Tour de France - Stage 20 (ITT) - SPOILER

[RedRider]

Great stuff. He showed true grit inthe mountains so well deserved and I love his squeaky voice.

 

[Paul_L]

Awesome Tour and a mighty TT. Fair play to Cuddles, but Skleck's time will come.

 

[Crackle]

Made up Evans won it and in some style, I'd expected that to be a lot closer, some surprises in the TT, shows how hard some riders have worked, both for others and in the mountains.

 

[yello]

Turned out to be a bit of a non event really dinnit?

Evans fair smoked it and the result never really looked in doubt after Schleck Jnr had done just 10km. AS looked like he was on a Sunday pootle compared to Evans. A hearty congrats to him and I agree with Keith, Evans has worked damned hard for it and earned it well and truly.

Pleased for Pierre Rolland too. I didn't think he'd be able to defend the white jersey since he is/was by all accounts a pretty poor TTer. He did enough though and actually put in a darned creditable performance. He's a very confident young man and knows what it takes. I'll watch out for his name in the future.

 

[raindog]

some surprises in the TT, shows how hard some riders have worked, both for others and in the mountains.

Cancellara must be well knackered to finish 8th, and yet Martin has worked his balls off for three weeks and won. Strange, eh?

Great riding from the young Rolland who stays in white. One to watch in the future, let's hope.

edit:
crossed posts with yello who's mentioned Rolland too.

 

[Cathryn]

I had a bit of a cry when Cadel got his yellow jersey!!! I am really pleased for him. Schleck has many years to try again, even though i do feel for him!!! A great result.

 

[Scoosh]

Really glad Evans won it

.

He had to work very hard (virtually alone) to keep up on those mountain stages, he descends well and he can TT. A real GC rider.

If AS was bluffing about the descents (unlikely

), then no doubt IMO - the best man won - and he had much less support from his team than did the Schlecks.


[AC must have needed some special meat to get the win

...]

 

[The TattooedCyclist]

Yes, brilliant! a great win for cadel, he certainly deserves it.

 

[aberal]

Any one of the top four or five could have won this year and each of them would have deserved it in their own way, Cadel for being the best all rounder.

 

[zimzum42]

[AC must have needed some special meat to get the win

...]

AC won the Giro just a few weeks back and then didn't ride until the Tour. Amazing that he did as well as he did.

Got to admire the guy for attempting to win both in the same year, and for having the ambition to will all three GTs. Hope he rides and wins the Vuelta

 

[Flying_Monkey]

This tour seems to have been the fairest for quite a while and produced the right result. That's definitely something to cheer. Shame about Brad not being involved to the end, and several others who might have changed the Top 10, but that's racing.

 

[Keith Oates]

AC won the Giro just a few weeks back and then didn't ride until the Tour. Amazing that he did as well as he did.

Got to admire the guy for attempting to win both in the same year, and for having the ambition to will all three GTs. Hope he rides and wins the Vuelta

If, and it's a big if, he didn't lose the time on the crash he would be on the podium!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[raindog]

It's a big "if" Keith but definitely worth considering, and let's not forget two falls that injured his knee and affected him in the first mountain stages. But as FM says, that's racing.

 

[Willo]

Watching the 'backstage' footage on ITV4 after Alpe d'Huez, Evans and team were buzzing and that's because they had prob targeted the TT and knew he was within the time gap they had set out for themselves. He rode hard with little support through the mountains to limit that gap to such a small margin so fair play to him. Shleck's break on Thurs to win atop Galibier was still the best bit of the Tour for me, certainly in GC terms.

 

[gb155]

Great winner

Great TT

Great mountain stages


Great TdF !!!!