Froome's tribute to team mates

The Queen has sent a private message to Chris Froome congratulating him on winning the Tour de France, Buckingham Palace announced today.

The Kenyan-born Briton won the 100th edition of the famous race on Sunday to become the second British rider to win in consecutive years after Sir Bradley Wiggins' triumph in 2012.

Over 62,000 people have signed a petition calling for the return of the women's Tour de France.

The petition, which had 62,683 signatures by 2pm today, accused road cycling of being one of the "worst offenders" for sporting inequality, and called for women to be on the starting line for the 101st tour in 2014.

Britain's former world champion and Olympic silver medallist Emma Pooley is among the riders who have signed a petition to bring back the event last held in 2009.

While describing the move as a "great idea", British Cycling President Brian Cookson did warn that the race may need to be modified for women and may face "logistical problems".

The call comes a day after Chris Froome became Britain's second consecutive winner of the famous race.

Tour de France winner Chris Froome has told ITV News "the story" of this year's centenary race is not his victory but his team mate Geraint Thomas making it to Paris after a horror crash on the first stage.

"If you ever had two minutes alone with Geraint he'd get his phone out and show you the fracture on his pelvis," Froome joked as he paid tribute to his fellow Team Sky riders.

Froome also told Lewis Vaughan Jones how he felt waking up as a Tour winner, what his late mother would have made of his success and why he accepts drugs questions despite racing clean.

Froome writes himself into cycling history with Tour de France victory

Tour de France champion Chris Froome told ITV News he was looking forward to reading a newspaper and getting up to speed with news of the royal baby.

Taking of his early cycling career in Kenya, Tour de France winner Chris Froome said, "I hope that it represents the journey it's taken me to get here from riding dirt tracks on mountain bikes to the top step of the podium in Paris".

Read: Froome's tribute to teammates

Asked about next year's Tour de France, which starts in Yorkshire, current champion Chris Froome called it "an exciting element".

"I'm trying not to think about next year too much, but it's going to be massive to be in Britain and Yorkshire," he added.

Read: Tour de France UK leg revealed

After just three hours sleep, the new Tour de France champion Chris Froome spoke to ITV News.

He paid tribute to the hard work of his teammates, especially Geraint Thomas, who rode most of the Tour with a cracked pelvis.

Froome told ITV News reporter Lewis Vaughan Jones: "It was the story of the Tour. If he had two minutes he'd tell you all about it, get his phone out and show you the pictures of his fractured pelvis.

"There's no way we could have got to Paris without them [Team Sky]. We lost two teammates along the way.

"For him [Thomas] to continue after the crash, with a fractured pelvis, in a great deal of pain, was amazing".

Most of today's papers have hailed Chris Froome, winner of this year's Tour de France, however some of the papers have also found room to celebrate England's triumph in the second Ashes test.

Read more: England win second Ashes Test

Athletics champion Dai Greene, tennis player Heather Watson and badminton player Chris Adcock have all paid tribute to Chris Froome after his Tour de France win:

Read more: Chris Froome wins Tour de France