Saxo Bank

After a mechanical mishap on Monday at the Tour de France, Andy Schleck lost his overall lead to the two-time and defending champion, Alberto Contador.

While there may be some discussion on whether Contador was sportsmanlike in passing Schleck because of a chain coming loose on the leader's bike, Schleck still has to make up nine seconds in the final four days of the race.

That may not seem like a lot of time to make up, but with only one day remaining in the Pyrenees, Schleck doesn't have much of an opportunity to gain on Contador, the superior flat-land racer.

Contador is considered the favorite between the two in what could be the race-deciding Stage 19, a 32.3 mile time trial on the day before the victory lap in Paris.

You never know what can happen in a time trial, though. In the 2007 Tour de France, Contador entered the 19th stage with the yellow jersey, but many expected him to lose it during the time trial.

Instead, Contador turned in the time trial of his life and held off Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer by under a minute, claiming yellow in France at 24 years old.

Schleck could experience the same kind of "day of his life" that Contador did in 2007, so this race is still far from being decided.

Weather conditions for Thursday's climb don't look very good either, so maybe Schleck will get some luck back after experiencing some bad luck on Monday. Anything can happen in the Tour de France.

Still, I don't anticipate Schleck being able to gain enough time back on Contador to win the Tour, especially with the time trial being in Contador's favor.

It may be hard to take for Schleck, but a mechanical problem could have cost him his first yellow jersey in the Tour de France and given Contador his third win in four years.

After a relatively uneventful Stage 10 on Wednesday, where the leaders remained more or less in place, the 2010 Tour de France resumes Thursday morning with a 184.5 km jaunt from Sisteron to Bourg-lès-Valence.

The route is largely flat lands, though there's a steep climb up the Col de Cabre about a quarter of the way into the day's course.

Luxembourg's Andy Schleck is still in the yellow jersey, thanks to a solid Team Saxo Bank effort yesterday, with defending champ Alberto Contador of Spain in second, 41 seconds back of Schleck.

Seven-time champion Lance Armstrong sits in 31st place, over 17 minutes behind the leader.

Stage 11 coverage runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.

You can catch all the action on Versus, available on channel 603 on DirecTV and channel 151 on Dish Network. Check your local cable listings for channel lineups.

You can also watch the live stream online on Versus.com. This isn't free though; Versus is now charging a reduced price of $23.95 for its live tracker. Check it out here.

Stage 10 of the 2010 Tour de France took the riders from Chambery to Gap, a leisurely ride of 179km through the French Alps.

After yesterday’s brutal ride over two category one climbs—and finally the soul destroying Col de la Madeleine—today’s ride was a comparatively easy one with one each of category one, two and three climbs. Being Bastille day, it was also a day for the French riders to try to claim victory on their national day.

As has been the pattern, a breakaway of four riders formed almost immediately consisting of Sergio Paulinho (RadioShack), Mario Aerts (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Dries Devenyns (Quickstep), and Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse D’Espargne).They were joined—eventually—by two more riders, Maxime Bouet (Ag2R) and Pierre Rolland (Bbox).

Aerts was best placed of all the riders in the breakaway with a 32 minute deficit on the Tour leader’s time and presented no threat whatsoever to big names, hence the lack of urgency to chase them down.

The break continued to move away, before eventually stabilizing at the 11 minute mark. The rest of the peloton, however, had decided that today would be an unofficial rest day after what everyone other than Andy Schleck, Alberto Contador, and a handful of riders from the breakaway would have considered a pretty bad day.

Former holder of the yellow jersey, Cadel Evans, came out for the start despite revealing at the end of yesterday’s stage that he had fractured a bone in his elbow and was severely inconvenienced by the pain. It puts his poor performance on stage nine into some perspective and the more relaxed pace will only help the healing process.

So relaxed was today’s pace that the peloton did not even drop the sprinters on the climbs; something that is almost unheard of in the Alps. Team Saxo Bank controlled the peloton looking after Andy Schleck’s yellow jersey and keeping their leader out in front and away from the dangers that lurk within even the most relaxed peloton.

