The Mountain Men Had a Ferocious Battle

This year’s Tour de France (TDF) was one of the most exciting races I can recall and Lance was never even a contender. Unfortunately almost everything that could go wrong for Lance did go wrong. He flatted on stage 3 without a support car nearby then crashed several times in subsequent stages and eventually fell so far behind he could only support his team. Lance Armstrong was on the podium in Paris however as his team, RadioShack, was the first place team in the Tour. With Lance having such an unfortunate race one might think that the TDF would have become a yawning, lackluster event. Not even close. The battle between Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador was nothing short of epic. Unfortunately for Andy, his brother Frank crashed out of the Tour in stage 3 (the cobblestones were a killer for everyone that day) and was not there to provide the much needed support in the mountain stages. Even so, Andy wore the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) for several days and did not loose it to Contador until a heavily criticized move in the mountains. Bicycle racing is a tough, grueling sport but part of the sportsmanship involved is the gentleman’s understanding that you win races by being better that day than any of the other riders. If a contender crashes or has mechanical difficulties the lead group slows down and waits until the fallen racer can catch up and then the racing begins again. Contador chose to ignore good cycling sportsmanship and attacked Schleck just after Andy had a maintenance issue and had to dismount his bike on a steep mountain section. In addition to taking what many people “in the know” believe to be a cheap shot, Contador also had his Lieutenant, Alexander Vinokourov, working for him while Schleck was basically on his own in the mountains due to his brother’s broken collarbone. After the saga in the mountains and a nail biting individual time trial the day before Paris Alberto Contador kept the maillot jaune by a mere 39 second lead over Andy Schleck. This was Contador’s third TDF win and Schleck’s third white jersey (best young rider, 25 and under) win. With the intense battle between Contador and Schleck I am already giddy about next year’s TDF. And with Lance completing his final race to Paris this year I’m all about Andy Schleck in 2011 and beyond.