Wow, the last post I did was the team time trial...That was like 3 weeks ago at least. Anyway, Contador, the favorite for the race made a breakaway on an uphill mouontain top finish and just burned up to the finish line. This was very soon after the team time trial. That move put him in first place overall. Armstrong didn't get a chance to really challenge him on that though due to the fact that when Contador made his first accelleration, Armstrong was stuck with a slower group and he didn't move up for the reason of giving his teammate an advantage. This initial gap on Armstrong that Contador earned set up the most exciting part of the tour in my mind though. After losing a substantial chuck of time on Contador, Lance made a huge acceleration and charged solo across a gap of abouut 45 seconds. It was amazing. The announcers were going crazy and I was really excited. Armstrong caught up and joined Contador and a few others in the lead group. Then right at the end, Contador made another charge and took the win, but not by too much. Enough to put him in Yellow for the remainder of the tour though. Armstrong made a solo charge across a gap on one other occasion during the race. It was amazing.
In the Alps, the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank, did as they promised and brought their "A" game. They made attempt after attempt to crack the leader Contador and other challengers, namely Lance Armstrong, Bradley Wiggins, and Andreas Kloden. They succeeded gaining time on all but Contador. Armstrong may have been able to keep up, but again, since his team leader was with them he played the teamwork card and didn't help the other challengers catch back up with Contador. Andy and Frank actually took over 2nd and 3rd place for a day or two. Andy hung on to second place overall and he won the White Jersey, denoting the best young rider in the tour. I think he won it last year too. I'm not sure what age, but the white jersey goes to the top placed rider under 25 or 24 or something.
Armstrong bounced back in the individual time trial and clinched 3rd place overall. Bradley Wiggins of Garmin Slipstream I think got 4th, though he may have only gotten 5th. Wiggins used to be a sprinter in the velodrome. Reigning gold medalist in several events in track racing and he was a big surprise in this years tour. Franco Pellizotti won the Polka Dot Jersey and is the King of the Mountains for 2009, meaning he earned the most points for being the first over the high climbs on each stage. Thor Hushovd won the Green Jersey for Best Sprinter. This seems weird because Columbia's Mark Cavendish won literally every sinlge sprint finish at this years tour. That is an amazing feat. Never was he beaten, and only once this whole year has he failed to win a group bunch sprint. However, he was penalized some points for moving off of his sprinting line in one finish, which blocked another rider from passing him. Hushovd made a daring solo attack to gather up the mid-race sprints on a particularly long and hilly stage, so he does deserve the green.
Well, that's all for this year. Congrats to all of the riders including Beppu who is the first Japanese rider to ever finish the Tour.