The only real interest lay in who, from the sprinters, would pick up the left over points after the leading bunch had taken their share. The stage eventually went to Paulinho by half a wheel, after he and Kiryienkoleft the other members of the breakaway behind inside the last 10km.

From the peloton, the big sprint names fought for what was left a surprising 12 minutes down on the leaders.  Mark Cavendish narrowly took the sprint from Alessandro Petacchi and Thor Hushovd

Overall, it was a fairly uneventful stage 10, but after the days that had gone before, that may not be a bad thing. The positions at the head of the race remain unchanged and Schleck retains the yellow jersey.

The riders now face a handful of relatively flat stages before they move into the serious mountains of the Pyrenees.

It will be an opportunity for the sprinters to take centre stage again.

Standings after Stage 10

1.    SCHLECK A.              49h 00' 56"
2.    CONTADOR A.            00' 41"
3.    SANCHEZ S.              02' 45"
4.    MENCHOV D.             02' 58"
5.    VAN DEN BROECK J.    03' 31"
6.    LEIPHEIMER L.           03' 59"
7.    GESINK R.                 04' 22"
8.    SANCHEZ L.               04' 41"
9.    RODRIGUEZ OLIVER J.  05' 08"
10.    BASSO I.                 05' 09"

After the brief, hill-climbing appetizer of Stage Seven, the race gets into the serious high mountains of the Alps. With two category One climbs, we were unlikely to see the heroics of Quick Step’s Sylvain Chavanel repeated, with his best hope being to stay with the bunch.

As per the script, the attacks began immediately as did the falls. Second-place rider for the General Classification, BMC’s Cadel Evans, was involved, as was wearer of the polka-dot jersey Jerome Pineau, Team Sky’s Simon Gerrans and Saxo Bank’s Chris Sorensen.

Evans apparently has a sore wrist and shoulder, but did not appear to have been affected too badly. Pineau spent a fair amount of time with the medical car but managed to keep going.

Lance Armstrong crashed at the 133 km mark and although he looked okay at the time, his bike was damaged to the point where he had to replace it and then had to expend a lot of energy to rejoin the peloton before the start of the first of the big climbs.

The first category one climb of the tour, over the Col de la Ramaz, saw a frenetic pace being picked up first by Team Sky and then by Saxo Bank. The continued pressure eventually told on the wounded Armstrong and he started to slip off the back of the pack. Sensing blood in the water, the sharks at Astana went for the kill, moving to the front of the peloton and driving the pace even higher.

Again, the field shattered and the three leaders—Mario Aerts of Omega Pharma-Lotto, Amael Moinard of Cofidis and Rabobank’s Koos Moerenhout—managed to hold their lead all the way to the base of the final climb.

The drama was not over for Armstrong. At the peak of the penultimate climb, a comparatively simple jaunt over the category three Les Gets, a Euskaltel rider made an awful mess of picking up a bag full of water bottles and came down directly in front of Armstrong, completely destroying what little momentum Armstrong was able to muster.

The Euskaltel riders have gained a bad reputation at this year’s Tour, being blamed for a large proportion of the crashes so far. They have earned the nickname of carrots, only partly due to their bright orange jerseys.

Team Astana, however, showed no mercy, intent on grinding out the pace in support of their leader Alberto Contador. An elite group had formed on the shoulder of Contador, with Andy Schleck, Bradley Wiggins, Ivan Basso, Michael Rogers and Evans all staying very close to each other and keeping a watching brief.

The leading group continued to thin out all of the way up the final climb to Morzine-Avoriaz. Contador’s Astana teammate Daniel Navarro set an incredible pace up the mountain, unhitching Wiggins and Rogers.

As always, the final few kilometres through the crowd, was bedlam and terrifying to watch as drunk exhibitionists compete to get some TV time. As they approached the peak there were a series of mini-attacks from riders trying to gain a cheap victory, until Schleck decided it was time to go at the one kilometre mark.

Schleck and Olympic champion Sammy Sanchez fought it out before Schleck eventually claimed the stage win. Evans claimed the poison chalice of the Maillot Jaune.

