It's Over

The Tour de France (TdF) finished yesterday with it's typical 8 lap ride around the Champs Elysees/Place du Concord. This year a non-sprinter won the stage, Alexander Vinokourov, a Kazak, who rides for the German team, T-Mobile (yes, the cell phone company). Perhaps, I should back up and explain a few things for those of you who don't follow professional cycling as much as I do.

The final stage of the TdF is typically anti-climatic. The final general classification (GC) is set and therefore there isn't any "real" racing until the riders reach the Champs Elysees. Then, the race turns into a really big criterium (crit). A crit is a type of bike race where the racers ride around in circles (usually about a mile or so long) for a predetermined amount of time. But I digress. Since winning the final stage is prestigious and the competition for the Green Jersey/Sprinter's Jersey is sometimes up for grabs, the sprinter's and their teams usually push the pace to set up their guy for the win. Inevitably some riders will try to 'escape' from the group (peleton). The sprinters' teams will let them go for a while but once the race is within a couple laps of the finish, the speed goes up and the escapees are usually caught, with a lap to go. That's when the craziness begins. The speed is usually above 35 mph, with the final sprints usually a bit faster than that. Which impresses me because these men have raced around France for 3 weeks and they can still get their legs to go that fast. Yesterday, the competition for the Green Jersey could have been interesting, depending on who placed where in the final sprint. Anyway, it turned out to be not quite so interesting as Vinokourov sucessfully escaped and took the victory from the sprinters. It was his second stage win this Tour. Great for him since he's leaving T-Mobile at the end of the season for a French team (possibly Cofidis or Credit Agricole). Unfortunately, Vino's victory put American Levi Leipheimer in 6th place and Vino in 5th. Disappointing for Levi - some of it can be blamed on the timing deciions made by the officials - it would take too long to explain it so I won't bore those of you who are still reading this.

I have to be a bit shallow and comment on the final podium of this year's Tour. Lance Armstrong, Ivan Basso (sigh), and Jan Ullrich (big sigh) - you would be hard pressed to find a better looking top 3; check it out for yourself @ www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/tour05/?id=tour0521/80
Granted, I'm a HUGE Jan Ullrich fan. Huge.

The Lance era is over and in some ways I'm going to miss him, if only because he was fun to dislike. I hope that the people who watch the Tour and other bike racing events because of Lance will continue to do so. It's a great sport to watch and a great sport to participate in. Vive le Tour; Allez Jan! Allez Ivan!