Le Tour de France 2007

With last year’s winner still undecided due to Floyd Landis’s suspected testosterone doping case, this year’s race was again an open one with hot favourites for the General Classification (GC) like Andreas Kloden (Astana), Cadel Evans (Predictor Lotto), Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) and Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel).

The first week of the race was led by Fabian Cancellara (CSC) following his victory of the prologue and obviously a time for the sprinters to do their stuff with the relatively flat profiles of the first week’s stages. The real test of the tour will be in the mountains in which the best climbers would be able to gain a lot of time and consolidate their positions in the GC as well clinch points for the mountains points classification in order to win the polka dotted jersey.

Young gun Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile) from Germany took the first mountain stage of stage 7 in the Alps and got into the yellow leaders’ jersey but GC hopeful Michael Rogers (T-Mobile) from Australia crashed hard on a descent, breaking his shoulder and had to abandon the tour in tears. Fellow countryman Stuart O’Grady (CSC) also crashed, puncturing his lung and suffered multiple fractures. Not a good day for the Aussies.

2-time polka dotted jersey winner Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) took Stage 8, along with the lead in the mountains and overall classification. This put a lot of pressure on the Rabobank Team as they had to work to defend the yellow jersey holder Rasmussen, often leading the peloton and setting the pace of the following stages.

GC favourite Alexander Vinokourov’s (Astana) crash on stage 5 left him quite beat up and struggling in the Alps, with team mates Andreas Kloden and Andrey Kashechkin doing a lot to pace him up the gruelling slopes. Vino’s efforts in maintaining the pace and trying to keep up with the GC leaders was commendable, as he demonstrated a ‘never-say-die’ attitude despite his painful injuries. His tenacity was rewarded as he went to win the Albi time trial of stage 13.

Then it was the return to the hard climbs of the Pyrennes with explosive young Spaniard and white jersey wearer Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) ripping up the slopes and winning stage 14. Personally this was my favourite stage of the entire 3 week race, especially looking at the two climbers Rasmussen and Contador constantly challenging each other up the final climbs of the stage in a dramatic fashion, both refusing to give in to one another till towards the very end.

However, the tour was suddenly hit by 3 crises. Firstly, the news that Vino was tested positive of blood doping following his second stage win of stage 15 which resulted in his expulsion from the race along with his entire team, dashing fifth placed on GC team-mate Andreas Kloden’s dreams of finishing on the podium in Paris. Next, another positive test of testosterone doping of Italian Cristian Moreni (Cofidis) led to the exit of him and his team from the tour. Lastly, yellow jersey wearer Rasmussen was sacked by his team for lying about his whereabouts in June prior to the tour and was to leave the race. Therefore second placed rider on the GC Contador had to take up the yellow jersey nervously at the end of stage 17. Perhaps it was a little too much for the 24 year-old Spaniard to shoulder such a responsibility.

Contador kept his lead quite easily on the following stage, given it was one with a relatively flat profile. The real crunch came in the 55.5km time-trial of stage 19 that would more or less cement the final podium positions in Paris. Contador had a 1’47 lead over second placed Evans from Australia while third placed Leipheimer was about a minute behind Evans. It was really the battle of the top 3 men in this stage and Leipheimer rode the time trial of his life with a whopping speed of 53km/h that was enough for him to secure his first ever stage win in the tour as well as retaining his third position on the GC. Contador rode brilliantly and managed to maintain a 23 sec lead over Evans.

Though plagued by doping cases again, this year’s tour revealed the new young talents and future of professional cycling. The winners of the various jerseys were 24 year-old Spaniard Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) with the leader’s yellow jersey and best young rider’s white jersey, 26 year-old Belgian Tom Boonen (Quickstep-Innergetic) with the green points sprinter’s jersey and last and not least 24 year-old Columbian Mauricio Soler (Barloworld).

My favourite team Discovery Channel took 2 out of the top 3 positions in the final GC, along with the yellow and white jerseys as well as the overall team classification. I guess 7-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong who paid a visit to the Disco boys couldn’t be happier and again we see the magic of master tactician and team manager Johan Bruyneel.

Race-leader/winner Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) in Paris (Stage 20)

Photo: www.grahamwatson.com

The Tour de France never fails to inspire me (especially when I’m a cyclist haha) and indeed pushes its participants to their physical and mental limits, especially when you are covering over 3600 km in about 3 weeks. Furthermore, riders are subject to monstrous climbs, long time trials, unexpected crashes, over-zealous tour fans lined up along the roads of the stages etc. It is not over until you cross the finish line in Paris. Perhaps it is a parallel to life, with so many unexpected twists and turns: there are sweet victories as well as hard crashes in which you have to pull yourself together until you complete the race. Sometimes too the “uphill” trials in life are akin the monstrous climbs and time trials are a test of how mentally strong we are. Fortunately too we have “team-mates” (i.e. family and friends) to help us recover and pull us along if we suffer from “crashes”.

Thanks for reading if you have survived the first 999 words.
Vive Le Tour!

Dean