Most notable of all was the demise of Armstrong, two crashes and a frightful pace set by Astana has all but finished his 2010 Tour campaign. A bruised and bloodied Armstrong eventually slipped over the line with Yellow Jersey holder Chavanel, almost 12 minutes behind Schleck. It will be interesting to see how Armstrong approaches the Tour from here on.

At the head of the field, not much has been revealed. Schleck proved that he has a strong kick and Evans showed that he still can’t accelerate going up a hill. The mystery remains with Contador. Did he want to sit back and keep the others guessing or was he at the edge of his performance?

We’ll find out more after the rest day.

Standings after Stage Eight

1.    EVANS C.            37h 57' 09"
2.    SCHLECK A.            00' 20"
3.    CONTADOR A.        01' 01"
4.    VAN DEN BROECK J.    01' 03"
5.    MENCHOV D.        01' 10"
6.    HESJEDAL R.        01' 11"
7.    KREUZIGER R.        01' 45"
8.    LEIPHEIMER L.        02' 14"
9.    SANCHEZ S.            02' 15"
10.    ROGERS M.            02' 31

Anyone who has even a passing interest in professional cycling would be familiar with the big names of the Tour de France. Names like Lance Armstrong, Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck or Ivan Basso who are all contenders for the overall win.

Or the big name sprinters such as Robbie McEwen, Thor Hushovd, Mark Cavendish, or Tyler Farrar and the current holder of the Maillot Jaune—yellow jersey—Fabian Cancellara.

These are the glamour boys of cycling. They get all of the publicity, a big chunk of the endorsements, and probably the biggest paychecks too.

And with good reason. These are the guys who put the sponsor’s names in front of the world’s media. They get the television coverage, they get the full page photos in the newspapers. And that, after all, is the name of the game and it’s why the sponsors shell out the big dollars.

But, for every big name there are four or five others who are there to make them look good. These are the so-called domestiques—from the French word for servant— who are the dog’s bodies of the cycling world, who are there to ensure that the leaders are in the right place at the right time and they have water and sustenance.

Scratch the surface, however, and you soon realize that these guys are not just there to make up the numbers; these unsung heroes are often cyclists of note in their own right. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience that proves invaluable when it comes to riding the over 3,500 kilometres of the Tour de France.

Take Saxo Bank’s Stuart O’Grady as an example. He can be seen, day after day, sitting at the front of the peleton, tapping out the pace for the Schleck brothers or Cancellara. He will sit there for hours, dictating the speed of everyone around him. He sacrifices his race for the benefit of his teammates.

But if you look closely, O’grady himself has a remarkable record. He has won three stages of Le Tour, held the Maillot Jaune for nine days, worn the green jersey as the tour’s leading sprinter. He has won the gruelling Paris-Roubaix, World championships, Olympic, and Commonwealth gold medals. He is, in short, an outstanding cyclist who has been reduced to the status of “helper.”

That pattern is repeated throughout the peleton. Lance Armstrong’s team RadioShack is littered with cycling superstars. Helping Armstrong are Andreas Kloden, a two time podium finisher at the Tour, Levi Leipheimer has won multiple national championships, multiple Tours of California, an Olympic medal and finished top ten at the Tour, and Ukranian star, Yaroslav Popovych.

Cadel Evans at team BMC has one of Armstrong’s former lieutenants in George Hincapie to help guide Evans through the tour. Hincapie is the only rider to have been with Armstrong on each of his seven Tour victories and with 14 starts under his belt, has as much knowledge and experience as anyone on the Tour today. He is another national champion and, again, a cyclist of some note reduced to being a tour guide.

Despite being gutted when Armstrong started up team RadioShack, even Astana has managed to get the talented and well credentialed—if somewhat tainted—Aleksandr Vinokourov, to help Alberto Contador’s defence.

And it’s not just the General Classification riders who are pampered in this way. Super sprinter Mark Cavendish would be nowhere without Mark Renshaw to lead him out. Tyler Farrar has Robbie Hunter. And so on.

