July was a great month for one unsung hero and for millions of cycling fans. After completing eight Tours de France in support of someone else, Geraint Thomas became the first Welshman and third Briton to win the Tour de France - one of the toughest sporting events in the world.

Winning the Tour de France requires long-term dedication, planning, focus, tactical nous and a strong team, as well as phenomenal aerobic capacity, strength, mental toughness and huge motivation. All tour winners are phenomenal athletes, but all of them have relied on the support of their teams, who are so significant in any success.

G, as he is known, was the seemingly perennial super-domestique, the rider who can stay longest with the team leader, protecting him from the wind, providing support until the near-end. His role was critical in Tour de France wins by Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome. He was the rider people talked fondly about but never gave the limelight to. And it probably suited his personality and character - down to earth, a rider’s rider, solid, dependable and someone who “just gets on with it”.

Thomas wasn’t really meant to win the Tour this year. Despite being a very successful cyclist - double Olympic Champion, Commonwealth champion, several big race wins - everyone expected him to continue in a support role for Chris Froome, the four times Tour de France winner. He was expected to sacrifice his own glory once again as part of the team.

Chance to shine

This year, though, Thomas was clearly the strongest rider, and he was given the chance to shine by his team management - to show what he could do. So, he did, and he won.

Now, I might be pushing analogies a bit far (and it is the summer after all, so give me some slack), but this triumph has given me hope for the future of colleges. I say this because colleges feel a bit like Thomas - the longstanding super-domestiques of the education system - the unsung heroes who battle day in, day out, in the background, whilst others grab the headlines. Colleges provide the bedrock of the system - willing and able to take on and support learners at every level, of all abilities, and help them to progress.

Like Thomas, many colleges lead in some races, but they rarely take the centre-stage in the media or in the minds of the decision-makers. In every college there is excellence which matches any other provider, but it has never been enough to change overall perceptions, to improve prestige, to garner the respect of the “winners”. Colleges simply have not been given the chance to show fully what they can do - a simple analysis of the funding rates shows that colleges have been starved of investment over the past decade, damaging students’ opportunities and staff pay.

Heavy lifting

That may be about to change, though. I really do hope so. With over 700,000 young people and over a million adults, colleges really do the heavy lifting in our education system and could do so much more with the right investment. My optimism is not just summer- and Tour-induced; three areas of development give me some hope that the government is about to allow colleges to show what they can do.

The first is the implementation of T levels in which colleges will inevitably and rightly be the most important providers. The government seems to be keen to properly invest in them and is working hard to co-create the system needed for successful delivery.

The second is the fledgling National Re-Training Scheme, which, for the first time in over a decade, is shining a light on the needs of adults already in the workplace. Their skills needs in a fast-changing labour market are critical in a post-Brexit Britain and once again it is colleges that are best placed to provide the support needed.

Thirdly, the post-18 review of education is rightly focused on the need in a modern and progressive society for a credible, flexible and more work-focused system for higher skills and learning alongside the academic three-year undergraduate degrees which dominate now.

The government has the opportunity with all three of these developments to put colleges centre-stage. If they do, they will find that these unsung heroes will step up, just like G, providing the wins that our country needs in terms of more people achieving their ambitions and maximising their abilities. Wouldn’t that be great - colleges as the team leaders, working with schools and universities to achieve so much more?

David Hughes is chief executive of the Association of Colleges