Post by wheelspinner on Jul 21, 2012 20:55:44 GMT -5
Congratulations to Bradley Wiggins on his win in the Tour de France. After winning the time trial last night, he only has to stay on his bike in Paris tonight to seal the victory. Since the runner-up is his team-mate Chris Froome, there will be no challenge.
It's been an awesome display by Team Sky, who have dominated in the mountains and the time trials, and even picked up a couple of sprint wins via Mark Cavendish. They've been the ream to beat all year, and they made it abundantly clear again in the Tour.
The form of the British cyclists in Wiggins, Froome, Millar and Cavendish is a great sign for British hopes in the Olympics. They're going to be very hard to beat there, assuming they still have some energy left.
It was not to be for Australia's defending champion, Cadel Evans. On a course that suited Wiggins, everything had to go right for Cadel, and it just didn't. Poor form in the time trials, Sky riders burning off his BMC team mates, punctures and illness all left him adrift. Every time he looked like gaining some time back, Wiggins and Froome caught him and had him covered. Despite Cadel's trials, the late night coverage here drew big audiences, a sign that we seem to love the race more than the winning, as it should be.
Australians can be proud of the performance of our first ever professional Tour team, Orica Greenedge. They focused on the sprints and, for a while, Matt Goss looked a real threat for the green jersey. They were thereabouts at most of the sprint finishes, but never quite cracked it for their first stage win. A blinding finish from nowhere by Cavendish in stage 18 destroyed what was Goss's best hope of a win. Aussie fans can now dream of a super team, where Cadel comes home and Michael Rogers and Richie Porte transfer from Sky. That would make Greenedge a power in the Tours, and an all-Aussie team to boot. Probably just a fantasy though; money talks in this sport.
Sadly the race continud to be overshadowed by drug scandals. The leader of the Cofidis team was arrested by the French police for drug possesson. Later, and even more significantly, high profile rider Frank Schleck tested positive to a diuretic. This has since been confirmed by a B test. Schleck withdrew from the race, but claims that he was somehow poisoned. Yeah, right.
I cannot figure out why Schleck's team, Radioshack, are still going to win the overall team prize, even when their lead rider tested positive. The race has to get more serious about its image and, if a rider tests positive in the race, their team should be barred from winning the overall prize. That would allow innocent riders to continue, but not to benefit from their colleague's cheating. The race also needs to whack life bans on drug cheats. None of this coming back after two years and pretending that nothing happened. Watching Millar win a stage certainly left a sour taste in my mouth, given his history as a drug cheat.
Lurking in the back of many people's minds was the Armstrong case in the US. Some of the riders in this race are apparently going home to give evidence against him, and it's hard to see what they could say that would not sour their own reputations. I'm dreading what emerges from that hearing; it could do a lot of damage to the sport, but it must be aired and resolved once and for all. It's in nobody's interest, including Armstrong's, for the Tour's most prolific winner to have a drug cloud hanging over his head and casting doubt on his place in history.
It's been an awesome display by Team Sky, who have dominated in the mountains and the time trials, and even picked up a couple of sprint wins via Mark Cavendish. They've been the ream to beat all year, and they made it abundantly clear again in the Tour.
The form of the British cyclists in Wiggins, Froome, Millar and Cavendish is a great sign for British hopes in the Olympics. They're going to be very hard to beat there, assuming they still have some energy left.
It was not to be for Australia's defending champion, Cadel Evans. On a course that suited Wiggins, everything had to go right for Cadel, and it just didn't. Poor form in the time trials, Sky riders burning off his BMC team mates, punctures and illness all left him adrift. Every time he looked like gaining some time back, Wiggins and Froome caught him and had him covered. Despite Cadel's trials, the late night coverage here drew big audiences, a sign that we seem to love the race more than the winning, as it should be.
Australians can be proud of the performance of our first ever professional Tour team, Orica Greenedge. They focused on the sprints and, for a while, Matt Goss looked a real threat for the green jersey. They were thereabouts at most of the sprint finishes, but never quite cracked it for their first stage win. A blinding finish from nowhere by Cavendish in stage 18 destroyed what was Goss's best hope of a win. Aussie fans can now dream of a super team, where Cadel comes home and Michael Rogers and Richie Porte transfer from Sky. That would make Greenedge a power in the Tours, and an all-Aussie team to boot. Probably just a fantasy though; money talks in this sport.
Sadly the race continud to be overshadowed by drug scandals. The leader of the Cofidis team was arrested by the French police for drug possesson. Later, and even more significantly, high profile rider Frank Schleck tested positive to a diuretic. This has since been confirmed by a B test. Schleck withdrew from the race, but claims that he was somehow poisoned. Yeah, right.
I cannot figure out why Schleck's team, Radioshack, are still going to win the overall team prize, even when their lead rider tested positive. The race has to get more serious about its image and, if a rider tests positive in the race, their team should be barred from winning the overall prize. That would allow innocent riders to continue, but not to benefit from their colleague's cheating. The race also needs to whack life bans on drug cheats. None of this coming back after two years and pretending that nothing happened. Watching Millar win a stage certainly left a sour taste in my mouth, given his history as a drug cheat.
Lurking in the back of many people's minds was the Armstrong case in the US. Some of the riders in this race are apparently going home to give evidence against him, and it's hard to see what they could say that would not sour their own reputations. I'm dreading what emerges from that hearing; it could do a lot of damage to the sport, but it must be aired and resolved once and for all. It's in nobody's interest, including Armstrong's, for the Tour's most prolific winner to have a drug cloud hanging over his head and casting doubt on his place in history.