Cycling: Capital Finish for Ardila As British Fans Cheer on Wiggins

The Italian Enrico Degano and the Colombian Mauricio Ardila triumphed in the heart of the capital on the final stage of the Tour of Britain yesterday, but participants and organisers, not to mention the many thousands of spectators, will be hoping that in the long term the sport of cycling in Britain will be the winner as the newly reinstituted national tour came to a fittingly spectacular climax after five days.

Degano, a 28-year-old from the eastern Italian province of Gorizia who rides for South African team Barloworld, took the mass sprint up Whitehall from the Kiwi Julian Dean, with Ardila riding in safely in 20th place to conserve the 17sec overall lead he had secured on Saturday in winning the uphill stage finish to the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport.

The diminutive climber from the city of Medellin was jubilant at his first major stage race success and thanked his team for protecting his slender lead. "It's great to win here because there were so many Colombians in the crowd. All I had to do was stay near the front and keep out of trouble."

With crowds lining the 1.1-mile circuit two and three deep, central London briefly took on a little of the aura of the Champs Elysées when the Tour de France finishes, as the string of cyclists sped along the Victoria Embankment past the London Eye and the plea sure boats on the Thames, with Big Ben and Nelson's column the backdrop to the rest of the course.

There was a total of 19sec available in time bonuses for the winners of the finish and the three intermediate sprints, and only the Belgian Nick Nuyens and the Frenchman Eric Leblacher were within that margin, meaning that Ardila had only to watch the pair and make sure his team chased down any breakaway attempts.

As it turned out, the only serious escapes came from British riders taking their final chance to show in front of the home crowd. Early on it was the reed-thin Charly Wegelius, leader of the Great Britain team, who sped ahead for a few circuits, then in the closing laps the new two-wheel national hero Bradley Wiggins made a full-blooded attempt to win his home stage.

A Question of Sport awaits him tonight and an appearance on Superstars will follow shortly. But in his final race of the season the triple medallist in the Athens Olympics built up a threatening lead with Nico Mattan of Belgium, Great Britain's Kieran Page and the Irishman David McCann before the peloton finally closed.

He escaped alone with three laps to go, with the crowd drumming on the advertising hoardings and cheering him to the echo, but the sprinters duly swept him up led by Brett Lancaster of Australia, appropriately one of the quartet who relegated Wiggins and the other British team pursuiters to the silver medals in Athens.

"I wanted to win; it was a good strong group to be in and I thought with eight laps to go, when we were going strongly, 'Christ, I'm in with a chance here'," Wiggins said. "I went solo at the end because I had the legs. The last couple of laps the supporters were just going crazy; it was unbelievable. But that's typical of how it has been all week."

The powers that be in London are hoping that the circuit race will act as further proof of the capital's ability to host the Tour de France, apparently in 2007. Mick Hickford, head of special projects at Transport for London, was among the spectators yesterday and said the project's backers were "very confident" of success.

The evidence of yesterday is that thousands will come out to watch professional cycling in London, which the Tour de France organisers will no doubt take on board.