Posted on 07/25/2010 12:37:32 PM PDT by golux
Contador Confirms His Third Victory
He made his winner's speech after the finish of the time trial yesterday and all Alberto Contador really had to do to ensure he was the winner of the 2010 Tour was finish the final stage. He rolled across the line with his arms aloft in 81st place. He is the champion of the Tour de France for the third time.
It was significantly closer than many expected. A confident Andy Schleck put early pressure on rival Alberto Contador in what surprisingly became a dramatic race against the clock between the two riders.
At the first intermediate split, 11.3-miles into Saturday's 32-mile individual-time-trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac, Schleck shockingly led Contador by six seconds. The Saxo Bank rider clocked 23:10 to the Astana's 23:16.
Seeking his third career Tour de France title entering stage 19 with an eight-second lead over Schleck, Contador was forced to work harder than expected.
And the Spaniard delivered in the clutch. Despite a valiant effort by the determined Luxembourg rider, Contador clawed back more and more time as the race progressed. In the final 10-kilometers, it was evident that Schleck was running out of steam as Contador pushed hard to maintain his pace.
At one juncture, Schleck, 25, even momentarily lost control of his bike almost going down. He crossed the finish line in Pauillac with a time of one-hour, seven- minutes and ten seconds.
Shortly thereafter, the 27-year-old Spaniard would eclipse that time by 31-seconds. Contador's time was 1:06:39. Not a supreme effort by the Spanish rider as he was just the 35th fastest of the day, but good enough to virtually secure his third career Tour de France title.
Contador increased his lead to 39 seconds over Schleck in the general classification with only tomorrow's ceremonial procession into Paris remaining.
As Spanish flags flew in the town of Pauillac, Contador was highly emotional, breaking down in tears as he received the yellow jersey. For Contador, it is not only his third career Tour de France title, but also his fifth consecutive victory in the Grand Tours that he has competed in.
Despite coming up slightly behind and finishing second for a second consecutive July, Schleck will walk away with the white jersey, awarded to the Tour's ‘Best Young Rider.' It is the third year-in-a-row that the talented Saxo Bank rider claims this honor, equaling Jan Ullrich who accomplished the feat in the 1990's.
Today's magnificent final sprint by Cavendish ended a very, very interesting tour. Many believe that Contador would not have won were it not for Schleck's chain/derailleur malfunction in the 15th stage, for others, hearts fell in stage 8 when misfortunes robbed Lance of a shot at Tour no. 8.
As a cycling fan and former racer I was VERY disappointed today to see that the Drudge Report's only cycling news is about loser/liar/cheat Floyd Landis' repeated allegations, and what they call a "publicity stunt" by the Radio Shack team to raise awareness about cancer.
As a cycling fan and former racer I was VERY disappointed today to see that the Drudge Report’s
What is so special about Drudge? He is nothing but a composite accumulation of news from across the globe. Hell there are many places to get the news outside of Drudge.
Contador did what he had to do to win. I would have liked to have seen Schleck win but that wasn’t to be. I was surprised he made it that close in the TT. Maybe next year Schleck or someone else can knock Contador off the pedestal.
As far as I am concerned, Schleck won the Tour.
Even forgetting for a second that Contador took advantage of his mechanical error at a time when Schleck was about to break him...Andy lost his brother/best teammate at the beginning of the race. With Frank pacing him up those mountains, it would’ve been Andy’s year for sure.
Contador won, but Schleck has nothing to hang his head about. He got beat by that mechanical failure. If you take that incident out, Contador would have come up short. He did not make up enough time to take the lead, but it would have been extremely close.
Why was what Contador did wrong?
If something goes wrong with a car in a NASCAR race, is everybody else supposed to slow down?
The bike is a part of the race, if is has problems, that’s on the rider and his crew, why punish Contador for it?
If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.
If you take that incident out, Contador would have come up short.
That’s true based upon the final numbers as they played out. But Contador may have rode the final stages differently had he been in need of making up time. We’ll never know. I personally believe that Contador could have taken more time from Schleck in the final mountain stage had he chose to. That’s an assumption on my part but we’ll never know.
