Paris - Bradley Wiggins has become the first ever Briton to win the Tour de France, after triumphantly gliding down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday.
In the 99th edition of the sport's most fabled race, the 32-year-old Londoner knew he was on the verge of making history as he rode Sunday's 120-kilometre 20th stage from Rambouillet to the the French capital.
Wiggins had stretched his lead during Saturday's 33-mile time-trial leg from Bonneval to Chartres to ensure Sunday's route was a victory procession ahead of accepting the yellow jersey.
Chris Froome, his Team Sky colleague, finished second on the podium.
The three-time Olympic champion is now widely tipped to claim the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award after his historic success across the Channel. Should he claim the accolade, he will be the third cyclist to win it in four years, after Sir Chris Hoy (2008) and Mark Cavendish (2011).
Cavendish meanwhile won the final sprint on the Champs-Élyseés for the fourth time in his career after the 120-kilometre route.
He has now won one of the world's most famous boulevards in each of the Tours he has completed - in 2009, 2010, 2011 and now in 2012.
The 27-year-old's victories in stage two and 18 means he now has 23 Tour stage wins, moving above Lance Armstrong and Andre Darrigade into fourth place in the all-time list.
For Team Sky, it is the realisation of a dream sooner than expected. Launched in 2010 with the stated aim of winning the Tour with a clean British rider within five years, Dave Brailsford's squad, through Wiggins and Froome, have achieved another milestone.
Froome's podium finish makes it the first time two riders from the same nation have finished first and second in the Tour since 1984, when Laurent Fignon finished ahead of Bernard Hinault after three weeks of racing.
Back in July 2007, when British Cycling's performance director Dave Brailsford first mentioned his dream of a British Tour team, it seemed exactly that: a happy fantasy, a vision at odds with history.
When he launched Team Sky on 4 January 2010 with the promise of a British Tour winner in five years, not even he expected a British one-two within three.
Some sporting triumphs owe a large debt to luck but Wiggins's victory has its roots in hard work and dedication. The French media have dubbed him 'Le Gentleman', an accolade not many atheletes copuld claim when embraced by the French press.
In Britain, Wiggins has not just dominated the back pages of newspapers but, increasingly, the front. This Tour win has secured him a place alongside Britain's sporting greats the like of Steve Redgrave, Daley Thompson, Chris Hoy, Ian Botham and Bobby Charlton.