Winning attitudes

Today, barring some spectacular piece of misfortune, Chris Froome will stand on the Champs-Elysée for the third time as winner of the Tour de France. Before 2012, no Briton had ever won cycling’s greatest race. Between them, Froome and Sir Bradley Wiggins have now claimed four out of five: it might have been a clean sweep but for Froome’s forced withdrawal in 2014 after crashing three times in two days.

For those who are not familiar with cycling, it is difficult to imagine the reserves of stamina, dedication and courage that went into these victories. On one stage this year, Froome was caught up in a crash and began to run up the road, in cycling cleats, until a replacement bike arrived. On another, he slipped in the wet, and ended up riding up one of the Tour’s toughest mountains, bruised and battered, on a bike designed to fit a teammate. Last year, he suffered verbally as well as physically, with the French crowds (who now seem to have been won over by his bravery and decency) greeting him with jeers, and even a cup of urine.

Froome’s latest triumph will certainly secure his place in the pantheon of British sporting heroes. But what lessons does his success have for the rest of us? On that score, it is instructive to consider Mo Farah, another British champion with African roots. His success, Farah said, came not from his natural gifts, prodigious though they are, but from “hard work and grafting”: training, training, training and training some more, devoting himself to his cause with every bit of effort he could muster.

These great sportsmen, and great Britons, know what it is to suffer, day in and day out. Because of that, they also know what it is to succeed.