gnome

Very good ride by Lance and Wiggins. AS had the legs to shake everyone but AC but couldn't drag his brother up to third overall.

Tsuru

1. Alberto Contador Astana, 3295.5km in 81:46:17
2. Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank, at 4:11
3. Lance Armstrong Astana at 05:24
4. Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream at 06:01
5. Frank Schleck Team Saxo Bank at 06:04
6. Andréas Kloden Astana at 06:42
7. Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas at 07:35
8. Christian Vande Velde Garmin - Slipstream at 12:04
9. Roman Kreuziger Liquigas at 14:16
10. Christophe Le Mevel Francaise Des Jeux at 14:25
11. Mikel Astarloza Euskaltel - Euskadi at 14:44

Bob S.

What a ride!

USAZorro

AC and AS sacrificed probable stage win to try to help their respective teams.

kimconyc

Most Surprising - Lance; did anyone really think he would podium? I didn't (although I did say "top 10").
Most Improved GC Rider - Wiggins
Most Digressive GC Rider - Cadel
Best Descent - Cancellara on Stage 7
Bigge$t Winner - SRAM; all 3 podium spots, many fanboy converts to come...

There were many specific, anticlimactic moments this year but on the whole, there were many surprises so it was all good.

OrionKhan

Yep. They clearly could have made a run. I think AS might have been going at one point, but then Nibali joined them. And he really had to back off. But that's just speculation.

junkanoo

Just a really great race to watch. The crowds were amazing along the route.

Congrats to the top riders as they all showed a lot of heart today. Hard to believe that two men stayed ahead during that stage with what was going on behind them. Wow.

daxr

They were both secure in their GC positions, but their teammates were not. Up the road would have left them unable to do anything.

USAZorro

In retrospect, they stayed back for nothing.

rogwilco

Breakaways aren't supposed to win on the legendary mountains imo.

kimconyc

Pre-race, I really thought Lance would go for the win with 5km to go since he gave the stage away to Pantani and go for 2nd as well.

While watching and 5km to go, I wished Contador would have just layed down the law on Andy and his feeble attacks just to set a precedent for next year..

MikeM21

Well retrospect is 20/20 isn't it? It was nice to see AC riding as a teammate finally.

It would have been great to see Andy and Alberto battle it out to the finish, but Andy wasn't going to leave his brother and Alberto stuck around for Lance. Not as dramatic but a great story nonetheless.

MM

rogwilco

Armstrong was the #2 favourite (behind Contador) to win the Tour with all odds-makers that I've seen.

daxr

There's a bit of honor in it, I think, hoping to still be able to help. Or at least the avoidance of another "OMG - Contador's dropped his teammate" kind of media frenzy.

junkanoo

The babe on the right of the podium during the yellow jersey ceremony was super fine.

kimconyc

Was this pre-Tour? I find this hard to believe.

rogwilco

Yes, pre-Tour. But I wouldn't know how to prove it to you.

kimconyc

I'll take your word for it because it really doesn't matter much now on the whole If it is true, however, BF is the most surprising because very few people openly said that Lance would podium pre-Tour.

Quel

Well, the odds are there to get people to bet, not necessarily to reflect reality. People, especially Americans, are going to bet on Lance even if wasn't actually the 2nd favorite, so it makes sense he has 2nd best odds.

lowlife1975

a bit too anticlimactic for me... i think selecting ventoux as the penultimate stage actually back fired on the organizers b/c we were not treated to an all out assault by the leaders. AC and AS were definitely held back. LA did well to cover all the attacks and do his job to hold podium, but even then, we were not able to gauge if his legs could actually attack b/c he had no incentive to do so. so basically the stage boiled down to proving that FS did not have the legs to jump armstong and wiggins riding his guts out to hold 4th... and a breakaway takes the day... hardly the epic billing that we were all expecting... still entertaining but the stage did not meet its dynamite potential... i think if this stage came a lot earlier, perhaps before the ITT, we would have seen a vastly different, more entertaining dynamic. note to the tour organizers... don't get too greedy and try to overthink the course plans!!

daxr

There's tons of odds makers and betting you can just google. Generally AC was about even money, LA was 4 to 1, Cadel was 5 to 1, Sastre 15 to 1, and so forth.

kimconyc

But seriously, Contador should have layed the smack down, hard, on Andy. To me, it's still in question whether or not Contador is as dominant as many people make him out to be.

If I'm not mistaken, this was the first year AC rode head-to-head against AS and 21 seconds at the end of a first week stage isn't necessarily setting in stone that AC can drop AS (talking 2+ minute time-gap on a mountain stage). It did seem apparent that AS cannot drop AC, however.

Basically, if AS improves on other aspects such as his ITT skills and can simply not get dropped by AC, like he did this year, it's going to be close in the future. Couple that with AC's tendency to make simple mistakes (like not eating ), it provides the backdrop for a great drama going forward in my humble opinion.

Tsuru

+1

erader

actually a very boring finish. AC should have taken on shleck and asserted his dominance .... but i guess in the end he just got tired of all the criticism.

AC could not have taken on schleck and still ride as a team mate.

ed rader

Tsuru

Great finish! Andy did what he could to shake LA for Frank, but couldn't. A lot of battles to "hold their own", and they did. Fantastic.

Can't WAIT to next year... the Schlecks vs. AC vs. LA vs....... WOO!

edit - and hats off to Martin & Garate! Wonder how Martin will do next year???