Contador Wins His Third French Tour
AST’s Alberto Contador won the third Tour de France in his career on Sunday at Champs Elysees as the Spaniard took just 39 seconds advantage in front of Luxemburg’s rival Andy Schleck who finished second the Tour. It was Britain’s Mark Cavendish who crossed first the last finish line in Paris at 2 hours 42 minutes and 21 seconds, followed by Alessandro Petacchi who came second and Australian Julian Dean from GRM team in a tough last meters sprint. The last stage brought also Norway’s Thor Hushovd seventh, while the main contenders Contador and Schleck came on 81st, respective 88th place. However, the tour ended with the Spaniard first despite a very tough first week when Contador struggled a lot in front of Luxemburg’s rider who wore the yellow jersey for few days.
At the end of the last stage, Contador showed his relief after three exhausting weeks, saying that: “You cannot imagine how relieved I am because there was so much pressure and so much tension on my shoulders. Andy is a great rider and I’ve spent a lot of time with him, and I know him very well.” Mark Cavendish skipped the green jersey as this was taken finally by Italian Petacchi who also won two stages, ending first the “green” table with 243 points, just nine in front of the Britain, while Hushovd couldn’t do better than 222 points, finishing third the green jersey standing. However, Cavendish apologized for missing the green jersey, saying that: “I had a poor start, I was wondering if I could make it but we kept trying. When you arrive in Paris for the most spectacular finish in the world, you have a feeling of accomplishment which by far exceeds the disappointment. Sorry I could not do more. In the Tour you have got to be happy with just one win because it’s the hardest race in the world. The first week was tough for me but the team kept going and we were rewarded with five victories. The finish here on the Champs Elysees is an icon of the sport. I’m so happy to have won it again.” Cavendish finished the Tour on 154th position, 3 hours 51 minutes and 23 seconds behind Contador who won the French competition with 91 hours 58 minutes and 48 seconds.
Apart from this, Le Tour brought also few scandals, the last one referring to the seven time champion in France Lance Armstrong. The American rider got into trouble after causing a 15 minute delay due to changing the official jersey to his team mates with special ones that were inscribed 28, the million people number suffering from cancer and who are part of Armstrong’s Livestrong foundation. The gesture made the jury President Francesco Cenere declare: “It is forbidden to change jersey in a stage race without an authorisation from the UCI. The riders signed the start sheet with their traditional jerseys and came to the starting line at the last minute with their new (black) jerseys. They had to change jersey otherwise they would have been kicked out of the race.” Another scandal which involved the American rider referred to former cyclist Floyd Landis who accused Armstrong of taking drugs the over the past years: “Rather than go into the entire detail of every single time I’ve seen it, yes, I saw Lance Armstrong using drugs,” while Lance’s lawyer Tim Herman made it clear saying that: “Landis is a confessed perjurer and he is a liar, and I think, as Lance said … when you taste milk to see if it’s sour, you take a first taste and you don’t have to drink the whole carton to know it’s all sour.”
Concerning the Youth standing, this belongs of course to the Luxemburg rider Schleck who ended the Tour in 91 hours 59 minutes and 27 seconds, being followed by Robert Gesink from RAB team 8 minutes and 52 seconds behind and Czech Roman Kreuziger from LIQ, 11 minutes and 15 seconds. The best team of the Tour is Team Radioshack with an overall of 276 hours 2 minutes and 3 seconds, followed on second by Caisse Depargne, 9 minutes and 15 seconds, and Rabobank on third, 27 minutes and 49 seconds late. Contador’s Astana team finished sixth, at 56 minutes and 16 seconds gap.
