Sunday, July 25, 2010

Stages 18-20 - Contador Crowned

Alberto Contador was finally crowned Tour de France champion for 2010 as the three weekend stages went almost perfectly to script. Mark Cavendish cleaned up the last two sprint finishes on Stages 18 and 20, while time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara took Stage 19 in the race against the clock. While Contador had some nervous moments in the time trial (he trailed Andy Schleck after the first time check) in the end he was able to dig deep enough to gain a further 31 seconds on his nearest rival to seal the Tour by 31 seconds. Andy Schleck was heroic in finishing runner up for the second straight year, while Denis Menchov was third at 2:01.

Stage 18 was virtually a dead flat parcours of 198km from Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux. And with the race finishing in a bunch sprint there was always only going to be one winner, and that was Mark Cavendish. The Manx man took his fourth stage of this years edition, and it was his easiest win yet. With his lead out man Mark Renshaw currently persona non grata Cavendish tried a new tactic of following Alessandro Pettachi over the final kilometre. And while appearing to be boxed in with only 250m remaining, Cavendish managed to extricate himself from the chaos to jump off Pettachi's wheel and explode away over the final 100m. He won easily, and even had time to look back and taunt his opposition as he crossed the finishing line. Julian Dean finished second while Pettachi finished third which was enough to see him retake the Green Jersey from Thor Hushovd who could only finish a disappointing 14th. With the main bunch finishing together there was no change to the overall standings.

Stage 19 finally saw the riders return to race against the clock on their own with a 52km dead flat time trial from Bordeaux to Paulliac. The race for the stage win was a race in two between time trial specialists Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin and in the end it was the world champion Cancellara who took the win by 17 seconds from Martin. HTC-Colombia also filled third with Bert Grabsch finishing 1:48 back. But the more important battle was for the maillot jaune, and a phenomenal upset looked to be on the cards when Andy Schleck had pulled back 6 seconds on Contador at the first time check. But the young Luxembourger could not maintain that level, and by the second check Contador had overturned the deficit and was increasing the time between himself and Schleck. At the finish, although he was a massive 5:43 behind stage winner Cancellara, he was still 31 seconds ahead of Schleck - taking his overall lead to 39 seconds. Ironically (or perpahs fatefully) that 39 seconds proved the exact margin that Contador had over Schleck after attacking him following Schleck's mechanical in the Alps. The battle for third was just as exciting, but in the end Denis Menchov dragged himself onto the podium in Paris, finishing 11th on the stage and putting over two minutes into Sammy Sanchez who dropped to fourth overall, 1:40 behind Menchov.

Stage 20 was the usual processional, this time a minute 102km parade from Longjumeau to Paris. As always, a break was allowed to go free to have some glory on the Champs-Élysées but with the Green Jersey still on the line they were never a chance of surviving. The sprinters teams reeled them in on the final lap of the Parisian monument setting things up for the ultimate bunch sprint in world cycling. And fittingly the win went to the ultimate sprinter, with Mark Cavendish becoming the first cyclist in history to win back-to-back on the Champs-Élysées. The missile proved far too dominant again in relegating Alessandro Pettachi and Julian Dean to the placings for a second straight sprint stage. However, this time Pettachi also had reason to celebrate as the second placing was enough for him to hold onto the Green Jersey by 11 points from Cavendish. That makes Pettachi the first man since Laurent Jalabert to have won the points classification at all three Grand Tours, and the first Italian since 1968 to wear the Green Jersey in Paris. Alberto Contador finished safely in the main pack to become a three time winner of the Tour de France. Andy Schleck became the first man to win the White Jersey three times and he must be proud of that achievement even though he would have hoped to be wearing a different color in paris. And finally Anthony Charteau went home with the biggest prize of his career, the Polka Dot Jersey for the King of the Mountains.

Yellow Jersey - Alberto Contador
Green Jersey - Alessandro Pettachi
Polka Dot Jersey - Anthony Charteau
White Jersey - Andy Schleck

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