Mick Hartley

It's no great secret I suppose why we have such a lousy record in the Tour: it's just not part of our culture. Until recently it barely had any coverage outside a few specialist bike mags. You don't see groups of men powering along the road at the weekend all geared up in their lycra like you do on the continent. Though Americans and Australians, coming from what I imagine are fairly similar cultures cycle-wise, have a much better record than we do, so there may be more to it. 

Perhaps it's the whole commercial set-up which is so strange to British sports fans: the way the teams are all named and financed by private companies – Liquigas, Columbia, Astana, Rabobank, all the rest. Ironic for a country which likes to sneer at the grasping capitalism of les Anglo-Saxons. As though our football league comprised Virgin United, Kwikfit Rovers, Waitrose Wanderers. And it's central to how the Tour works – how for instance break-aways are encouraged even when they know they're doomed, simply because it'll mean more coverage for their team and the sponsor's name. If it was arranged on national lines, say – French, Italian, Spanish, Belgian teams – it'd be a completely different event. And probably less enjoyable.

It's worth mentioning, as well, how much the Tour is now presented as a kind of running tourist promotion for La Belle France, with panoramic shots of mountains, valleys, passing churches and chateaux, and all the rest. Not that I mind…

It'd be nice to think that the British are coming through more now because the sport's finally making real progress against the drug cheats – which is to say, foreigners – but the fate of Tommy Simpson, one of our few top-class Tour competitors, dead on the slopes of Mont Ventoux with amphetamine and alcohol in his blood, rather gives the lie to that one.

It's been our track cycling success which has fed into the Tour: Chris Boardman led the way, though his Tour record was poor, but now Mark Cavendish has the flair and the aggression to do the business. He's not going to get the green jersey this year, after that business on Saturday, but he'll win it one day. And he's perhaps the most talked-about rider at the moment.

But it's Wiggins that's the big surprise. We'd expect him to do well on the time trials, and be high up in the overall classification before the mountains – but, remarkably, amazingly, he's still there. Every time there's a lead group breaking away up the big climbs, there he is. Even pushing ahead occasionally. We're just not used to that from British cyclists. 

There seems to some kind of transformation that the very best riders go through; starting off as time triallists – any Tour winner has got to be an ace time-triallist. At some point after they've been riding a few years they lose weight, gain stamina, and get their bodies set up for the mountains. That's what Wiggins has done. That's what Lance Armstrong did (in his case it was the cancer that pushed him through the change).

Of course the French think it's drugs. 

They thought – still think – Armstrong's success was down to drugs too. What a shame that perhaps the most high-profile victim of the recent drug revelations wasn't Armstrong, but France's darling, king of the mountains specialist Richard Virenque. Personally I very much doubt Bradley Wiggins' success has got anything to do with drugs. He's too smart for that. He just put in a lot of hard work. And now he's in third overall, and heading for a podium place in Paris. 

Anyway, today's another big day in the Alps. Will Wiggins survive? Will Alberto Contador put in another burst to break his rivals? I'll certainly be there this evening watching the highlights, slumped back in my comfy armchair, glass of wine in hand, enjoying the scenery as well as the exertions of men pushing their bodies to the very limits of human endurance. Santé!