Bradley Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins joined the tussle for Sports Personality of the Year yesterday afternoon when he became the first British rider in history to win the Tour de France.

The 32-year-old’s success heralded what is hoped by many to be a stellar summer for British athletes and the Twitter congratulations came flooding in thick and fast, with Wiggins-related terms trending throughout Sunday and the following day.

@BBCBreaking received 1518 retweets of, “Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. Team mate Chris Froome is second overall”

@SkyNewsBreak then revealed, “Bradley Wiggins tells Sky News winning the Tour de France is the ultimate prize, more than Olympic gold medals”

Maybe don’t admit that to Seb, Boris and co….

Famous faces soon jumped on the bandwagon, including seven-time consecutive winner @lancearmstrong: “Congrats to @bradwiggins on his historic Tour de France victory. Very impressive.” Coming from him that’s quite the compliment…

Descending down the scale of relevance is @Lord_Sugar with, “Brilliant performance by Bradley Wiggins winner of 2012 Tour de France”

And bringing up the rear is fame-seeking @SallyBercow whose attempt at humour falls a little short of the mark: “Brilliant that Wiggins won Tour de France. Howz about we cancel the Olympics & quit while we’re ahead?” I think the 8.8 million ticket holders and 10,500 athletes might have a thing or two to say about that suggestion, Sally.

The man himself (@bradwiggins) has cryptically tweeted “Just had a message from God!!! Literally!!” Bradders, after yesterday you practically ARE God!

And finally, @simon_price01 makes the valid point that, “Bradley Wiggins must be mental, setting off on a lap of honour after the Tour de France. That’s gonna take him AGES.”

Sir Chris Hoy

From one cyclist to another… Triple Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy has been named as Team GB’s flag bearer at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony this Friday, prompting a flurry of Twitter activity...

The Scotsman (@chrishoy) rode the cusp of the tweeting wave, announcing, “Delighted to be able to say that I’ll be carrying the flag at the Opening Ceremony! Massive honour!” 

@GaryLineker piled on the flattery, tweeting, “Congratulations to @chrishoy on being given the honour of carrying the flag at the opening ceremony of #London2012. Completely merited”

Team GB’s flag bearer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, @MarkFosterSwim, sent out a warning to the cyclist… “congrats @chrishoy flag bearer for @TeamGB for @london2012 opening ceremony. My shoes are big ones to fill you know!!”

Meanwhile, @Gabby_Logan had another about a former Blue Peter presenter: “Great news @chrishoy just listen out for @GethincJones wolf whistling in row 5 as you enter the stadium.” to which Chris replied, “don’t worry I’ll keep my shirt on this time!” Saucy… 

#BantsWithCountries

Tweeters love a good pun, so in keeping with the Olympics theme, they spent their afternoon having #BantsWithCountries. What better way to welcome representatives from countries around the world than by poking fun at their names? Many tweeters chose the culinary route with poor Turkey taking the biggest hit…

If there were points for the number of countries you can cram in, @wandeSPICE would win hands down: “I need Togo Czech the Turkey in the fridge, cuz it’s Ghana get frozen. Sorry to Russia but I’m really Hungary”.

@hunniehart is more concerned about her cholesterol count: “Kenya believe this Turkey my sis made?! There’s Norway I’m Ghana eat it there’s too much Greece in it!”

@abyhonour takes some serious liberties with pronunciation: “u cnt take a GUINEA fowl n a TURKEY to a barber shop....dts not what a BARBADOS”

Before @hunniehart chips in again with a bit of romance… “My love for you Isreal. It keeps Dublin each time I see you. No matter how far I Rome, we’ll always remain France.

And @bryanblazers has a good old moan: “Iraq my Brain and you Steal my tweets! God will Georgia!!!”

And finally… Teen Choice Awards

Last night the Teen Choice Awards rolled into Hollywood, bringing with them a gazillion screaming girls and a handful of flicky-haired, mega-watt grinning teen boppers to attend to the masses. Beliebers rejoiced as their beloved Justin scooped four awards, with Taylor Swift bagging five gongs and British exports One Direction winning all three categories they were nominated for.

Cue an onslaught of gushing tributes from teen fans worldwide. Here's what the stars had to say about it...

@justinbieber has nothing but gratitude for his 25 million-strong legion of Twitter fans: “What did you guys think?? I do this for y’all. #mybeliebers I love u. Thank u!!!”

@taylorswift13 runs out of vocabulary… “5 Teen Choice Awards?! I’m so happy I’m so happy I’m so happy I’m so happy I’m so happy – thank you so much for voting!”

Pop newbie @carlyraejepsen earned over 8,000 retweets with, “Wow. What an amazing night. I’m going to need to learn how to surf. Choice Breakout Artist and Choice Summer Song! Thanks to the fans!”

But it is One Direction’s Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) who takes the Twitter crown with a whopping 37,000 retweets for, “we are soo happy, we won 3 awards at teen choice last night! Thank you all soo much for everything you do for us! Its amazing” Someone please teach the boy some spelling and grammar!