Bradley Wiggins soared to Britain's first overall win in the Paris-Nice in 45 years with an agonisingly close victory in the final uphill time trial to Colonel D'Eze on Sunday.
The 31-year-old Team Sky rider beat Dutchman Lieuwe Westra by two seconds in the 9.6-kilometre dash from Nice and eight seconds overall to claim his biggest victory since the Criterium du Dauphine last June. Spain's Alejandro Valverde finished third on the final podium, one minute and 10 seconds back.
Wiggins said he was proud to be one of just two Britons to win the eight-day stage race and the first since his cycling hero Tom Simpson in 1967.
"I know my cycling history and this is an enormous achievement," he told reporters.
"It's an honour to be up there with Tom Simpson. "To follow in Tom Simpson's footsteps to become the second Brit to win...everybody else on the list - Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Indurain - it's a massive thing." Wiggins, who will be among the overall contenders when the Tour de France starts from Liege in Belgium on June 30, had paid tribute to the late British rider in 2009 when the world's biggest race went up the Mont Ventoux - where Simpson died a few months after his Paris-Nice triumph.
Two seconds behind Westra half-way up the winding, well-surfaced climb from Nice to Colonel D'Eze, the triple Olympic track gold medallist said he had to pull out all the stops to claim the win.
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