BRADLEY WIGGINS has been absolutely phenomenal in the Tour de France.

His effort in the three-week event – and that of his Team Sky colleagues – has been truly incredible and brilliant to watch.

Wiggins is clearly at the very top of his game and the achievement of winning this weekend is one we should not under-estimate.

If I sit on a bike in the gym for half an hour I’m absolutely knackered, so how on earth they pedal hundreds of kilometres, day after day, is quite beyond me.

And it’s far from flat - some of those mountain climbs are criminal and the physical enormity of it all is just unbelievable.

You would have to drag me up those hills tied to the back of a tractor, so my admiration for these top guys knows no bounds.

THE Open Championship is among the best four days of sport in the whole year.

We get wall-to-wall coverage on the BBC and for those of us who like a bet with our golf, you can put your feet up and wait for it all to unfold.

It is very tough trying to pick the winner of the Open because, over the years, there have been some players lifting the old Claret Jug at extremely long odds.

Even a couple of years ago we had Tom Watson finishing second in a play-off to Stewart Cink – and Tom started the tournament at 1500/1!

Most people, therefore, have an each-way bet when picking those they think have a chance of winning – we at Sky Bet pay the first six places at quarter the odds.

My two for this year – guys I backed before a ball had been struck yesterday – were Padraig Harrington and Ben Curtis.