I agree that Schleck has nothing to hang his head about and next year may well be his year to win.
I can’t understand why Schleck’s botched shift is referred to as a mechanical failure. He put pressure on the pedal before the shift had completed and the chain popped off the gear ... any one who’s ever ridden a 10-speed has done this at one time or another. He put the chain back on and continued, so what “failed” ?
I can’t believe SRAM Red components aren’t up to the rigors of the Tour de France. These guys aren’t riding Huffy’s. Something went wrong with that shift, maybe it was rider error, but I don’t believe it was applying pressure at the wrong time.
He gave a very big heave on the pedal when it popped, and he was just coming out of a shift on a very steep incline. These were extreme conditions for man and machine, and he pushed it a little too far, ipso facto.
I just can’t believe all the whining about it. Was Cantador supposed to stop, for crying out loud? Well, he wasn’t supposed to ATTACK, they say. But it was at a critical point in the race, and I can’t accept the suggestion that Cantador was obliged in some way to ease up because of Schleck’s mishap. Schleck was putting on his attack at that moment, and Cantador was answering it.
... Contador, that is. I must have heard the name 200 times.
When it was Lance versus Ullrich a few years back, Ullrich crashed and Lance waited, and then a few stages later Lance crashed and Ullrich waited. Neither of them wanted to win the tour because of a crash/mechanical problem. There is an unwritten rule - that wouldn’t apply to NASCAR - that if your rival falls, you don’t speed up. It’s not that Contador is supposed to pull over and just sit there. But he is NOT supposed to accelerate/attack and take advantage of it, which is exactly what he did.
There is, in fact, a long tradition of chivalry on these kinds of issues. Sometimes there are “rules” about it, such as the fact that crashes which occur <3km from the finish at the final stage don’t count against your time, and sometimes the rules are unwritten, or are part of a “code of honor.”
Generally it is thought unfair to attack the yellow jersey because of an accident or puncture. In 2001 for instance Jan Ullrich had a wicked wipeout - Lance slowed for him, and stayed slow so Jan could make up his time. They did the same two years later for Lance after he got his handlebars in a tangle. This tradition goes back ages.
If you are Yellow or even in the lead group and something misfortunate happens which is not your fault - and even if it’s just a “bathroom emergency,” your misfortune should not lead others to attack you.
There are several youtubes of the event and it’s hard to tell what happened. Here is a side view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcN2HrkrnF4
and here is a frontal view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe7wpDjGHXU
You think that despite the fact that Andy led the way up Tourmalet and when Contador did try to attack Andy just glared at him, AC could have taken time out of him if he were protecting a lead?
And had Andy maintained the yellow, he would have had the advantage going last in the TT.
Why didn’t Andy attack Contador more than once. He didn’t and needed to break him to get time thus my opinion is he couldn’t. Contrador just sat there and rode his wheel except for the one attack. I believe Contrador could have took more time had he chose to attack Andy a few more times. He didn’t and didn’t need to in his opinion. Just my view and yours may vary which is your right.
Yeah, It’s a presumption that he was shifting. I suppose I got that from the commentary. Anyway, it was between him and his bike. I don’t see it as the same thing as one of those pileups. It seemed odd to me that they backed off for that ( in an earlier stage,) but I can at least understand the thinking in that case. Here, it was head to head, and they’re riding bikes. That’s got to be part of it.
The central thing is I think before this is that Andy has been seen as a good guy and Contador has been seen as a dick. Although he might not be forced to wait, it didn’t serve his image any favors. He did a lot of people’s favorite wrong. He isn’t going to get the benefit of the doubt in that situation. Schleck probably would have.
I agree. Contador was the stronger rider in this race. Schleck could challenge him, but he had to strive mightily to do it. It was a great competition, and I was flabbergasted that they made such a big deal about Schleck’s slip, as crucial as it was. Bob Roll said it was a “stain” on the yellow jersey. That floored me.
Yep the announcers were split in their opinions. Phil Liggett thought it was okay to go.
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