Your excellent report on Chris Froome’s victory at the Vuelta a España states that “Sir Bradley Wiggins is the only other Briton to have won” a Grand Tour (11 September).
But as fans of women’s cycling know, Swansea-born Nicole Cooke won the Grand Boucle (also known as the Tour de France Féminin) in 2006, six years before Wiggo’s win. She won again the following year, so she, rather than Froome, is the first Briton to win two Grand Tours too. In 2009, the final year the Grand Boucle took place before vanishing for lack of sponsorship (as has been the case with so many women’s cycling races), it was won by another Brit: Emma Pooley, born in London. The following year, Pooley also won the Tour de l’Aude, also considered one of the Grand Tours of women’s cycling. Sadly, it too disappeared due to lack of sponsorship.
While you’re correct in saying no Briton has ever won the Giro d’Italia, there’s a women’s version of that race too, the Giro Rosa or Giro d’Italia Femminile (which still takes place – the last of the women’s Grand Tours). Nicole Cooke won it in 2004; Pooley was second in 2011 and 2012.
John Orbea
Sawston, Cambridgeshire
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