I do think this year’s Tour de France will go into the history books. I found the Tour pretty boring with a few mountain etapes (routes) and poor competition from the other teams. Saxo Bank and Team Colombia managed to threaten Astana from time to time, but it never became really exciting.

About the lack of mountain routes how can Thor Hushovd win a mountain route? He is a sprinter.

One moment might go into the history books. As Alberto Contador is stood on the podium in Paris they played the Danish anthem instead of the Spanish.

Ironically enough two years ago Contador was “given” the Tour victory after Danish rider Michael Rasmussen was kicked out of Tour de France.

Still a shame for Contador to have his moment ruined by a simple error.

Contador wins Tour de France – Wrong Nat’l hymn is played is a post from: The Inquisitr

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

Tour de France stage 21 results in win for Mark Cavendish is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sitting at a lowly 26th in the general classification of the 2009 Tour de France with all of his major rivals in front of him, it seems it’s not Australian cyclist Cadel Evans’ year yet again, after finishing second the last two years. But can he ever win the event?

There are several factors militating against him. First is that the teams around him are often flawed – no more than this year, where even before the two late withdrawals by team mates through association with doping he was going to struggle to get the support from Silence-Lotto that the likes of Lance Armstrong, Carlos Sastre and the Schleck brothers enjoy in their teams. This is mostly due to Euro economics: the most popular teams want European faces at the head of their teams because it makes them more attractive to sponsors to get attention from the media.

Armstrong fought this obstacle, which applied to him too as he was American, by managing to build a team sponsored by American interests. There have been muted discussions about mounting an Australian-flavoured team to take on the Tours, and there would certainly be enough Australian cycling talent to build a team full of compatriots capable of challenging for major honours and supporting Evans in a serious tilt at the top of the pedestal in Paris. However, unless a major Antipodean sponsor has significant Euopean interests, it is hard to see any Australian-based company justifying the millions upon millions of dollars needed to fund a team to enter the Tour de France.

The other major obstacle to Evans’ prospects is, naturally, the other riders in the race, but it’s not as simple as that. Tour cycling is not just about teams banding together, but Evans has fallen victim in the past to major contenders from rival teams joining together to push him out of contention by working him over on the tough mountain stages, with riders like Sastre and Alberto Contador taking turns to jump the field and tire Evans out in chasing down every attack.

The only hope in 2009 for Evans is if he can somehow forge a temporary alliance with one of the other contending riders, like a Sastre or LeipheimerKirchen, to get some of his own back on the dominant Astana team. If Evans can find a way to communicate with his European counterparts the need for them to bind together to fight the strong team of Armstrong and Contador, there may be a chance for Evans to use his obvious natural ability and work ethic to grind his way back into a position where he can contend for the maillot jaune once again.

Maybe next year, Cadel.

Why Cadel Evans can’t win the Tour de France is a post from: The Inquisitr

The comeback of Lance Armstrong is almost complete with the legendary American cyclist drawing equal in time with the leader of the Tour de France after the stage four team time trial, but not wearing the yellow jersey due to a countback.

After leaping from tenth to third yesterday, Armstrong’s Team Astana blitzed the 38km team time trial around the French city of Montpellier, finishing in a time of 46 hours and 9 seconds. The team of previous leader Fabian Cancellara, Team Saxobank, finished third at 40 seconds behind Armstrong’s team, putting Cancellara at exactly the same overall time as the American.

The decision on who was to wear the famed maillot jaune on stage five came back to a countback of fractions of a second based on the individual time trial in stage one, leaving the yellow jersey on the back of the Swiss Cancellara with Armstrong officially zero seconds behind.

While Armstrong will be the one getting all the attention today, it may be that his team mate Alberto Contador of Spain will be the major beneficiary of today’s stage in the end, as he moves into third at 19 seconds behind Armstrong and Cancellara.

Australia’s Cadel Evans was a big loser for the second day running, with his Silence-Lotto team finishing 2 minutes and 35 seconds behind Astana after waiting for one of their riders who crashed on the difficult street stage.

Full stage four results:

1. Astana 46.29
2. Garmin-Slipstream 0.18 seconds behind
3. Team Saxo Bank 0.40
4. Liquigas 0.58
5. Columbia-HTC 0.59
6. Team Katusha 1.23
7. Caisse d’Epargne 1.39
8. Cervélo TestTeam 1.37
9. AG2R La Mondiale 1.48
10. Euskatel-Euskadi 2.09
11. Rabobank 2.38
12. Quick Step 2.44
13. Silence-Lotto 2.35
14. Française des Jeux 2.46
15. Team Milram 2.48
16. Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 2.58
17. Lampre-NGC 3.24
18. Agritubel 4.17
19. BBox Bouygues Telecom 4.41
20. Skil-Shimano 5.23

Lance Armstrong up to second on countback in Tour de France stage four is a post from: The Inquisitr