Tour de France stage 21 results in win for Mark Cavendish

The 21st and final stage of the 2009 Tour de France on the fabled Champs-Élysées was won by Mark Cavendish to make it ten stage wins in total and six this Tour, with Alberto Contador of Team Astana finally standing at the top of the podium he has so richly deserved over the three weeks of the Tour.

As expected, stage 21 did nothing to general classifications, leaving Contador 4:11 ahead of Andy Schleck of Team Rabo Bank, with Lance Armstrong getting a highly creditable third place and making it an Astana one-three. Despite the Briton Cavendish’s six stage wins, Norwegian Thor Hushovd of Cervelo Test Team claimed the green sprinter’s jersey due mostly to a disqualification of Cavendish on a previous stage for unfair riding.

In the traditionally flat final stage, a breakaway was almost guaranteed not to succeed given the ability of the peleoton to crank up the chase in concert, but there was a breakway anyway. The seven riders in it, none of whom were any danger for any of the competitions, were Jussi Veikkanen (FdJ), Arnaud Coyot (Caisse d’Epargne), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Alexandre Pichot (Bbox), Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), Fabain Wegmann (Milram) and Fumiyuki Beppu (Skil-Shimano). Beppu is one of two Japanese riders who will become the first of their countrymen to finish the Tour de France this year.

The breakaway succeeded only in nabbing the intermediate sprint points that otherwise might have made the green jersey competition more interesting. With Cavendish’s Team Columbia-HTC dragging the peloton ever forward, four of the leading seven were caught up with 7km to go, leaving Veikkanen, Wegmann and Beppu, but they were also caught at the 5km mark.

Now there was enough time left for the sprinters to wind themselves up to contest the highly-sought-after Paris stage win. With 3.5km left, four riders from Garmin-Slipstream moved to the front to set up American Tyler Farrer, with Christian Vande Velde leading out. At the 1km mark Team Columbia-HTC made their move, with Mark Renshaw leading out and Cavendish saluting with the greatest of ease.

Schleck also took out the white jersey for best young rider, while Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas secured his polka dot jersey for king of the mountains yesterday on Mont Ventoux. Finally, Team Astana took the teams competition.

Stage 21 results

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia – HTC
2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia – HTC
3 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin – Slipstream
4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
5 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux

General classification

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 85:48:35
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 4:11 behind
3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 5:24
4 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin – Slipstream 6:01
5 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 6:04
6 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 6:42
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 7:35
8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin – Slipstream 12:04
9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 14:16
10 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 14:25
11 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 14:44
12 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 17:19
13 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 18:34
14 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 20:45
15 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence – Lotto 20:50
16 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 22:29
17 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 26:21
18 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Team Katusha 29:33
19 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia – HTC 33:27
20 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 34:09