cthenn

I love it. What a fantastic shot. Sums up this years edition of the TdF. Congrats to the photographer who took it. Brilliant! Also congratulations to Froome for saying all the right things after the stage.

cycle17

The caption should read, "That's right you beast... you just keep pulling my *ss over all the climbs. And don't even think about getting that stage win today." I agree that this is photo is worth a thousand words.

shoota 

great shot. van garderen might be working harder though, just saying..

Jed19

The smile and the grimace. Wiggins better enjoy it, as Contador and Andy schleck are gonna wipe that smile off his face next year.

ultraman6970

The time of the schlecks is gone IMO. Lets see what brings contador because doubt AS will do the vuelta this year or maybe ever.

ckaspar

That photo is awesome! Tells the whole story

byhsu

that photo represents what tour was this year, a Froome working his A$$ off, to pull Wiggins up the mountains.

byhsu

Andy is still quite young.

Jed19

A sad picture for cycling fans. A wheelsucker as TDF champ. Absolutely no inspirational mountain climbing/riding from the yellow jersey.

Say it ain't so!

Flaneur

I disagree................

colombo357

Wiggins wouldn't be winning this year and Evans wouldn't have won last year had Contador not eaten his delicious, juicy Spanish steak.

Schleck still has a chance. He just needs a route with only one ITT and lots of climbing, with his main competitors out of the tour due to injury or suspension. This is conceivable.

colombo357

Not particularly surprising. No TTT and few mountain top finishes this year... we knew a dominant TTer would win this year and Wiggins' wheelsucking, while not entertaining, was tactically sound.

spylab

You are a fool if you think for a second that Wiggins' wheelsucking wasn't planned out weeks or months before the Tour started. Perhaps Sky underestimated Chris Froome some, yes, but that team was almost mechanical in their production as a result of a planned, practiced riding style. Had Froome been on a different team, it is difficult to really judge how much gas was in Wiggins' tank the entire time. Yep, he stayed behind Chris and Co. most of the time and hardly grimaced, but there is no definitive way to say that if Froome worked for Liquigas and took off, Bradley didn't have it in him to chase Chris down.

None of the stages are a 'surprise' to anyone (outside of the weather conditions), and this year's tour and TT stages favored Wiggins over Froome for Team Sky. No way to deny that Wiggo absolutely demolished the TTs on his own.


I think next year is a toss up; a lot of folks here assume that Wiggins is toast with Contador and Schleck back in, but Sky was SO well oiled that Wiggins may be a lot better than we ever got a chance to see (not like anyone really challenged him mano e mano this year)... Andy Schleck seems like a decent dude who is only at the top when he is hanging on by a thread (and embarrassing himself in TTs). Contador is a beast, but if he was suspended for doping then there is an unbalanced basis for his performance, as it may have been affected by whatever he was taking. If anything, next year's tour should offer the chance to see the big guns do some serious work for the yellow...seems like there are a lot more guys hungry for it than there were this year.

900aero

Contador was in the race last year, along with Frank & Andy and Evans still won.

Bacciagalupe

Contador didn't lose last year because of doping allegations. He lost because he blew his form, possibly by expending far more energy than necessary to win the Giro.

While it's hard to bet against Contador, the reality is that there's no way to know what would have happened if he rode this year. I don't recall Saxo ever looking as disciplined as Sky has this year.


Uh... he already had that chance, in 2011.

The route had tons of mountains, no prologue, one TTT and one ITT. Wiggins crashed out early, Samu and Contador lost lots of time in crashes. Frank and Voight worked hard for him, and Andy played to his strengths with that massive attack on the Galibier. By the time the ITT came around, Contador was already blown and he had almost a full minute up on Evans. So what happened? Evans buried Andy by 2 1/2 minutes in a single TT.

Second, I'm pretty sure that with any of the GC guys, you could say "get rid of his main competitors" and they're likely to win.

I don't think Wiggins is the Anquetil of the modern era, but Andy runs the risk of being its Poulidor.