Stage 20 Thoughts
I'm watching the final stage hit the Champs d'Elyses right now. Discovery is leading their man, Alberto Contador, and breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Neither of us wrote about yesterday's time trial, which may be the greatest time trial ever. Leipheimer had the ride of his life, and at the end of the day, the top three riders were separated by 31 seconds. Leipheimer missed out on making this a one-two Disco finish by the length of a 10 second penalty in the early days of the Tour.
That's when it struck me that this has been both the best and the worst Tour ever. The doping scandals are out of control, and it is all anyone can talk about. Vino's B-sample just came up positive, yet another reminder of the Tour we have had. On the other hand, this has been the most exciting racing I can ever remember. This was a wide open race almost the whole way through, and the last day came down to a terrific battle on the ITT. The climbing stages were equally as exciting as the biggest contender seemed to change on an almost daily basis.
It's a shame that this Tour will be remembered as the Doping Tour because the race itself was great. Vive la Tour!
Neither of us wrote about yesterday's time trial, which may be the greatest time trial ever. Leipheimer had the ride of his life, and at the end of the day, the top three riders were separated by 31 seconds. Leipheimer missed out on making this a one-two Disco finish by the length of a 10 second penalty in the early days of the Tour.
That's when it struck me that this has been both the best and the worst Tour ever. The doping scandals are out of control, and it is all anyone can talk about. Vino's B-sample just came up positive, yet another reminder of the Tour we have had. On the other hand, this has been the most exciting racing I can ever remember. This was a wide open race almost the whole way through, and the last day came down to a terrific battle on the ITT. The climbing stages were equally as exciting as the biggest contender seemed to change on an almost daily basis.
It's a shame that this Tour will be remembered as the Doping Tour because the race itself was great. Vive la Tour!
posted by Poseur at 9:56 AM
1 Comments:
I've been out of town, so I couldn't post. I did see the time trial, and it was outstanding. I'll go ahead and spoil one item I intend to put in our Tour recap. The best moment of this Tour for me was, without a doubt, the 15-20 minutes after Leiphimer reached the second time check in the TT. After his first time check I wondered if he would burn out, but by the second check it was apparent that the top 3 would be separated by about half a minute, but that the race was completely in doubt. What a great ending!
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