While the big guys get all of the attention, they would be lost without their supporting riders. The riders listed here are only the tip of the iceberg, too. The teams have even more junior riders whose job it is to bring water from the team cars, to help pace a team leader back after a break down, or to give up their bike so that the team leader can continue.

So, next time you’re watching a stage and hearing about the exploits of all the Armstrongs of the world, spare a thought for the guys who help them look good. They are the unsung heroes of the cycling world.

There was an odd little statement that came out of the International Cycling Union (UCI) before the start of stage three of the Tour about the use of replacement bicycles throughout the race.

With everything else that has been going on, the statement disappeared into the background noise. There was, however, a firm statement that only replacement bikes that have come off the team car can replace a rider’s unit. Any transgression would result in disqualification. Stage three was over cobblestone roads with an established reputation for breaking bikes.
 
So, what has led to this renewed emphasis on using team bikes?

The power and ability of Fabian Cancellara, that’s what. More specifically, it was Cancellara’s stunning performances in the Tour of Flanders and the Paris Roubaix that had conspiracy theorists chattering.

In both races, Cancellara was able to put on an amazing burst of speed. On one occasion, he left Belgian Tom Boonen in his wake. On another occasion, he made Thor Hushovd look like a rank amateur by riding away from him over the cobblestones.

Both Boonen and Hushovd are exceptional cyclists. Boonen is the Belgian national champion and former world road-race champion. Hushovd is the Norwegian national road-race champion. Despite their pedigree, both were made to look very ordinary indeed by a man who is the undisputed king of the cobblestones.

There are those, however, who believe that Cancellara’s performances were just a little bit too good and came up with the rather marvellous theory that he has a “doped” bike with a hidden engine. While it sounds unlikely, there are numerous examples of how this has been done in a method that is almost completely undetectable.

There is a video that demonstrates how a motor and gear system can be hidden within the seat tube and crank housing and is capable of adding an extra 100 watts—or an extra 12 percent—to the rider’s power.

To add just that small additional bit of doubt, Cancellara changed bikes in both races shortly before he took off into the distance. Professional cycling has such a damaged reputation that people automatically assume the worst and rumours gain unwarranted attention.

The UCI, however, could not afford to dismiss the rumour. They have set in place a regime to test each of the bikes to ensure that they are motor-free which, by that action, adds credibility to the fact that an engined bike could have been used.
 
In the end, it seems extremely unlikely that someone would try to use a motor. It’s technically possible, but you would have to imagine that if they were caught, the stigma would be much worse than if a rider was caught using performance enhancing drugs.

Let’s hope that no one gets caught doing either.

It would be nice to have a fully clean race for a change.

The infamous “Hell of the North” cobblestones around Arenberg have delivered an unexpected early shakeup to the 2010 iteration of le Tour.

Coming hot on the tail of the two previous crash-filled stages, this was never going to be a comfortable ride.

The bone-jarring cobbles are enough of a test without nursing bumps, bruises, and cuts. Given the circumstances, it was almost inevitable that the test would prove too much for some riders.

Perhaps the biggest loser from the day is Andy Schleck. Although he finished in the star-studded leading bunch with Fabian Cancellara, Thor Hushovd, and Cadel Evans, he lost his brother Frank to a terrible fall that left him with a collarbone fractured in three places.

The loss of Frank puts a huge dent in Andy’s campaign. The combination of the brothers through the mountains is formidable.

Stage 17 of the 2009 Tour saw them dismantle the entire field, with the exception of Alberto Contador, on what was possibly the toughest stage of the tour. Saxo Bank have no-one of Franks Calibre to offer support to Andy.

For every loser, there is a winner. Cadel Evans has seemingly come of best of all the General Classification riders.

As the highest placed GC rider, he is now in the position to simply cover the other riders instead of finding himself in the position of having to make time on his rivals as has caused him problems over the last few years.

The occasionally grumpy Aussie World Champion seems much more at ease this year and with a cohesive team around him; he is well placed to look at that final spot on the podium.

He looked comfortable in amongst the leading group and wasn't troubled when cobblestone wonder, Fabian Cancellara, decided to turn up the wick with 20km to go. If he stays fit and has a little bit of luck, it just might be his year.

