Some thoughts about this TdF (plus little update about Vuelta)

Boring and predictable. These are the first words that come to my mind when I think about this year TdF. The parcours was probably designed by a monkey, especially if you consider that there were 100 kms against the clock and just 3 summit finishes. Moreover, this year the TdF organisers tried to insert new, unknown climbs in the parcours in order to make the race more exciting. And here I must say that, although I liked the Planche des Belles Filles climb, I didn't really love the ascent to Peyragudes (Peyresourde, 2 kms of descent, and 3 other kms uphill: not my kind of climb). Moreover, imo this Tour lacked of stages that could help grimpeurs to gain positions in the GC. For example, although the famous 'Tour of death' (Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin, Peyresourde and 16 kms of descent to the finish-line in Pau) is part of the Tour history, it isn't that selective anymore; the infamous Mur de Peguere, a very steep climb, could have created some problems to Wiggins, but it was placed 40 kms far from the finish-line; during the Porrentruy stage then there were about 16 kms of descent between the last not-that-steep climb and the finish-line; during the stage to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine instead le Col du Grand Colombiere was faced with 40 kms to go. Launching an attack there, when Wiggins still had Porte, Rogers and Froome to rely on, would have been a tactical suicide for everyone. And whereas this Tour lacked of exciting, important climbs, it had a lot of kms against the clock. And, unfortunately for the already damaged grimpeurs, the two long TTs of the race were both completely flat, so that they perfectly suited specialists like Bradley Wiggins.

Much have already been said about this year parcours. Still, me would really like to know why the TdF organisers decided to create such a shameful route. In the last few years Proudhomme & Co. have taken some very patriotic decisions (for example, a few years ago they excluded Denis Menchov and Geox from the race in order to invite Saur-Sojasun), but this year good old ASO created a parcours that, at least on paper, seriously damaged the two promises of French cycling, aka Pinot and Rolland. The two young riders were strong enough to get good victories anyway and to arrive in the top 10, but me wonders what would have happened if this year the parcours had featured less kms against the clock and more steep climbs. To give you an idea of the importance that the TTs had this year, Gazzetta's journalists have made a few calculations and have discovered the following thing: Nibali (3rd in Paris with a delay of 6'09" from Wiggins) lost 6 minutes during the TTs, and 9" on the climbs. Nice, isn't it?

After talking about the parcours, however, let's talk a bit about the race itself. Or, better, let's talk about the riders who kept the race under control for 3 long weeks. Wiggo arrived in Liége with the role of favourite pinned on him and an amazing team on his side. Froome, Rogers, Porte... each of them could have been a captain in any other team of the world. The one who suffered most from this situation was poor Mark Cavendish: the world champion (who had to work even on the mountains to help his captain) had just one man (Eisel) that could help him during the chaotic sprints of the Grande Boucle. Nevertheless, Cav managed to win three stages anyway. In particular, I think that his triumph in Brive-La-Gaillarde was one of his most beautiful victories. As for the final stage in Paris, Cavendish won it for the 4th time in a row after having had the honour of seeing the yellow jersey working in his lead-out train. Still, on that day I was very impressed by Sagan: that boy could be a very serious threat to Cav even in London.

Back to team Sky, the fact that all the riders on the team just seemed to care about the GC often favoured the riders who wanted to go on a breakaway. And in fact this year there were many, many stages that were won by riders who survived a breakaway and on many occasions the peloton crossed the finish-line with about 10 minutes of delay from the daily winner. Luckily the fight for the stage victories were often very exciting and that was probably the most interesting thing of the race.

Still talking about Team Sky, let me spend a few words on Christopher Froome. The boy is strong, no doubts about that, and if he had raced for another team perhaps he would have won this Tour. Many got angry at him during the Peyragudes stage, when he kind of 'humiliated' Wiggins by trying to show that his climbing skills were better than Bradley's ones. Imo Froome on that occasion lacked of respect towards Wiggo, but all in all I think that, after the amazing work he did for his captain, Chris should be forgiven without problems. There aren't so many strong loyal helpers out there!!

Talking about the GC riders not belonging to team Sky, Vincenzo Nibali rode a very good race. Italian journalists have counted a total of 5 attacks to Wiggins during this race and 4 of them were launched by the Liquigas rider. Nibali is a very good and generous rider and I was very happy to see him on the final podium in Paris. Still, I'm not quire sure he can repeat this result next year, with Contador and Schleck racing as well.

Another very generous rider during this race was poor Vandenbroeck, who lost a few minutes in the GC because of the infamous Metz carnage. His team, Lotto, was very good especially at helping Greipel in getting victories. Talking about the German, I think he's a very good sprinter indeed. Still, he never really had a head-to-head fight with Cavendish and this explains the few doubts I still have about his strength.

5th in the GC (and first in the white jersey classification) was Teejay Van Garderen. The American helped Cadel Evans during the first two weeks of race, but then he could eventually race for himself - and that's the result. Van Garderen has always been one of the most talented GT riders around and this year he clearly proved what he's capable of. Give him a couple of years and imo you'll see him on the  Tour podium in Paris.

Talking about BMC, the American team began the race with one goal: helping Evans to win another Grande Boucle. Still, the Australian had a very difficult third week and in the end the best team rider was Van Garderen. I don't know what went wrong with Evans: perhaps, just like Basso, Menchov and many other riders, he's simply entered the last part of his long and successful career. Nevertheless, he ended the race in 7th.

6th in the final GC was Haimar Zubeldia,who has recently revealed that during the first part of the season he suffered heart problems. Now he's finally recovered and this 6th place definitely proves it.

