This is the last in the series of Tour Review articles and I complete it with a piece on my favorite ten moments of the 2010 Tour de France. Once complete, I’ll finally look to put the Tour behind me and move on with my life…

Everyone has their favorite moments that come out of any event, but often it takes a great event to produce ten separate moments that spring to mind quickly and with ease. Upcoming are my favorite ten moments from this years Tour de France and I can tell you, it was difficult to complile for the simple reason that there was more than ten that sprang to mind and so eliminating some moments was not easy. For me this was the greatest Tour de France in memory and the main reason for this was how close each of the jersey competitions were as well as how many moments of excitement, controversy, drama and brilliance we seen over the three week race – and not one single drug positive.

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And a word to the RadioShack team who won one of the most hotly contested team competitions in recent memory against the Caisse d’Epargne team in just their first Tour de France. To be fair, RadioShack are unlike most newcomers to the sport – they are practically the 2009 Astana team in disguise having taken the entire team over to RadioShack during the winter with the exception of the man who actually won the event, Alberto Contador.

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During the first week and a bit of the Tour de France, before it hits the category one and out of category climbs, you find a bunch of mercenaries throwing themselves at the lower category hills in order to amass enough points to carry the king of the mountains jersey for a few days before eventually passing it up to a mountain goat when the Tour goes into real mountains. This year however these opportunists carried the fight all the way through the mountains with Anthony Charteau winning the big prize.

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If you’d have told me that Mark Cavendish would win five stages in this Tour de France and still not win the green jersey, I would have laughed at you. Or maybe not, because last year he won six stages and still came up short proving to me that something is flawed with the points system in a jersey that is effectively meant to reward the best sprinter. Read More»

When the tour begins with a short prologue nobody thinks too much of the time lost and gained. It’s just a chance for the fans to see each rider in the Tour as they all lay down a time that gives everyone a position heading into the proper racing. So when Andy Schleck went round 42 seconds slower than Alberto Contador nobody gave it much thought. Read More»

Everyone will have their own choices, but these are five riders who stood out for me. Not necessairly the five best – they tend to be the top five on GC, but rather the five that shone in various elements throughout the three week Tour.

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198 riders started the Tour de France for the prologue in Rotterdam and on the way 28 dropped to the wayside meaning that when they all crossed the line in Paris some 3,596 km later it was Adriano Malori of Italy and Lampre that was ‘carrying the Lanterne Rouge’ in 170th place as the last man in the Tour de France, a massive 4 hours, 27 minutes and 3 seconds behind winner Alberto Contador. The time gap isn’t as embarrassing as it sounds, there were 10 riders over four hours back and 62 over three hours back, but while most of them will live in relative obscurity, Malori will live in infamy as a man to have won the Lanterne Rouge.

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