Contador and Lance Armstrong both lost time on stage three, Armstrong mainly as a result of a late puncture whereas Contador seemed to find the going just a little too tough.

At two minutes and one minutes behind Evans, respectively, neither is out of the running, but both have made their jobs just a little bit tougher.

The team dynamics at Astana are again interesting. After last year’s intra-team rivalry between Contador and Armstrong, you might have thought that the team would sort out the team leadership issue.

Instead, they have brought back Alexandre Vonokourov, who was caught out doping in 2007 and who firmly believes that as a Ukrainian, he should lead the Ukrainian Astana team.

Vino is a wildcard and showed at the close of stage 3 that he had no concerns about leaving his teammate behind as Vino continued to power away while Contador languished with a flat rear tyre. It will be interesting to see how they behave in the mountains.

Of the other GC contenders, no-one is out of it yet, but their task just became a little bit harder.

It just makes the upcoming stages just that little bit more interesting.

Fabian Cancellara has either pulled off one of the all time great acts of sportsmanship, or he has perpetrated one of the great con acts on the entire field of the Tour de France.

The second stage of the 2010 Tour saw remarkable scenes, as riders fell in the slippery conditions that were apparently made worse by oil from a motorbike that had crashed in an effort to avoid a fallen rider. Few teams and few big names were immune from the ensuing carnage.

RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong went down, as did Cadel Evans of BMC and reigning Tour champion Astana’s Alberto Contador.

Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Transitions was the most significant casualty of the day. The American broke two ribs in his fall and was forced to withdraw from the tour. Compatriot, teammate and sprint hope Tyler Farrar was also caught up in the crash but resumed, although he was taken off to hospital at the end of the stage to be checked over.

The real story, though, was that of one of the Tour favourites, Andy Schleck. Schleck went down hard and stood for quite a long time at the side of the road looking quite dazed and seemingly unaware of where his bike was. He also appeared to be nursing quite a few sore spots and was showing signs of having a broken collarbone.

Schleck’s brother Frank, who was also involved in the crash, and other members of the Saxo Bank team stayed to support Andy, with Andy finishing the stage on a teammates bike. Despite being more than three minutes behind the main bunch, Cancellara managed to contain the peleton’s natural desire to chase down the breakaway, instead maintaining a steady pace to allow the fallen riders to catch up.

When everyone was back together, Cancellara further orchestrated a non-aggression pact with the sprint teams and even with race officials.

He is quoted on the website of Australian broadcaster SBS as saying "It was the right thing to do to wait, so everybody comes together to the finish line together," Cancellara explained.

"When you have everybody on the ground and people five minutes behind because they can't find their bike then it's only normal.

"I think fairness comes before being selfish. That was the reason why I spoke with (race official Jean-Francois) Pescheux."

Meanwhile, out in front, Sylvain Chavanel powered away to a very comfortable victory with an almost four minute lead.

On the face of it, this looks like quite a magnanimous gesture. Cancellara willingly gave up his yellow jersey for the good of all teams and riders who were caught up in incidents and injured through no fault of their own. It’s the sort of altruistic act that we’d all like our sporting heroes to be capable of.

But was it really that grand a gesture. Of all the General Classification (GC) contenders who were caught up in crashes, it was his teammates that had come off worst of all. Armstrong, Contador and Evans all rapidly rejoined the group whereas the Schleck brothers took quite some time to catch up and looked quite pained when they did so.

Cancellara also claimed the neutralizing the sprint was in everyone’s best interest as there were enough injuries in the peleton already.

The thing with sprint finishes, however, is that the pace really begins to wind up a few kilometers from the finished and Cancellara was clearly concerned that his wounded teammates, who had already expended significant energy just to catch up, would lose time on the way in to the finish line.

The really big question is whether the same generosity would have been shown if Armstrong, Contador, or Evans had been the ones languishing far behind the field. We can only hope that the answer would be yes.

While it is certainly true that most athletes would like to beat their opponents on even terms, it’s difficult to know how far to take that ideal. Cancellara’s sacrifice of the yellow jersey was a hollow act, he could not possibly have hoped to carry it all the way to Paris and so could be satisfied that he had worn it for two stages.

