Chris Froome has been nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, following his victory at the Tour de France.
The Kenyan-born rider, who became the second British winner of cycling’s greatest race only a year after Sir Bradley Wiggins claimed the nation’s inaugural victory, is one of 10 sports stars nominated for the award.
Froome, whose dominant 2013 season also included victories at the Tour of Oman, the Tour de Romandie, the Criterium du Dauphine, and the Criterium International, will have to overcome stiff competition if he is to become cycling’s fourth winner in six years, following victories for Sir Chris Hoy (2008), Mark Cavendish (2011), and Wiggins (2012).
Tennis player, Andy Murray, who became the first British man to win the singles title at Wimbledon for 77 years, will be among the favourites.
Track and field athletes, Mo Farah, Christine Ohuruogo, and Hannah Crockroft, who each won world titles this year, jockey, AP McCoy, who earlier this month rode his 4,000th winner, and cricketer, Ian Bell, are also shortlisted.
Welsh rugby star, Leigh Halfpenny, sailor, Ben Ainslie, the tactician behind Team Oracle’s America’s Cup victory, and the golfer, Justin Rose, winner of the US Open, complete the line-up.
The shortlist was constructed by a 12-strong panel of journalists, television executives, and retired sportsmen and women.
Phone and internet votes cast during the traditional mid-December broadcast of the award ceremony, to be shown this year on Sunday December 15, will decide the winner.
