Bradley Wiggins matched the highest placing by a Brit in le Tour but is he the country's greatest cyclist?
Is Wiggins the country's best ever cyclist?
Bradley Wiggins matched the highest placing by a British rider in the Tour de France with fourth, leading to claims he is the country's greatest cyclist.
Here, we look at the candidates.
Tom Simpson
The only British rider to win the men's road race World Championship and the first rider to wear the yellow jersey, finishing the 1962 Tour in sixth overall. Sports Personality of the Year in 1965, Simpson died during the 1967 Tour after taking amphetamines.
Beryl Burton
The Yorkshirewoman won the road race World Championship in 1960 and 1967 as well as five track world titles. She was dominant at national level - winning the national road race 12 times and the best all-rounder title every year for 25 years between 1959 and 1983. In 1967, she set a record for the distance covered in 12 hours of 277.25 miles, which beat the men's best as well as the women's.
Robert Millar
The Glaswegian became the first and only British cyclist to win a Tour de France classification when he claimed the polka-dot jersey as King of the Mountains in 1984. He finished fourth that year - a British high that Wiggins equalled this year. Won three stages of the Tour in his career and the King of the Mountains title in the 1987 Giro d'Italia.
Sir Chris Hoy
The only pure track cyclist on the list. Won gold in the kilometre at the Athens Olympics but could not defend his title as the event was eliminated from the Games programme. Reinvented himself as a sprinter and won three golds in Beijing - the first Briton to do so at a single Olympics since 1900. Is a nine-times world champion and a knight of the realm.
Nicole Cooke
The only cyclist of any nationality, man or woman, to hold the Olympic and world road race titles simultaneously, Cooke followed up her victory in Beijing with success at the World Championships a month later. Has won 10 national titles, the first when she was only 16, and was also the 2002 Commonwealth champion.
Bradley Wiggins
The velodrome has brought Wiggins a total of six Olympic medals, three of them gold, and six world titles. In 2004, he was the first Briton since 1960 to win three medals at a single Olympics. Previously a time-trial specialist on the road, he has now established himself as a contender for the major titles.
Mark Cavendish
Holds the British record for Tour de France stage wins after only three seasons, beating the previous best by Barry Hoban, which had taken eight years to amass. Became the first Briton to win on the Champs Elysee and is a two-time world champion on the track.
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