Neither is conceding the lead to Chavanel, even by three minutes, that much of a concern. Not even Chavanel himself would consider him a genuine GC contender.

So it comes back to Cancellara either organizing one of the great displays of collective sportsmanship or he has managed to convince almost the entire field to fall for a con that allowed his teammates to recover from an extremely difficult position.

Either way, to do all of that while riding an extremely tricky and challenging stage of the Tour de France in very ordinary weather conditions, is an amazing feat that deserves our congratulations.

I just want to know what to congratulate him for.

Paris-Roubaix. If that means nothing to you, then you are obviously not a fan of professional cycling. One of cycling’s oldest races, first run in 1896, is a one day race in the North of France, known affectionately as the Hell of the North.

One of the defining characteristics of the race is the route takes in 28 sectors of good, old-fashioned cobblestones. These are roads that were, in some instances, built in the time of Napoleon and, while they may have been suitable for horse and cart, they are thoroughly unsuitable for traditional road racing bicycles.

Some sections of cobblestones, the dreaded five-star sectors such as the two and a half kilometre Trouée d’Arenberg, are so brutal as to seriously test the quality of the riders dental work and reduce the contents of their underpants to something approximating the consistency of lumpy oatmeal.

Even the roads to and from the cobbled areas are tough, in some cases as bad as some of the cobbled sectors. It is fiercely unforgiving of man and machine. Punctures, bike failures and crashes abound—and that’s when it’s dry. In the wet it’s really difficult.

It’s not even safe for the spectators. In 2009, 16 spectators were injured, 3 of them seriously, when an official motorbike ploughed into them.

It’s a funny race. Rarely will the Tour de France general classification contenders take part. It’s not the sort of race that they would be likely to win and the risks are too great. Consequently names like Armstrong, Evans, the Schleck brothers, and Contador are nowhere to be seen.

Not that the guys who take part are duds—far from it. The names who feature most prominently are cycling royalty—Fabian Cancellara, Tom Boonen, George Hincapie, Thor Hushovd, Stuart O’Grady, Robbie McEwen and Juan-Antonio Flecha. It is tailor made for time trial/sprint type racers.

The attrition rate in this race is tremendous. The lead bunch is slowly whittled down from 200 starters, to 100, then to 50 and 20 and 10 and the cream, as they say, invariably rises to the top.

The 2010 Paris-Roubaix was won with 50 kilometres to go. It was widely believed that this race would come down to a shootout between Belgian champion and three-time winner of the race, Tom Boonen and Swiss champion, Fabian Cancellara, himself a previous winner of the Paris Roubaix.

Cancellara caught Boonen napping and having a sustenance break, bolted off the front and wasn’t seen again until they all arrived in the velodrome in Roubaix. No one could match the pace of Cancellara once he had decided to make the run for the finish.

In doing so, Cancellara had embarrassed Boonen for the second time in a week after comprehensively outstripping him to win the Tour of Flanders. Boonen’s race collapsed after Cancellara’s move, 30 seconds of inattention cost him any chance at equalling countryman Roger De Vlaeminck’s four wins.

But the day belonged to Saxo Bank’s Cancellara.

He had time to play up to the TV cameras and show the angel he carried in his jersey pocket. It was a dominant performance and he left everyone in his wake. To do that only seven days after his Tour of Flanders win is an almost superhuman effort.

The final two podium spots were taken by Hushovd and Flecha after an agonizingly slow sprint, two minutes after Cancellara had finished. Boonen struggled home in fifth place after failing to outsprint Roger Hammond.

The final, cruel twist to this race is that after rattling over nearly 100 kilometres of cobblestones, the trophy is made from the rocky surface. Must be a nightmare for excess baggage.

Lance Armstrong coming out of retirement to ride a full docket of Pro Tour races, including the Tour de France, is a great story. He's got all the right reasons for doing so: He's proving he can race in the new super-strict drug testing environment, he's proving he can hang with guys 15 years his junior, and he's doing more to aid the fight against cancer than, dare I say it?

