The race for the podium began unexpectedly on day one, as several of the overall favorites were tied up behind a crash and lost over a minute to about half the race. Crashes continued to play a role throughout a tense first week, taking out a number of favorites including Jani Brajkovic, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Horner, Alexander Vinokourov, Jurgen van den Broeck, and eventually Andreas Kloden. Others, like Levi Leipheimer, Christian VandeVelde, and Ryder Hesjedal, lost serious chunks of time.
The hero of the first week, however, had to have been team Garmin-Cervelo. Thor Hushovd took third one stage won, and started the team time trial needing just six seconds on Philippe Gilbert and three seconds on Cadel Evans. Well, Garmin-Cervelo took four seconds on Evans and several more on Gilbert, and Hushovd wound up with the yellow jersey. Nobody thought he would keep it for more than a couple of days, but Hushovd rode exceptionally well, even leading out teammate Tyler Farrar for America's first ever stage win on July 4th, and managed to hold on to the jersey for a week.
Cue the hero of the second week of the Tour, Thomas Voeckler. On what was always going to be a great stage for a breakaway to succeed, Voeckler and three other great breakaway artists got into the attack along with Tour rookie Johnny Hoogerland. Sandy Casar, Luis Leon Sanchez, Thomas Voeckler, and Juan Antonio Flecha had all won stages of the Tour before, and so the stage promised to be a great one. And although it was a stage for the breakaway, with Sanchez winning his third ever stage and Voeckler taking yellow, the day will be better remembered for two horrendous crashes.
The first came on a wet descent where a number of riders crashed at the head of the peloton which caused absolute chaos. Riders flew off the road, with the worst by far being Vinokourov, who had to be helped out of a tree and back up to the road by his teammates. Vino abandoned and x-rays later revealed a break to the uppermost part of his femur. The injury was severe enough to force his retirement from professional cycling. Omega-Pharma-Lotto overall contender Jurgen van den Broeck also was forced to abandon as a result of that crash, but the worst was still to come.
As the riders in the break ramped up their speeds to respond to the slowed pace in the peloton caused by the crash, the most unbelievable of accidents happened, as a France TV car, attempting to pass the riders, swerved to avoid a tree, wiping out Juan and Antonio Flecha, and causing Johnny Hoogerland to somersault head over heels into a barbed wire fence at the side of the road. Neither would be able to make it back to Casar, Sanchez, and Voeckler, but they both finished the stage, Hoogerland bleeding heavily, and would both go on to finish the Tour de France.
With the race heading into the Pyrenees shortly, nobody knew how long Thomas Voeckler would be able to keep the yellow jersey. He has always been a good rider, but has never competed with the big guns in the high mountains. He was, undoubtedly, the surprise of the Pyrenees, as he managed to keep his jersey and lose almost no time to the major contenders for overall victory in Paris. Frank Schleck and Samuel Sanchez were both able to take a little bit of time on him, but none of the other contenders managed more than a couple of seconds.
As the peloton aimed for the Alps, the Schleck brother were sitting second and fourth overall, separated from Cadel Evans by only a handful of seconds. They knew, however, that they would need to take minutes from Evans before the time trial on the penultimate day of the Tour, and nobody knew whether or not Voeckler would crack. When Andy Schleck lost over a minute on the transitional stage leading into the Alps, everybody knew that the traditional playbook had to be thrown out the window.
On stage 18, Andy Schleck launched the most audacious assault on the yellow jersey in recent memory. Leopard-Trek had sent two men up the road in the day's breakaway, but with 60 kilometers left to race, and two enormous summits still left to cross, nobody was expecting any serious attacks. But that's where Andy decided to go. He caught everybody unawares, and rode away from the group, quickly opening up a lead of over a minute and bridging up to Joost Posthuma, who was able to give him just enough of a breather so that he summited the climb less than a minute behind other teammate Maxime Monfort, and with a gap of over two minutes back to the peloton. Monfort rode brilliantly, perhaps the best ride from any domestique I can remember in recent memory, pacing Andy down the descent, and reeling in the rest of the day's escapees before the base of the final 23km climb up to the Tour's highest ever stage finish atop the Galibier.
Andy had a gap of over four minutes at the base of the climb, and there was little doubt that unless he cracked spectacularly, he would win the stage. It was just a matter of by how much. With nobody seeming to have the legs to help Evans chase Andy up the Galibier, Evans was left to do all of the chasing himself. He rode excellently, gradually pulling back the gap to Andy. By the summit, it was just over two minutes, and Frank rode away from the group to cross the line second and give the brothers a memorable one-two on this, the Etapa Reina, or "queen stage" as it is called in Spanish. Evans, Voeckler, and the Schleck brothers all merited praise for their performances on the day. It was, however, the day on which Alberto Contador, Samuel Sanchez, and Damiano Cunego lost the Tour.
