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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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»

It wasn’t a matter of if Mark Cavendish would win today’s final sprint up the Champs Élysées, but by how much? As it turns out it was close to ten bike lengths as nobody could come close to him when, like in a slingshot, he fired up ahead of his rivals with 200 yards to go leaving them to fight it out amongst themselves for second. Again. His fifth win, which isn’t half bad considering just three weeks ago he was crashing then finishing 11th in the following days sprint and seemingly out of form. It was that slow start to the Tour that cost him the green jersey which was won by Alessandro Petacchi who did what he had to do by finishing higher than 6th by taking second to Cavendish on the line.

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39 seconds. Count it out. It isn’t much and it is the amount of time that this Tour de France was won by after three full weeks of grueling racing. You might wonder what the big deal about 39 seconds in particular is and what makes it so unbelievable? Well, while it is that the 39 seconds gap between Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador in the general classification, it is also the exact same time lost by Schleck to Contador on stage 15 when Schleck’s chain dropped off and Contador hammered up the road. You couldn’t have scripted it better and it’ll leave everyone with a life-time of ‘what ifs?’

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Unless he wins the time trail tomorrow and so long as he holds off Andy Schleck on the GC, Alberto Contador will almost certainly become just the forth cyclist since the middle 60’s to win the Tour de France without actually winning a stage.

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Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. ~ C.S. Lewis

As they approached the summit together the scene was epic; there you had the top two riders in the world on a back drop of white from the thick fog, coming through the mist on top of the Tour de France both geographically and literally. On one one side you had Schleck in his white young riders jersey, and next to him, Contador, in his yellow – a stark contrast against the blanket of fog they were rising up out of like two gladiators cresting the summit of the climb as well as the Tour as a whole … Inseparable, unbreakable and unbeatable, the two of them fittingly, after a half hours worth of grinding punishment on the day and two and a half weeks in total, hitting the line almost in tandem. It was the ideal scenario for such a situation … It was one of them dramatic images in sport and as they crested the summit it was Schleck just a few feet in front as Contador held station. He dared not do anything else – as his fiercest rival Schleck crossed the line in first for a brilliant brilliant win.

When they crossed the line the two immediately shook hands and embraced. There had been one winner on the day and, seemingly, another winner in the general classification, but to each other they were matched. Two great champions and both recognised the other as just that.

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An article has just been posted on Velo News by John Wilcockson giving us the reasons on how Andy Schleck might be able to take back a solid minutes worth of time on Alberto Contador on the Col du Tourmalet. A minute is what Schleck says he needs on Contador heading into Saturday’s time trial and today is his last chance to get it.

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