8th in the race (in spite of all the kms against the clock) was Pierre Rolland. The Frenchman was probably hardly insulted by his colleague during the famous tacks-stage, but his Tour was very good anyway. The Europcar rider in fact managed to win the stage to La Toussuire (imo the hardest one of the race) and got a top 10 placement in the final GC. And this in spite of losing 11 minutes from Wiggins just because of the TTs. Chapeau Pierre!

9th in the GC was Janez Brajkovic. A good Tour for the Astana rider, who however never showed up in the battles for stage victories.

10th was an exceptional Pinot. The FDJ rider (who is just 22 years old) managed to win the Porrentruy stage and arrive in the top 10 in spite of the many TTs that risked to favour Andreas Kloeden, who seriously threated Thibaut's placement in the top 10. Still, the young French rider managed to get the 10th place in front of the experienced rider - and he did all this in his first Tour de France. Amazing, isn't it?

11th in the GC was Andreas Kloeden - now, let me spend a few words about Radioshack's Tour. I don't know how, but this time managed to win the final Team Classification during the race. Actually, one could realise that this was their only goal already in the first week, when Frank Schleck crashed in Metz and no one waited for him 'coz we fuckin' want the team prize, man!'. Radioshack surely had a very talented team (Jens Voigt was simply superb this year), but the boys seemed to fight against each other for the whole 3 weeks of race. Imo, someone in the team (the ds and the management) should seriously rethink their priorities. A serious cycling team racing the TdF in fact should probably try and get as many stage victories as possible, not try to get the first place in the team classification. Moreover, a serious cycling team racing the TdF should probably try to have a rider on the final podium of the race. Instead Radioshack decided to leave Fuglsang at home in order to take a tired American (Horner) in Europe for a three week holiday in France. Anyway. Imo the most positive riders on the team were Zubeldia, Voigt and Cancellara. In particular, the Swiss saved Shack's race by winning the first stage and giving them the 'we've already kept the yellow jersey for a week, we can be satisfied with this' excuse. Therefore, Radioshack guys should be really grateful to Fabian.

Talking about the other race prizes, the green jersey went to Peter Sagan. I've already talked a lot about the amazing talent of this boy and I don't have anything to add to what has already been said and written about him. Peter's a champion, that's all we can say.

Let's now talk a bit about the polka dots jersey. I actually have no words to describe how grateful I am to Thomas Voeckler for amusing me with his wonderful facial expressions during many of the boring days of this Tour. I really like T-Blanc, although every time he outsprinted poor Kessiakoff on the climbs I felt unbelievably sorry for the Swedish rider. However, Voeckler did an amazing job this year and I think he really deserved the polka dots jersey. Thomas is becoming a hero for the French and I can perfectly understand why. I'm sure that when he retires, someone will build him a statue on the Champs.

After talking about the polka dots jersey, let me spend a few words on the combativity award. You all know that Chris Anker Sorensen has always been one of the favourite riders of mine - and during this Tour he reminded me why I like him so much. Chris tried to enter in every single breakaway, just like his teammate Morkov and many other riders (LL Sanchez, Vinokourov, Voeckler, Voigt...). And he was in a breakaway when, during the Peyragudes stage, he cut his finger in a very deep way while trying to take a newspaper out of his wheel. In spite of the pain and of the blood that kept on spilling out of the cut, Chris managed to end the stage in 24th and went on racing until he reached the Champs Elysées. There he could climb on the podium to receive the combativity award. Once he received the prize, Chris gave a long, moving stare at the Arc de Triomphe. When he first became a pro, I remember he said he would have liked to win the polka dots jersey in the Tour. This year he didn't make it, but he managed to step on the Paris podium anyway. Well done Chris!

As for the other breakaway riders, I think a special mention must go to Vinokourov, LL Sanchez, Morkov, Devenyns, Rui Costa and some other riders I've probably forgotten. One of the riders that managed to get a stage victory was Fedrigo, one of the best riders at reading race strategies. Also Valverde managed to survive a breakaway and get a great and moving victory on Peyragudes.

Back to the GC, a little mention goes to Nicholas Roche. I really like this rider because his blog is one of the funniest thing I've ever read, but imo the boy should make a choice: during a GT, is it better to chase a big stage victory or a top 10 placement? It's a difficult question, but I think Nicholas should try to answer it if he wants to become a better rider.

So, this is just part of what I'd like to say about this Tour de France. Still, I don't have much time to blog in these days and it'd take me forever to write down all my thoughts about the last few stages, about guys like Vansummeren racing on despite a broken vertebra, about guys like Basso helping their captains, about guys like Menchov (my Menchov!!) apparently facing the last part of his long and successful career. As I said, unfortunately, I don't have enough time to write.

The Tour is finally over and Wiggo (who was the strongest time trialist, had the strongest team and had no rivals on the climbs) won the race. He showed that this year, on this parcours, he was the strongest rider and deserved to win. Still, I think that next year we'll probably be able to understand more about the value of his victory. Now that the Tour is over, Wiggo, Cav and most of the Tour riders are heading to Lodon for the Olympic Games. Still, in my mind I still have the feeling that the final stage to Paris left me. Although this was a boring Tour, although the parcours sucked, although none of the Schlecks ended it, after the curtains fell on the biggest race of the world I felt lost, and I started to await next Tour de France. Because, all in all, the Tour is the Tour, aka one of the races every cycling follower loves the most.

Bye to everyone and enjoy the Olympics! (apropos, Go Italy!!)

VUELTA UPDATE: Andy Schleck won't race nor the Vuelta, now the Tour of Lombardy. On the other hand, he'll take part in important events such as Tour of Colorado and Tour of Beijing - which, in case you don't know it, have always played a very important role in the cycling history. Alright, end of the little update - now I'm off to burn the Schleck poster I have on my wardrobe. Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy the opening ceremony at the Olympics!