Ah,the Champs Elysées: Cavendish's victory + Jerseys' winners:

And so the last day of The Tour de France 2009 has come and gone.As usual the first part of the stage was faced by the riders with a calm pace and you could see some curious things:Armstrong talking to Devolder,Cav talking to Contador (how did they understand each other? Does Cavendish speak Spanish?),the yellow jersey wearing a Spanish flag as if it was a mantel,the Schleck brothers talking to each other and joking with Larsson...It looked a bit like the last day of school.

Then,after having ridden for few kms in the center of Paris,some riders went on a breakaway; the brave (and not enough tired,I wonder?) boys were Beppu,Barredo,Coyot,Wegmann, Dumoulin,Pichot and Veikkanen.But the Champs Elysées are the Champs Elysées,aka "the place where every sprinter of the Earth would love to win someday".And so Columbia started to pull to make the team' sprinter achieve his dream.And Cavendish won,for the 6th time in this TdF.Second came Renshaw,his teammate."Not to win here would have been a crime",said Cavendish."The Tour,Paris,the triumph arc (ndr;do you call it in this way in English?)...For a sprinter this stage has an incredible worth.Perhaps this is my best victory.I didn't win alone: my team is formed by incredible professionists,riders that know how to prepare a sprint and how to stand pressure.I'm proud of my Tour.Last year I won 4 stages,then I had to retire on the mountains.This time my goal was to arrive in Paris and to win some stages;the green jersey for me was just something more,not the main goal.I arrived in Paris and I won 6 stages.It's true,I didn't win the green jersey,but Hushovd has been more costant and tenacious than me.I'm not disappointed,I'll try to win it next year".

As you have probably understood from what Cav said,the green jersey was finally won by the Norwegian Thor Hushovd,who said that "Cavendish is the best sprinter in the world". Btw,I think Hushovd completely deserved this jersey because he made great efforts to achieve it,going on breakaways also during very hard stages.
The polka dots jersey instead was won by mr.Pellizotti and this caused a great euphoria here in Italy.I pretty like Pellizotti,so I was happy about the fact that he's won this jersey.The Italian rider also won the "most combactive rider" award and I think he deserved it: he was often at the head of the race,trying to win some points for the polka dots competition.

As usual,Pellizotti went on the podium with his son and his daughter,while his wife (interviewed by Italian tv) broke into tears as soon as the Liquigas rider stepped on the stage.The team award was won by Astana ahead of Garmin and Saxo Bank.Astana team was formed by Contador,Popovych,Zubeldia,Armstrong,Rast,Murayev,Paulinho and Kloden.The only rider of the team that got retired was Leipheimer.

Saxo Bank riders all ran a good Tour,in my opinion.Andy (2nd in the overall) and Frank (winner of the toughest stage and 5th in the GC) were just amazing;los Sorensens were very good as well: Nicki won a stage and came in 31st in the GC,while Chris-Anker came in 34th (this was his first Tour de France),worked a lot for the Schleck brothers (just like all the other riders of the team) and also found the time to update his blog almost daily.Larsson came in 50th (I'm sorry for his fans out there,but now it's official: Saxo Bank website isn't going to post any vid with him) while Fab Fab finally came in 91st after having won the first TT and worn the yellow jersey for almost a week.Stuey O'Grady instead finally came in 124th (he worked a lot for the Schleck brothers as well).Unfortunately Kurt-Asle Arvesen and Jens Voigt had to retire during the race.Kurt was in Paris this afternoon,while Jens is still in the hospital.It may sound boring,but I wish him again a fast recover.He's a great rider and a a great person.

Talking about Saxo Bank riders,Andy Schleck won the white jersey,aka was the best young rider at the Tour also this year.Andy is 24 year-old and has won this classification twice,just like Pantani and Ullrich (Ullrich actually won it 3 times).Of course,while Andy was on the stage,the Yeti thing suddenly appeared.I'm afraid that Andy will never get rid of it...And then,of course,the podium: On the highest spot there was Contador,winner of 2 stages and of a TTT in this year's Tour.He was the strongest rider,no doubt about that.He looked really happy on the podium and,after the end of the whole race,he admitted that he had some problems with Armstrong during these 3 weeks of race,
On the other 2 podium spots there were Andy Schleck and sir Lancelot.Here are some things I've noticed during the prizegiving...
1st: Andy is taller than Contador even when he's on the second spot of a podium and Contador is on the first one.
2nd: the guy at your left is incredibly good-looking.
3rd: sir Lancelot isn't twittering! Oh my,is that the true Lance Armstrong?
4th: the trophies.I couldn't find a photo with them yet,but they were slightly... disappointing.Contador's trophy was pretty,but take a look at the Giro's one and you'll probably start to think that,after having given everything for 3 weeks,perhaps the TdF winner would deserve a trophy slightly more big.
And then,the trophies for the 2nd and the 3rd rider of the overall were the same.And what were they? They were glass plates.Or at least,they looked like glass plates. Let's find some better cups for next year,ok?

In conclusion,congratulations to all the riders who ended the race and to everyone who made efforts to make the race interesting.