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It has been a remarkable few days for British cycling, with the sport taking the front and back pages of newspapers over the weekend. Bradley Wiggins was confirmed as the first British Tour de France winner in history yesterday, before it was announced today that Sir Chris Hoy will be the flagbearer for Team GB at the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Wiggins Takes Unique Victory

As 153 cyclists rode through the streets of Paris yesterday to complete the mammoth 2,200 miles of the Tour de France race, there was one man who had dominated throughout. For the first time in its 99 year history, there was a Brit wearing the famous yellow jersey that marks the leading rider as they crossed the finishing line. Bradley Wiggins was a full 3 minutes ahead of his nearest rival in the overall time.

The victory has led to experts calling him the greatest British sportsman of his generation and possibly of all time. The Tour de France is a unique sporting event held for three weeks throughout France, Belgium and Switzerland. The cyclists spend a total of over 85 hours on their bikes, with many of the stages being held in mountainous areas with daunting uphill climbs.

Figures from the latest census were published this week, with in-depth statistics about the population of Britain in 2011. Every ten years the whole of the population are sent a survey which they have to fill out about everything from the number of children they have, to their religion, to their occupation.

There is so much information that it can be hard to pick out the important facts, so here we have a few of the more interesting points from the survey:

One of the hottest topics on the higher education agenda at the moment, is whether to include international students in the immigration statistics for Britain. Currently they are included, but there is a growing list high profile figures arguing that they shouldn't be.

Watch the BBC report below to get an idea of the arguments for and against. What do you think? Leave your comments below. 

On a wet Saturday afternoon this weekend I caught the train out of London, away from the traffic and bustle of the city. My destination was the annual beer festival at a small country village called Penn Street. I grew up nearby, but I'd never been to the festival before, and so decided what better way to spend a weekend than drinking fine beers.

Beer is one of the great British drinks, and beer festivals are one of the great British traditions. There are hundreds of breweries up and down the country, each proud of their particular beer. At a festival, you can forget the watery, fizzy lagers of bars, and instead indulge in ales, bitters and porters.

Under new rules proposed by the British Foreign Office, coming into effect on July 9, up to 5000 students a year could be denied entry to the United Kingdom under student visas.

The move, designed to discourage bogus students from entering the United Kingdom, also means that only the brightest and most accredited people will gain access to the country in order to study.

Some figures have shown that if the new rules were in place during 2011, up to 45% of applicants from Burma and 38% of applicants from Bangladesh may have been rejected.

Under current rules, it is the understanding that even if the UK Border Agency have serious doubts about the credentials of a client, they are unable to refuse them entry into the country. This now means that foreign students who are wanting to enter the United Kingdom to study now have make sure that they are able to prove their willing to study with institutions.

Opposition to the Changes

Critics of the new scheme, including over 70 university chancellors, have however, warned that the crackdown could force foreign students to go elsewhere in the world to study, causing the loss of billions of pounds to the economy of the country.