafalgar Square after having created the fuel biologically by drinking Kentish ale and urinating in out in to the FA Cup, decanting it in to the fuel tank whilst singing Jerusalem and wearing a Union Jack waistcoat.

Would that go down well in the Olde Bulldog on the Benidorm Strip? I think not.

Maybe "Froomo" should grow some sideburns and profess a knowledge of The Jam's back catalogue? That's not a jibe at Wiggins but it is a tily at lazy reporting and the tendency to report on matters of style and not substance. It merited 100 words in the Metro, no doubt Froomo will not win BBC's Sport's Personality of the Year as Virginia Wade Andy Murray has finally won a UK "slam". At least Froome has a personality. Having said that Lendl will be coach of the year no doubt based on his charismatic and engaging media campaign this year... oh no hang on a second.

Maybe Froome should simply "stick it" to the rest of the field in the last week of the Tour and make the race his own. No one is going to touch him for several years if he maintains this form and approach. Indurain, Merkcx, Fignon, Hinault, Froome - a good club to be in.