CHRIS Froome’s victory in the Vuelta Espana following his earlier success in the Tour de France represents one of the greatest sporting achievements of recent times, the equivalent of Mo Farah’s distance running, Roger Federer’s continuing accomplishments on the tennis court, or Jimmy Anderson’s collecting more wickets. 

Froome is only the third person to have won both these major cycle races in the same year. He won four tours and came second in the Vuelta on three previous occasions.

Now given Froome’s achievement you would think he would be a shoe-in for Sports Personality of the Year and a host of other awards. 
Yet his place in history is anything but assured. 

Unlike Sir Bradley Wiggins, Froome has not been knighted, nor has he received much national recognition.

There are reasons for this – Froome was actually born in Kenya – admittedly to British parents and spent much of his early years in South Africa, where he learned to cycle. 

Then there is the allegations of the use of therapeutic medicines – cycling has been dogged by drugs scandals, Lance Armstrong virtually destroyed the reputation of the sport for years. Now Froome should have to face none of this reputational damage but there has been plenty of it thrown around over the years.

So what should have been an unblemished success story is taken to be something less. This is a shame not just for Froome but for us as a nation. 

Cycling is without doubt the most gruelling of sports – anyone who gets on a bike knows how hard it can be for a few hours in a saddle. Tour riders have weeks of this to cope with.

Cycling of course has been one of the UK’s greatest triumphs – we’ve taken a shedload of medals at the Olympics and ParaOlympics as well as the World Championships. But when our greatest practitioner crosses the line we only give half a clap.

This is very disappointing and I hope that Froome’s win will in due course be re-evaluated – he deserves nothing less. 

There is every possibility that he can repeat this year’s successes next year. Hopefully then the media and public will give him the respect he deserves.

DAVID DREW

Stroud MP