2010 TdF All-Star Team

OK, first the easy picks for the All-Star team. Conveniently, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck were unequivocally better than anyone else in the race, so they take the two spots for GC riders. Likewise, there is a clear drop in the quality of the sprinters after Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi. Fabian Cancellara is a no-brainer of a pick for the time trial specialist, although it's worth pointing out that Tony Martin is an honorable mention (Martin was 17 seconds behind Cancellara in the stage 19 ITT, and the next best racer was about 90 seconds behind him). The two spots for climbers go to Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez. There is a reason why these two were in a tight race for the last podium spot, and it's because they were consistently in the elite group of climbers. Really, no one rode past them except for Schleck and Contador--they climbed better than everyone else in the race. My first pick for a domestique is Astana's Daniel Navarro, who always looked like he was about to collapse, but was amazing setting the pace in the mountains. He repeatedly whittled the peloton down to a couple dozen or less and was almost always Contador's last teammate. I thought Contador's team would be a liability, but Navarro made sure it wasn't. My final pick is Chris Horner, the unsung hero of RadioShack. Simply put, I don't think RadioShack wins the team competition without him. The big three on his team all faded at least one day in the mountains, but he never did, and finished top 10 because of it.

Other awards:

Iron Man: Cadel Evans. I can't see him ever wearing yellow in Paris, but he dug deep to wear it well (and stay in the race another two weeks) despite having a broken arm.

Biggest surprise (for good reasons):
Alessandro Petacchi, age 35, rode over the mountains and ended up with a green jersey in Paris.

Biggest surprise (for bad reasons):
Bradley Wiggins. It seems like he wasn't in the race. At least Armstrong had a couple good stages and helped his team win. VandeVelde & Frank Schleck crashed out. Evans at least wore yellow for a day. Wiggo was a complete bust.

Mr. Free Agency: How about Robert Gesink. I don't know when his contract expires, but today he's 24. He finished 6th overall. Just maybe he's got a good future in this, but he's going to have to learn how to do a time trial.

Worst thing about this Tour: The difference had more to do with machine than the guys on the machines.

Best thing about this Tour: A two part answer--Contador is now in the pantheon of the greats as a 3-time champ, but with Schleck's improvement, the gap between the two has narrowed, so we should have some great contests between the two in the coming years.

39 Seconds

With only the ceremonial ride to Paris remaining, Alberto Contador holds the yellow jersey by a 39 second margin over Andy Schleck.

On stage 15 Schleck lost 39 seconds to Contador after his chain slipped and he had to stop to repair it. Just what did Andy Schleck do to Fate to deserve such spite?

Although the chain issue made the difference in deciding the Tour, and although Contador is insulting everyone's intelligence in claiming he didn't know about it during the race, he doesn't have to apologize for attacking or for winning the race. Schleck had launched his own attack moments before--he threw the gauntlet and the race was on. Bad things happen.

Their showdown on the Tormalet in stage 17 was epic. Even though Schleck failed to drop Contador, his effort was amazing. He showed he's stronger than every man in the race, except one. His surprisingly competitive time trial was equally impressive, closing the race with that ironic 39 second margin.

But maybe you can argue Schleck was stronger than Contador. He did win two stages, and he did drop Contador on the climb in stage 8, whereas Contador never won a stage and only dropped Schleck once, but for a slimmer margin. But even if we accept that Schleck was the stronger cyclist, Contador showed that when it comes to being a champion, he had what Schleck lacked. Whether you agree or not, Contador developed a winning game plan, took advantage of the moment of truth, beat Schleck in the Race of Truth, and played defense when needed. And while Contador was defending 8 seconds on the Tormalet, Schleck was not seizing the race by the throat like a champion. I don't doubt his effort--it was massive--but while watching him on the Tormalet, I got the impression he didn't have the psyche of a champion. I say that because a champion doesn't need to look to his competitor to figure out how the race will unfold, and a champion does not ask his rival if he's going to pass in the closing meters before the finish. A champion makes his destiny by looking forward, not backward. A champion does not look for his rival to come to the front for a pull, he rides his rival off his wheel. That's not to say he shouldn't look back--there is a good reason to look back and assess the other guy's form. But Schleck seemed to be using it as a crutch as he kept turning back to Contador, as though he could not dictate the race himself. Lance looked back at Ullrich, but he knew he was about to throw the hammer down, and he did it with the flair of a guy who knew he could strike the winning blow.

He's only 25, and he improved dramatically from last year, but to defeat Contador, he'll need to make as big a psychological maturation as he has a physical maturation. And he's got to get nasty and have a chip on his shoulder for more than 24 hours. He went from angry about a slipped chain costing him the yellow jersey to forgiving Contador within 24 hours. That will not cut it--he's got to treat Contador with the same contempt Fate has treated him--and we'll all enjoy watching the battle.