OT - Tour de France, Stage 20
Nineteen stages done, covering over 2,000 miles and two mountain ranges, and the picture of the final winner in Paris is still cloudy. Thomas Voeckler's supply of grit finally ran out yesterday, and Alberto Contador's gutsy attempt at a game-breaking attack fell a little short, leaving us with three presumed contenders:
Andy Schleck 82 h 43 min 48 s
Frank Schleck +53s
Cadel Evans +57s
That's right: after nearly 83 hours of cycling, these three men are less than one minute apart. And now comes a race contre la montre (literally "against the watch") - an individual time trial, something the new bearer of the yellow jersey isn't known to excel at. It may as well be a dead heat.
The final real stage: 42.5 km on moderately hilly terrain in and around Grenoble:
After the Alps, you'd think this would be a breeze . . . except that their legs are probably about to fall off after 19 stages of racing. And they've got no teammates or rivals to wheel-suck. But with the end so close, they can afford to coax out what little strength remains in those lactic-acid-ravaged limbs of theirs. Should be fun!
I really don't like how the tour has been putting less emphasis on individual TT's lately. It's mostly becuase my racing specialty is time trialing. To me it is just so pure in its agony and athleticism. It's calming for me to just settle into the pain cave for an hour. Love it.
Back to the race. I'm tabbing Cancellara for the stage win. I can't even make a prediction with the GC battle. I would say Fränk is of no concern as he is even worse at TT's than Andy. On paper, this course is perfect for Cadel and he should smash it. HOWEVA Cadel has been here twice before in 2007 and 2008, and he ended up in 2nd behind Contador and Sastre respectively. I want to see Cadel win. I want to see him finally ride to expectations in a final TT, but man... It's true what they say about wearing yellow. It's going to be fun.
Time Trialing is my specialty as well, however I think that having the individual time trial as the last stage before the Champs Elysees is the best place to put it. Not everyone is a great time trialist, so having it be at the end puts everyone on a leveler playing field, (not that it really takes a ton away from those that are the best time trialers).
Also, your prediction on Cancellara is really the only smart prediction anyone can make. If anyone else wins besides Evans (to take yellow), Andy (to hold it), or "Superman" (Cancellara), I would be very surprised
I don't see it being too difficult for him to beat Andy Schleck. Andy has been on the attack for the past two days, not sure how good his conditioning is.
I think Fabian should take the victory. He's awesome.
I was really convinced that Evans could take this one, but all the Versus guys say otherwise here. IDK what to think.
Fourth place for him is still fantastic. His previous career best was 18th. I expected him to slip a couple of positions today, given that he isn't a great time trialer, and I figured he'd have nothing left in the tank, but he had one of his best ITTs today. He and Europcar had a great Tour. From a wild-card invitation to 10 yellow jerseys, the final white jersey and the victory up Alpe d'Huez.
So happy for Evans. He has put himself deeper into the pain locker than perhaps any rider in the tour save Voeckler.
Andy will have his chances again in the future, but you can't help but wonder if he can ever win unless he manages to improve in the ITT.
Well, he might be retroactively declared the 2010 winner if Contador loses his appeal, but that's probably be small consolation for him.
I'm surprised at Andy Schleck's performance today. A year ago he turned in a pretty good ITT, and I thought the maillot jaune would give him a little extra this year. I guess the Alps just took a lot out of him. (Again it seems like we're seeing GC contendors look more human this year, with the occasional poor stage, instead of performing like machines. A sign the sport might be getting cleaner?)
Very happy for Evans, after all the heartbreaks he's had in the past. From start to finish, he was the most consistent rider this year. He displayed great stamina on the Alps, especially on the climb up the Galibier on Stage 18 when it seemed like Schleck was breaking the race open. It's a well-deserved victory.