Froome cycles under the sea

The Eurotunnel that runs under water between France and England has been the sole reserve of cars, buses and trains – until now.

Tour de France defending champion Chris Froome of Team Sky has joined forces with Jaguar to become the world's first person to cycle the English Channel.

Ditching his Jaguar XF Sportbrake team vehicle, the cycling superstar blitzed through the 50km tunnel in just 55 minutes, despite maintaining a 'training-pace' that regularly saw him reach speeds of 65 kilometres per hour.

At those speeds, on some roads, he'd receive a speeding fine.

Jaguar has put together a short two-minute film on the adventure, showing the Team Sky rider powering through a service tunnel, as it would have been costly to shut down the car section of the tunnel to regular traffic for an hour.

According to Eurotunnel, the service tunnel is one of the highest-security sites in the UK and France. Nevertheless, Froome suggested the tunnels could be used for a new time trial stage for the Tour de France organisers to ponder.

"This could be a really cool stage of a race," said Froome after the ride.

"Cycling under the sea was an incredible experience. Opportunities to become the first person in the world to achieve these kind of feats are extremely rare nowadays, especially as a pro-cyclist," said Froome.

"To become the first person ever to cycle through the Eurotunnel was right up there with some of the most iconic rides I’ve ever done – this must have been one of very few 'world first' rides left!"

The ride took more than six months to organise by Jaguar and Team Sky and follows the recent launch of the Pinarello Dogma F8 at Jaguar Land Rover's base in Gaydon, as the British car-maker looks to position itself firmly front-of-mind with avid cyclists.