Froome wins second Tour de France

Three weeks of trials and tribulations came to an end on the Champs Elysées in Paris on Sunday. The 2015 Tour de France is over and Chris Froome is the cyclist supreme.

Chris Froome (centre) crosses the finishing line with his Sky Team mates. Reuters/Bernard Papon

Froome claimed his second Tour de France on Sunday. The 30-year-old Kenyan-born Briton accepted the trophy on the Champs Elysées in Paris and immediately paid tribute to his Sky Team mates as well as the coaches and support staff. 

He added: "The yellow jersey is very special, I will always respect it and I will always be proud to wear it." 

Froome is the first Briton to win the race twice. He crossed the finishing line arm-in-arm with the rest of the team behind a sprint claimed by Andre Greipel. 

For the record, Froome finished after 84 hours 46 minutes and 14 seconds. It was 72 seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana from Colombia after three weeks and 3,360 kilometres of riding through valleys and tortuous mountain trails. 

Alejandro Valverde from Spain was third.

Froome donned the yellow jersey after stage seven and he never took it off. His margins for error though were reduced in the latter stages. Last Thursday he held a lead of just over three minutes and Quintana attacked relentlessly during the 20th stage on Saturday. Froome held firm and swept into Paris nursing the slenderest lead since Carlos Sastre squeaked past Cadel Evans by 58 seconds seven years ago.

Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford said on Sunday he was proud of his rider’s achievements.

Froome has suffered accusations of cheating not just during this race but since his last victory at the Grand Boucle two years ago.

The barbs conspired to create a hostile atmosphere towards Froome who had urine thrown at him. There was bile too. Some spectators lining the route spat at him as he rode  past.

Brailsford said: "I've been doing this for 15-16 years now with British Cycling, we won a lot of Olympic medals and used the same methodology to come to Sky and create Team Sky and the same methodology worked again, so you can believe in us," he told Sky Sports.

"We're a clean team, we ride clean, Chris is a clean rider and everybody can have 100 percent faith in what we do."

And Brailsford said despite several unpleasant incidents, he had enjoyed the surge to victory. "There's a line that shouldn't be crossed but the majority of people, 99.9 percent of people have been fantastic and it's just great to be here.”