Sky's the limit for British cycling as sport sets its sights on a team to win the Tour

THE one-and-a-half riders from Britain who will finish the Tour de France on the Champs Elysees in Paris today will belong to the most prolific British contingent ever to ride the Tour. With four stage wins, Britain ties with Spain as the most successful nation in terms of stage wins, the caveat being that all the victories came courtesy of one man: Mark Cavendish.

Cavendish withdrew from the Tour a week ago, to return to the Isle of Man and refocus on the Olympics. His withdrawal left one-and-a-half Brits, David Millar and Chris Froome.

Froome is the 'half-Brit,' having only recently switched nationality from Kenya – where he was born, before his family moved to South Africa. Having competed for Kenya, Froome has to wait three years before he is eligible to represent GB. At 23, though, he is a bright prospect.

He is also excited at the prospect of becoming British. In the past, being British would have been considered a disadvantage for a cyclist; few, if any, would have chosen to align themselves with a country historically indifferent to a sport whose heartland is on mainland Europe.

An announcement last Thursday, however, is set to challenge that indifference. When told on Friday of the new sponsorship "partnership" between Sky TV and British Cycling, Froome admitted he "had goosebumps just thinking about it."

Although the deal was trumpeted as an investment in all facets of the sport, from grassroots to elite, and presumably timed so the new partner can enjoy some reflected glory from what is expected to be a hugely successful Olympic Games in Beijing, there seems little doubt the ambitions of both parties are sky-high. In cycling, that means the Tour de France. For British Cycling, it means entering a team. And for Sky, presumably broadcasting the Tour and doing for cycling, albeit on a lesser scale, what it has done for the Premiership.

It has long been an ambition of David Brailsford, the British performance director, to run a professional road team. On a visit to the Tour last year he confirmed it, and said that 2012 was the planned launch year.

Then came the world track championships in Manchester this March, and a bounty of nine gold medals. Following that – perhaps feeling that in track cycling the summit has been reached – Brailsford devoted a month to planning for a British professional team. In May he confirmed that the project had been accelerated to 2010. The ambition had also been decided. "To win the Tour de France with a clean British rider in the medium-term," said Brailsford. The medium term? "Five to 10 years," he clarified.

Rumours began to circulate a month ago that Brailsford had lined up a major sponsor to back his Tour team, to the tune of around £24m over four years. The Sky deal, described only as "multi-million pounds" in value, is for the next five years – and so it seems reasonable to speculate that Sky will be the name on the jerseys in 2010, with the men wearing them likely to include Cavendish (though his Columbia team will resist), Froome, Geraint Thomas, Steve Cummings, Bradley Wiggins, and some of the other promising young riders being churned out by British Cycling's phenomenally successful academy.

Many believe that the sport in Britain is currently experiencing something of a golden era – the reality is that the best could be yet to come.