Stage 18 of the 2011 Tour de France will remain one of the greatest stages ever raced for some time to come. In the last couple of decades, no overall contender has launched such an intrepid attack. Andy certainly won the hearts of many a spectator with this attack in the style of Tour legends such as Eddy Merckx. And Thomas Voeckler captivated the hearts of French fans, for no Frenchman has ridden as been in contention for the podium in quite some time.
After stage 18, Andy had just under a minute advantage on Cadel Evans, and most people seemed to think that wouldn't be enough going into the final time trial. Though he attacked valiantly again on stage 19, following the early move of Alberto Contador, Andy simply didn't have the legs to ride away from Evans. Pierre Rolland, the young Frenchman who had ridden so brilliantly in support of Thomas Voeckler over the previous two weeks, was given free reign to attack, as Voeckler knew he didn't have the legs to keep the yellow jersey, and Rolland delivered France its first (and only) stage win atop the most famous climb in all of cycling, the Alpe d'Huez. Rolland also took the white jersey for best young rider, which he would defend in the time trial the following day to wear on the Champs-Elysees. And Sammy Sanchez secured victory in the king of the mountains, with a second-place finish atop Alpe d'Huez.
Evans put in a dominant display in the time trial on stage 20, and despite riding fantastically, the Schleck brothers couldn't keep the yellow jersey. In the days since, many pundits have critiqued the Schleck brothers' time-trialling that day, but they both finished inside the top-20 on the stage. In fact, Andy rode to within a minute of the time clocked by world time trial champion and teammate Fabian Cancellara. It was not that the Schlecks rode badly; rather, Evans rode the time trial of his life. The final standings saw the Schleck brothers second and third, Voeckler hung on for fourth, and Contador made a fantastic comeback to round out the top five. Sammy Sanchez rode an unexpectedly excellent time trial to finish 7th on the stage and 6th overall, while Italians Damiano Cunego and Ivan Basso had to settle for 7th and 8th overall respectively. American Tom Danielson, touted some years ago as the successor to Lance Armstrong rode admirably in his first Tour at age 33 and finished 9th overall, while a second Frenchman, Jean-Christophe Peraud, rounded out the top 10.
The race for the green points jersey, awarded to the best sprinter, went down to the wire. The man from the Isle of Mann, Mark Cavendish, despite his four stage wins had only a 15 point lead over Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas going into the final stage, but Cavendish won easily to secure the green jersey. Rojas was something of an enigma, finishing in the high places consistently but never really even threatening to win a stage. Gilbert also threw his hat into the mix in the quest for the green jersey, but although he sprints very well on uphill finishes, he was unable to compete against Cavendish and Rojas in the flatter sprints.
There were other wonderful stories from this year's Tour as well. The two Norwegians in the race, Thor Hushovd and Edvald Boasson Hagen, combined for four stage wins, in addition to the team time trial won by Hushovd's team. Jeremy Roy, and the whole FdJ team deserve enormous credit for the continual attacks. Roy was certainly the only rider who could possibly have won the prize for most aggressive rider of the Tour. He attacked constantly, and was unfortunate to be caught in the closing kilometers of stage 13 by Hushovd. Garmin-Cervelo won the team race with excellent riding in the mountains by Christian VandeVelde, Ryder Hesjedal, and Tom Danielson. The win by Hushovd from the stage 16 breakaway, out of which Hesjedal finished third, gave them a large advantage which they defended well in the Alps.
The number of young, highly talented French riders was also a great story at this year's Tour. In addition to Rolland, who won the white jersey, Arnold Jeannesson and Jerome Coppel both finished inside the overall top 15. That meant that France had five riders finish in the top fifteen, which is something of anomaly in recent Tour history. It will certainly contribute to added French excitement for next year.
Personally, I think it's a bit unfortunate that the rider who attacked least won the overall victory in Paris. Don't get me wrong, Evans rode very well, but when a rider who defends well wins the Tour de France, it takes away some of the impetus for attacking. It must be a huge disappointment for Andy as well, because he becomes the first ever rider to finish second overall in three consecutive years. But the competition itself was beautiful. Evans is a great champion. He has been one of the best cyclists in the world for over a decade, now, and has won everything except a Tour de France. Now he is undoubtedly one of the most complete cyclists of all time. Andy and Frank will be back, and one hopes that they can win a Tour de France eventually. But with Alberto Contador vowing that from now on he will only focus on winning the Tour de France, that feat may be more difficult in future years.
If you missed it, you missed out. This Tour de France was one of the most exciting, and spectacular, in years. But with so many riders riding so well, let's hope that next year's Tour brings even more fireworks. I think it just might.
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