Bradley Wiggins's historic Tour de France win: media laud him as 'finest British sportsman ever' There were no tears from Wiggins, just a huge smile of satisfaction, as he donned the final yellow jersey of the 2012 Tour de France and then listened to the British national anthem played in that same iconic Paris location, flanked by Sky team-mate Christopher Froome, and Italy's Vincenzo Nibali, who finished third. The 32-year-old triple Olympic track gold medallist has now taken road-racing's most prized victory after completing one of the most faultless race performances in the Tour's 109-year history. Wiggins switching from success in the controlled environment of team and individual pursuits in the velodrome to targeting and taking the biggest goal possible in the far more tumultuous world of road-racing is also an amazing example of the Briton's sporting versatility. Furthermore, in their first wins, Tour greats Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault even Lance Armstrong made errors that were corrected in their following victories: Wiggins and his blue-clad Sky cohorts, on the other hand, have painstakingly constructed a clinically forged triumph that made the Kilburn rider's victory feel almost as inevitable as any of Armstrong's or Indurain's. In a sport as unpredictable as road-racing, that is itself an extraordinary achievement. A sign too, perhaps, that the Briton's reign at the top of the Tour hierarchy has only just begun. The Daily Mail claim that Wiggins is "is simply our best ... ever": It certainly is a big word. Just the two syllables but huge in sport. Hugely misused, too. The best ever, the first ever. That last word is superfluous. We mean the best, we mean the first. Yet when Bradley Wiggins made his way up the Champs-Elysees, each pumping limb its own little revolution, ever has never sounded more appropriate. Bradley Wiggins is the first British winner of the Tour de France. Bradley Wiggins is the greatest British cyclist. Bradley Wiggins may well be the finest British sportsman. The greats of the sport such as Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Wiggins's boyhood poster hero Miguel Indurain were all outstanding track cyclists, too, but none emulated Wiggins's success in, for instance, the individual pursuit. This is renaissance work, a movement across cycling's cultures. Wiggins needs multiple Tour wins to be placed among the greatest names of the event, but is he among the greats of the sport? For sure. The Daily Mirror say Wiggins won't settle for anything less than Olympic gold after Tour triumph: On a day of scarcely-believable glories for British cycling, Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour in its 109-year history then vowed: "Now, I'll win Olympic gold." And as he was hailed a hero in the French capital with the yellow jersey on his back, Wiggins said: "If I'm 100 per cent honest, it's gold or nothing in London now. I can't sit and say I'll be happy with a silver or a bronze. That's why I'm flying back to England this evening. That's why I'll be out on the bike tomorrow morning. It's one performance to the next. The Daily Star, meanwhile, are calling for Wiggins to light the Olympic flame on Friday: Olympic chiefs were last night urged to let British Tour de France hero Bradley Wiggins light the opening ceremony cauldron, His incredible victory has sparked calls for him to be awarded a knighthood and made BBC Sports Personality of the Year. And fans demanded he be given the honour of firing up the Olympic cauldron at Friday's opening ceremony. "Tory MP Louise Mensch, 41, was among those joining the campaign, re-tweeting: "Bradley Wiggins should light the Olympic Flame next week." "Former football star Mark Bright, 50, and ex PM Tony Blair's former spin chief Alastair Campbell, 55, also called for Wiggins to light the cauldron with Bright saying he had achieved "something exclusive." Though laudable, Wiggins lighting the flame is unlikely as the men's road race team are likely to miss the opening ceremony as they will be competing the following morning. Bradley Wiggins, himself, writes in the Guardian that his next target is Olympic gold: It's very difficult to sum up what I'm feeling in words. The thing that's struck me most over the last 12 hours or so is just what it means to other people around me, like my personal photographer breaking down in tears in my room, and my mechanic in tears as well: you just think hell, it's not just me who's gone through this, everyone else around me has lived it too. That's quite a nice feeling, that you can have that impact on someone. So I'm almost the last person to soak it up and know what it feels like. And I guess that will happen over time. A lot of it is relief. It's a little bit like when I won the Olympics for the first time in 2004. It's almost a kind of disbelief that this is happening; it's little things like seeing the front page of L'Équipe, with my picture on it in the yellow jersey. You don't realise it's you on there. It's strange. In the short term, it's gold or nothing in London now, if I'm 100 per cent honest. We have prepared for this for a long time. We always knew I would be chasing the win in the Tour, and that after that I would be going for the win in the time trial in the London Olympics, so we planned for this happening, although we weren't taking it for granted by any means. Everything is in place for the next goal. I've just a done a world-class time trial, on Saturday, averaging a ridiculous amount of power after three weeks of bike racing and two really tough Pyrenees stages, a 222km stage on the Friday at a 44km per hour average speed with a lead-out in the finale, and then I still did that on Saturday. Finally, after Australia's Cadel Evans lost his Tour title to Wiggins The Australian were quick to point out that there was an "Aussie brain behind Tour's Brit winner" refering to Team Sky's Tim Kerrison. The Australian report that: "Australian sports scientist is being feted as the brains behind Bradley Wiggins, the first Briton to win the Tour de France."