I didn't mean to leave you hanging, but I was out of town over the weekend and I didn't see the alst few stages of the Tour.
It wasn't much of a loss. Stage 18 (Friday July 23) is a flat uninteresting ride where the sprinters showed their stuff but as long as Alberto Contador stayed with Andy Schleck nothing would change - and it didn't. Andy Schleck remained 8 seconds behind Contador in the overall standings. Mark Cavandish won the stage, his third this year.
Stage 19 (Saturday July 24) was an individual time trial. Alberto Contador is very good at this event and Andy Schleck figured he needed 1:30 on Alberto to be in contention to win. He didn't get it. Andy did manage to loose only 31 seconds to Contador on this stage for a total deficit of 39 seconds at the end of this stage.
The last stage is mostly a show stage. Under the "gentlemen's agreement" the leader at the last stage shouldn't be shown up in the last run along the Champs Elysees so they let him win at this point. Alberto Contador won by 39 seconds over Andy Schleck, Dennis Menchov of Russia came in third. Team Radioshack won the team honors. Their rider Chris Horner came in 10th as the highest placing American.
The other jerseys are up for grabs on this last stage and Mark Cavendish showed his prowess in the sprint by winning this last stage for his 4th stage win this year. Alassendro Petacchi (an Italian - go red, white and green) won the overall points championship and Andy Schleck won the white jersey signifying the best rider under 25 years old.
All in all it was a very interesting Tour. If you want to look up any of the stats or see the stages go to www. letour.fr.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
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