Mh. I'm also a little disappointed, Andy Schleck would make a better winner, Evans lacks of...I don't know what but he doesn't have it.
I can't believe it! Third times a charm! What he couldn't do in 2007 and 2008 he has done today! To say he didn't deserve this victory or there was a better winner in the pack is unfair to Evans. He worked to get his lead, to defend it, to stay in the race, and then to win. He might not be the "people's" winner but this he is the most fitting winner.
No, I get it. If the winner was anyone but Evans over Andy I'd feel the same way due to his attack in stage 18. Got to say you're lucky France is on the other side of the world, because there is nothing Australians love more than a champion. We'd be in your city drinking all your booze!
We're not affraid, thanks to rugby, we already have some experience with the Scottish and the Irish regularly And you've apparently never seen us celebrating in the city Funny stage for me today, it crossed my town twice. It's not the 1st time but it's always weird to see "home" on TV.
Nervous last few kilometres but it's now official: Cadel Evans is the winner of the Tour de France. 30 years after Phil Anderson, another Australian, became the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey Evans, the first Australian to be on the podium for the yellow, the first Australian to win the world championship, is the first Australian to win the tour. Full credit to BMC, they put together a great team to support him and helped him manage the lead up so that he was in great nick and form for the race that mattered. He's also the oldest rider to win since 1928 at 34 years of age.
Oh, another Champs Elysees stage, another win for Cavendish, how surprising. After BMC, HTC is probably the second most successful team this year, 6 stage wins would be crazy at any other time if Cavendish wasn't who he is... Anyway, congratulations to Evans, maybe it's good for the sport at least.
^ At least that guarantees the anthem is right. They played the wrong one a few years back for Contador I think. Cav also adds more history to his name by winning the green jersey. He's been the most dominate sprinter of the last 3 years so that green jersey ended up on the right shoulders. The end of a great tour and I'm already looking forward to 2012.
Yeps, they played the danish anthem. Spain didn't like the French humor at this time 2012 should be interesting. Evans is 34 years old. I'm not going to say it's old for, hum, some reasons but he's only a transitional winner.
I actually thought he was too old to win it this year! At the start I was just hoping for a podium finish for Evans. However, the stars just aligned for him, he had the form, the luck and the form of the other GC contenders all went his way. But to win back-to-back Tour de Frances in your mid-30s is you would have to think impossible...not that it means you shouldn't try. One day I hope to make the journey to France and follow the race. I've been to France twice, but never really outside of Paris, so it would be nice to see more of the country as well.
I think whether he wins again depends mostly on what happens to Contador. I see no reason why he shouldn't be able to beat Andy again.
Contador is clearly the best grand tour rider at the moment. If he is cleared you wouldn't think he'd go to the Giro next year and instead of aim to dominate the Tour de France once again. Andy I don't think was at his best in terms of form this year and you would think that Trek would put a bit more effort in the off season to see if they can step up his time trialing if possible, though this year I think he blew himself away too much in stage 18, which made things look worse in stage 20. It'll be interesting to see what happens to HTC Highroad as to whether the team will continue to exist. If not you'd think Sky would throw a lot at Cav to get him in their team since they're a British squad. Also given that next year the first pro Australian team will enter the circuit, named GreenEDGE. If HTC does disband Goss and Renshaw could end up with them. You don't like to see such a successful team split up but the idea of Renshaw and Cav battling for stages would be fantastic to watch, which is another thing I'm hoping to see - an Australian team getting a wildcard to next years tour.
Well, for one thing Contador was unlucky in the Tour this year, he hurt his leg early, had several crashes and his team wasn't quite up to par. He could have won this if things had aligned a little better for him, he was again super strong in the third week. And on top of that, if I'm not mistaken this was the first time he attempted the Giro-Tour double. He was extremely dominating in the Giro, obviously less so in the Tour. If he attempts the double again next year, I would expect him to adjust his training regiment so that he doesn't peak quite as much in May and has more strength left in July and also improves his team selection. But I'm not sure at all he does the Giro next year. And Andy was as good as he gets this year. He hardly did any races before the Tour, Contador did a bunch of stage races, several of the spring classics and the Giro, Andy did none of that except LBL and a very half-hearted effort at the Tour de Suisse. The Tour de France is what he wanted, and the only thing he wanted. And he was lucky in the first week. He won't be any stronger next year imo.