The British are not passionate about cycling yet it says something about their love of great sporting events that an estimated four million people turned out to watch the prologue and first stage of the Tour de France in London and Kent at the weekend.

Most of those people, it is fair to assume, wouldn’t have known a casquette (old fashioned cotton cycling cap) from a contre-la-montre (time trial) or a grimpeur (thin mountain specialist) from a rouleur (an all-rounder) — but that didn’t stop them enjoying the dazzling spectacle.

Being among the crowd, one could, without a massive leap of imagination, project one’s thoughts forwards five years to the London Olympics and imagine quite clearly just how much Britons are going to enjoy the 2012 Games. Britain, after all, invented or helped codify a number of sports in the 19th century, not least soccer — the global game.

We rarely talk about British soccer because England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have their own national teams and their own domestic leagues.

The only place where Britain traditionally competed as a unified team was in the Olympic Games — but that hasn’t happened since 1972 when Britain were eliminated in the qualifiers for the Munich Games.

Three weeks ago Britain qualified for next year’s Olympic Games soccer finals in Beijing when the England side reached the semi-finals of the European Under-21 championship in the Netherlands.

But Britain will be missing from those Games because the Scots and the Welsh fear for their senior international identities if they allow their players in a British team.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has told them they have nothing to worry about — their status is safe and enshrined in FIFA’s statutes. Still they won’t budge and Italy will be playing in the 2008 Games instead.

The IOC and FIFA have insisted that Britain, as hosts, take part in the 2012 Games — and do not care if the team is made up of 11 Englishmen or 11 Irishmen.

Britain could have taken part next year too but an insular view, rather than the international outlook that hit the streets at the weekend, has ruined that prospect.

Mike Collett is Reuters Soccer Editor