Carlos raced a beautiful Tour de France! His win on Alpe d' Huez was classic! His defense of the Yellow Jersey in the final time trial was inspiring! Viva Sastre!
Overall it was a great race. CSC was extremely strong and did a great job of controlling the peleton when it was necessary. They were in (and controlled) all the important breaks and had a couple of stage wins. Andy Schleck won the White Jersey (older brother Frank was in Yellow for a couple of days and finished 6th). CSC handily won the team classification. I have to admit though, I'm still uncomfortable with Bjarne "Mr. 60%" Riis running the CSC show.
Cadel Evans rode a good Tour, but came up 58 seconds short. When your team sucks and can't help you conserve energy for when you need it, it takes a toll. He didn't have the legs in the final time trial.
Team Columbia had an awesome Tour! Kim Kirchen was in Yellow for awhile and finished 8th. Cavendish won 4 stages, they picked up a couple of other stage wins as well.
Gerolsteiner had a good Tour with Kohl taking the best climber classification and finishing 3rd. Stefen Schumacher surprisingly won both time trial stages.
The French had something to be happy about with Cofidis & Credit Agricole both picking up a couple of stage wins. Ag2r's Cyril Dessel picked up a tough stage win as well.
Happily, Garmin- Chipotle had a great Tour with Christian Vandevelde finishing 5th. They've really layed some groundwork down for the future.
Yes, some idiots were caught doping. But they were caught and tossed! That is positive in my eyes, cycling is confronting the problem and sending a message! Overall it was a great, very competitive race.
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