The knock-on effect from Great Britain's outstanding performance at the Beijing Olympics has been astonishing, to say the least.

Every field of sport, and every individual discipline, has seen a significant rise in the number of youngsters abandoning the soft electronic option, where only their thumbs are exercised, to taking up the the real challenge - to emulate their Beijing heroes at the 2012 London Olympics.

I think it's true to say that the 'shock troops' and biggest surprise packet of Britain's record 47-medal-winning team were the cyclists, who between them collected eight golds, four silvers and two bronze medals.

Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins wrote their names, big and bold, in the history books.

So it won't be a huge surprise to see that British cyclists are beginning to raise a few eyebrows in the Tour de France, probably the toughest 22-day discipline in the entire world of sport and, until now, a foreign field in which very few Brits have ventured.

I recall a little over 40 years ago Tommy Simpson, who lived in a small pit village near my South Yorkshire birthplace, carrying the challenge to the top European and American riders and actually winning several stages on Le Tour before he tragically died from heat exhaustion on one particular gruelling mountain stage.

More recently, Sean Kelly and David Millar have put themselves to the supreme physical test, each with varying degrees of success.

Today, after the first week the current Tour de France, we see the budding fruits of Britain's Beijing breakthrough with FOUR British riders rubbing shoulders, grazing knees, pushing physical endurance to the ultimate limits, alongside the finest road racers and mountain climbers on the planet.

The names of Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, David Millar and the lesser known Charlie Wegelius, are are up there with America's living superman Lance Armstrong, Spain's matador on wheels Alberto Contador and Italy's own version of the Mountain King, Rinaldo Nocentini.

Cavendish and Wiggins teamed up to win the Madison World Championship last year but missed out on an Olympic medal in the same event. Cavendish, in fact, was the only British cyclist to miss out on a medal in Beijing and probably now regrets his decision not to quit the Tour de France earlier to join up with the British Olympic squad.

But sprint specialist Cavendish currently holds the Green Jersey as the Tour's best sprinter and, with luck, will carry that through to the finishing line in Paris.

Wiggins has come into his familiar territory in the rigorous mountain challenge and expects to be a multi-stage winner. At present he sits in fifth place overall, only 46 seconds behind leader Nocentini, who has Astana teammates Contador and Armstrong breathing over his shoulder. Wegelius and Millar are finding the pace too hot but are still in the top 100.

Wiggins, Cavendish, Hoy and Pendleton will lead Britain's cycling team into the World Championships next year and the London Olympics in 2012. Watch out for a few new names joining them. Success is infectious.