Anyone in history.

Therefore, I am not here to take anything away from Lance and his efforts. I simply want everyone (particularly, casual American racing fans) to know that this year's iteration of the world's toughest sporting competition had a heaping helping of other intriguing storylines.

(And no, I don't mean the reported "tension" in Team Astana. Their real conflict is money, but more on that later...)

The Schleck Brothers' Display

I came to the realization a few nights ago that Alberto Contador, though a stupendous rider and the best climber I've seen since Pantani, will never challenge Armstrong's record of seven Tour titles in a row. And it's all because of Andy Schleck.

How a man so thin generates so much power I will never know, but the 24-year-old (now a winner of two white jerseys) clearly has a deep well of energy. After watching him attack again and again and again on Mont Ventoux—and that was just in the hopes of helping brother Frank out—I have reason to believe his supply is endless.

And in regards to Frank, because he's nearly as important here, there could not be a better lieutenant (if that is indeed the role he will play). Obviously, the bond of blood will always keep him true to his younger sibling, but in case you're blind, let me tip you off to something: He's a darn good racer too.

But back to Andy. I won't guarantee that he and Alberto will trade wins over the next 10 years, nor will I even guarantee he'll win three of the next 10. He will win at least one in the next five or so, though, and thus prevent Contador from running up consecutive triumphs.

The "baby" Schleck is just too good at this stage of his career to not take the top spot on the podium sometime soon.

Thor Takes Green Jersey, Sleeps Well at Night

Mark Cavendish is a badass, capable of whooping anyone and everyone at the line. I mean, did you see the finish of the last stage? He's a sparkplug (with a terrific team, I might add).

But he got a little too bullish in Stage 10, resulting in him being docked a few points in the green jersey race. Immediately, he was critical of the relegation ruling and of Thor Hushovd, who took and held the prize to the end.

That was after he had stressed in multiple previous interviews that the green wasn't important to him, that his '09 Tour was about stage wins for the team and getting himself to Paris.

Beginning to get confused? Me too. If a man says he wants stage wins (and gets six of them!), what business does he have talking about the green jersey race? If you're going to go for it, go for it every day like Thor did, don't complain about his complaints.

The truth is that Hushovd answered nonverbally but resoudingly. His charge over two climbs in Stage 17 blew my mind, as I'd never seen Thor or any other sprinter charge like that on a mountain stage; plus, he was picking up what Mark would probably call "garbage points" while Cav was sitting in the peloton (or off the back).

And it goes without saying he was near the front of every bunch finish. Thor Hushovd, 2009 Green Jersey Winner, is also a badass.

You Can't Take It Home, but...

Few will remember it, but Rinaldo Nocentini (yeah, not "Nicotini" as the PTI idiots said...what is he, the Italian Marlboro man?) wore the yellow for the most stages of anyone in this year's tour. He took it from Stage Seven to 14, and though he admittedly had a lot of help from teammates, this relative unknown held on when he really had no business doing so.

It was his first Tour; perhaps his greatest accomplishments up to this point would be a GP Indurain win in '07 and a '09 Tour of California stage win. No one would have guessed he'd lead the overall for as long as he did, but I'd hazard one that he could play an important domestique role at some point down the line.

And then there's Tony Martin, who held the best young rider's white until Andy took it after Stage 15. Martin can still say he held it for the most elapsed time, though (12 stages), and he beat everyone ahead of him in the standings up Mont Ventoux.

There's a boy to watch out for in the future; not exactly of the same Tour-winning, climb-dominating wiry build as the Schlecks, but dangerous nonetheless.

Cycling fans worldwide can be nothing but happy at the conclusion of the '09 Tour de France. There was competition for every jersey and every finish, the best riders duked it out for the yellow, and no doping or crashes (save Levi's; shout out to one of the most humble and likeable riders I'm aware of) changed the stakes.

But don't just be satisfied with the one great story that was reported in the American mainstream, that of Lance and Livestrong; seek out more (as Bob Roll would call them) "Adventures from the Epic Cycle!"