Tour Highlights

Coming down to the penultimate stage, the 2011 Tour de France kept us guessing until the end. Here are highlights from the three-week competition: the good, the bad, the ugly, plus what’s next.

THE GOOD

• CADEL EVANS: The 2011 winner of the Tour de France rode into the yellow jersey with an outstanding performance at the individual time trial in Grenoble. While he stayed aggressive every day, the penultimate stage proved the importance of a breadth of skills, not just mountain climbing, to take home the win.
• ANDY SCHLECK:  Leader of Team Leopard-Trek, the Luxembourger orchestrated a series of mountain attacks and demonstrated the importance of the squad in cycling. Stage 18 was picture perfect strategy, as Schleck was aided by two teammates sent in an early breakaway in anticipation of his attack, though he did not gain enough time to win in Paris.




Danielson


• MARK CAVENDISH: The Manx Missile delivered five impressive sprint wins and the first green jersey for the U.K. The HTC-Highroad lead-out train is a sight to behold, like a chess/poker match unfolding at 40 miles per hour. Yet Cavendish’s most exciting victory came on Stage 5 when he clawed his way through a field of rivals.
• THOR HUSHOVD: The Norwegian broke the curse of the world champion, as he tallied personal and team accomplishments. Hushovd wore the yellow jersey for seven stages and fought for two brutal stage wins that should have been too mountainous for the sprinter.
• GARMIN-CERVELO: The American team came to life in their third appearance at the Tour de France with the team time trial stage win, Tyler Farrar’s spint win on the Fourth of July, Hushovd’s performance, and Tom Danielson’s finish in ninth place overall.

THE BAD

Leipheimer

• RADIOSHACK: The American team suffered some of the worst luck ever. Janez Brajkovic crashed out, Chris Horner and Andreas Kloden abandoned due to injuries, and Yaroslav Popovych quit due to illness. To top it off, Levi Leipheimer lost too much time following crashes, and the team got skunked for results, not a familiar situation for Lance Armstrong’s former team.
• WHAT IF: The Tour de France always sends home riders with broken bones, but in 2011, too many of them were exciting contenders. We can only ask what if regarding: Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky, Tom Boonen of QuickStep, Alexander Vinokourov of Astana, David Zabriskie of Garmin, and more.
• FABIAN CANCELLARA: Switzerland’s Mr. Fabulous was a highlight from last year’s Tour, time trial winner and patron of the peloton. This time around, he was M.I.A., due to the lack of a prologue to start the race and his eighth place finish at the time trial.

THE UGLY

• CAR CRASH: Accidents happen and riders get hurt. But the French television car hitting the leading group of riders on Stage 9 was shocking and outrageous. Thrown onto a barbed wire fence, Johnny Hoogerland finished the stage with blood pouring down his leg, and received 33 stitches. Fortunately, all the cyclists managed to finish the race, and the driver of the car was ejected.
• POOR SPORTS: Several rival sprinters accused Cavendish of cheating to finish the mountain stages within the time limits. No evidence was presented, and in the days of YouTube and camera-phones, the claims are ridiculous. Frustrated that they could not beat Cavendish, these riders resurrected the ugly cycling tradition of slinging baseless accusations rather than proving their dominance on the road.
• THE APPEAL: The Court of Arbitration of Sport will hear the appeal from the world’s doping agency and cycling’s governing body regarding Alberto Contador’s failed drug test from the 2010 Tour de France, which he won. Because the matter is unresolved, the Spaniard competed under a cloud and was booed by spectators at the cyclist introductions and the team time trial in the first week of the race. While the crowds turned in his favor later on, Contador and the sport suffered from the strange possibility that he would be retroactively ruled ineligible for the 2011 season.

THE FUTURE

• Can Evans defy age to defend his title?
• After three second-place finishes, will Andy Schleck return to win?
• With the final appeal on his doping case to be heard on Monday, what is in the cards for Contador? Will his name be cleared, or will he be retroactively banned for the season and stripped of his Giro d’Italia win?
• Will American George Hincapie return in 2012 to beat the record for most Tours ridden?
• Can HTC-Highroad hold on to Cavendish, or will he bolt for British Team Sky? If so, which lead-out men will he take with him?

Stay tuned… The next two months will start to reveal the answers.