Froome ‘Sky’ high, Vettel wins for Ferrari, Asher flies home

CYCLING – For the second time in three years, Team Sky rider Chris Froome, born to English parents in Nairobi, Kenya, brought up in South Africa and coached by Dave Brailsford, won the gruelling 21-stage, 3,506-kilometre (2,201 miles) Tour De France. Froome – the 2013 champion – is the first Brit to win the race twice, his second victory seeing him finish one minute and 12 seconds ahead of the Colombian Nairo Quantana. The other Team Sky winner was of course, Sir Bradley Wiggins in 2012. There were 160 finishers (out of 167 starters) in this year’s race and for the record, Froome was on his bike for over 85 hours… And for that, and without hesitation, I’m nominating him as my 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
FORMULA ONE – Sunday’s (July 26) dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix was won, for the first time, by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who drove superbly, leading from lap one. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) was second and Aussie Daniel Ricciardo third. It was wheel-to-wheel, bumper-to-bumper, punctures, drive throughs, and penalties galore – practically an incident on every lap – as Lewis Hamilton, starting from pole, had to settle for sixth position, but still extended his lead in the driver’s championship to 21 points (202-181). Vettel has now equalled Aryton Senna’s total of 41 F1 race victories – only Alain Prost (51) and Michael Schumacher (91) have won more, and the German is now the joint highest points scorer in F1 history with Fernando Alonso (1,778). Next race: Spa, Belgium, on August 23.
FOOTBALL – The women’s Cup Final between Chelsea Ladies and Notts County Ladies takes place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday August 1, followed at the same venue 24 hours later by Arsenal v Chelsea in the FA Community/Charity Shield game. Also this weekend (August 1-2), league football starts up again in Scotland when SPL champions Celtic meet Ross County.
CRICKET – The Third Ashes Test starts at Edgbaston on Wednesday (July 29). England won the first, Australia the second – so it’s all to play for now with two further matches remaining, at Trent Bridge (August 6-10) and The Oval (August 20-24).
RUGBY – This weekend (August 1-2) sees the semi-finals of Rugby League’s Challenge Cup: Leeds Rhinos v St Helens and Warrington Wolves v Hull KR.
AMERICA’S CUP – GB Olympian yachtsman Sir Ben Ainslie and his Landrover Bar Racing Team won last weekend’s (July 25-26) America’s Cup event at Portsmouth after officials abandoned sailing because of bad weather. Ainslie’s team came first and second in last Saturday’s two races on the Solent to secure first place. Emirates New Zealand came second overall and America’s Cup holders, Oracle Team USA third.
ATHLETICS – Dina Asher Smith (19) became the first British woman to run 100m in under 12 seconds at London’s Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium last weekend (July 25-26).
GOLF – The women’s British Open Championship takes place from today until Sunday at Turnberry.
DARTS – Michael Van Gerwen beat James Wade 18-12 to win the World Match Play Darts final in Blackpool.
HORSE RACING – The four-day ‘Glorious Goodwood’ meeting ends on Saturday.