Contador Victory Slashed to Seconds by Sensational Schleck Ride in 2010 Tour De France

A noble effort to represent the 28 million people living with cancer by the racing kits of Team Radio Shack Sunday nearly resulted in team disqualification according to the UCI rules, but for the forgiving spirit of the race directors and PR skills of Lance Armstrong, to allow a quick change and a pause in the promenade. Saturday's unparalleled time trial battle already had sealed a third victory for Alberto Contador by only seconds, and unquestionably proved that for Andy Schleck, yellow is likely only a year away! Denis Menchov leapfrogged over Samuel Sanchez to take the third podium platform.

The 2010 Tour will leave fans and casual followers debating for years, and holding some spectacular memories! Lance Armstrong began this tour with a decisive third place in the Prologue in Rotterdam, never imagining the misfortune that would befall on Stage 8, leaving his blood and all hope of victory along the asphalt. Riding on as a true Talisman for his team, though, he joined teammates atop the podium in Paris, taking their prize in the overall team classification, and swerved focus to his cause over his presence. Fabian Cancellara blazed through bookends of the Prologue and individual time trial, with ultimate definition of why he is called Spartacus. Mark Cavendish soldiered through crashes, injury, and illness, not to mention disqualification of teammate Mark Renshaw, and proved none of that mattered to the sprinting Manx Missile, winning an unprecedented 15 Tour stages in the past three years, including this year's final rally on the Champs de Elysees. The tale of the tour, though, rested within the shoulders and every pedal-turn of Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, and gray areas and seconds that determined right and wrong and winning and losing.

When his brother, Frank, suffered a broken back collarbone in Stage 3, Andy Schleck took on the courage of not just two men, but his entire team. He threw down the glove with several small acceleration tests for rival and friend, Contador, in earlier stages before taking a tenuous hold of 41 seconds on the yellow jersey in Stage 9. Alberto never seemed to mark him with the same blasts of power that he had always showed in past years. Just beginning the ascent of the Port de Bales on stage 15, a gear switch caused a chain jump on Schleck's bike, and disregarding the unwritten courtesy of not racing after a mechanical mishap, Contador forged ahead.

The incident took 39 priceless seconds to rectify, and Schleck was left 8 seconds back. The Col de Tourmalet demonstrated just how matched in power and skill the two were in Stage 17. With 8.5 kilometers remaining, Scheleck and Contador definitively made the Tour a two-man contest, far distancing themselves from the entire field, unable to see the distance markers in the high mist and fog, but glaring each other eye-to-eye, and marking turn for turn of their wheels, Alberto refusing to be a pacesetter, and allowing his worthy competitor to take the stage without further feuding.

Schleck told everyone who would listen that he was prepared for Saturday's time trial that would declare the Tour's winner. Predictions were that Contador would dig minutes into Andy with a stomping victory, but something very different happened. Schleck was a speeding wonder, and by the first time check, led Alberto by 2 seconds, as a miracle seemed possible. Despite never finding his fluidity or comfort level, scooting and bobbing on his saddle, Contador kept gaining time, but he was having to twist his insides like he never had before. Both young men rode the race of their lives. One is in the yellow jersey, but both men are champions.

Source:

Tour de France broadcast coverage, 3-25 July, 2010, Versus Television Network.