July is all about the Tour de France for me. As an ex cyclist I still feel the adrenaline buzz from seeing all those guys day in and day out nailing it on the road. The 2011 edition has been the best Tour for some years. I am not going to go into a stage by stage overview as I don’t see the point. The race is done and we all know the end result.

Green with envy!

What I want to do though is mention several aspects of the race. Firstly the organization. This years route was superb. We had racing from beginning to end with the final outcome only being decided the day before Paris. You can’t ask for more than that. Always amazes me that a race that lasts three weeks can come down to seconds or minutes at the end. In addition to an excellent route, key changes have been made to the Polka Dot and Green Jersey classification. These changes have finally seen the respective jerseys going to the place that they belong. Of course, I could be showing some bias here with Cavendish getting the green. However, you would have to be a complete idiot not to recognize that Cav is ‘the man’ when it comes to a sprint. Should you need any clarification, 5 stage wins this year and 20 in total. The guy is only 26 and providing that he has injury free years ahead of him I think we will see him breaking many records.

Of course, the 2011 Tour will stand out from the perspective of Thomas Voeckler. What a ride he had…. He turned himself inside out day after day and retained the yellow jersey far longer than anyone expected and unfortunately missed the podium by just one place. It’s a real shame. I think everyone watching the race and particularly the French would love to have seen ‘Tommy’ make the podium. Tactically he rode a good race but for me made a big mistake on the Alpe D’Huez day when he chased after Contador and Schleck. He was alone and basically used up what reserves he had.

The best stage for some time?

And so the stage to beat all stages. The ‘Galibier’. After having a rough time in the press, Andy Schleck needed to prove himself and show that he was the ‘new’ man of the Tour. Attacking the group with some 60km to go, Contador and Evans let him ride away (still have no idea why?) and Schleck pulled minutes out of all the contenders. It was a stunning stage to watch. The Leopard/Trek team tactically played a blinder placing a couple of riders in early breaks up the road. These riders then acted as pacers for Andy until the final climb of the Galibier when Schleck rode away and soloed to an absolute stunning victory. It was a brave attack that could have so easily gone wrong. But in true Merckx tradition, this was an attack that defines a rider. Schleck got many new fans that day! Unfortunately, the climb was probably 1 or 2k too long. You could see the energy running from him. Down the road a worried Evans hit the front and pursued Schleck like a man possessed (stunning effort). The failing Schleck up front and the fast pursuing Evans reduced the time but it still gave Schleck a great time advantage that would put him in Yellow…. NO, somehow, Voeckler attached himself to Evans and saved the yellow jersey by 15 seconds. An absolutely epic stage.

The nearly man becomes the man

Cadel Evans is a class act; no doubt. I have followed his career for some time, even his pre ‘road’ days when he was a world class Moutain Bike rider. The nearly man of the Tour finally fulfilled his promise on the penultimate day of the Tour when he rode out of his skin to dominate his rivals in the ultimate test, the individual time trial. With a tremendous amount of pressure on him, he pushed hard on the pedals, regained the time Andy Schleck had over him and then continued to put well over a minute into the second place of the podium. He was by far the strongest rider in the Tour and as he showed on the Galibier stage and more importantly on the Alpe D’Huez stage, he was able to ride hard and pull back riders. Had he not had a mechanical issue on stage 19 I think we may very well have seen in attacking instead of reducing his losses.

Brotherly Love

When you get a one / two on the podium of the Tour de France you have to think to yourself that it is only a matter of time before one of the brothers stands on top in 1st place with a yellow jersey on the shoulders. Odds would say that this will be Andy. He has two second places now. This year though Frank was looking strong. Certainly having that family bond within the same team means that they will both ride hard for each other. You can’t help but think though that Frank felt as though he had been ‘worked’ a little on the Galibier stage. Only time will tell.

The Future

I can’t help but think that the Tour is in a good place for the future. We have British talent a plenty and with Cavendish we have the potential for fantastic publicity. In addition to this, the Sky team goes from strength to strength. We lost Bradley Wiggins this year to a crash and s we can only speculate on what might have been.

The racing this year was much closer. This for me signifies that the tarnished reputation of drugs and cheating is being removed from the sport. We are not getting the heroic efforts of previous years where one rider seems to have the strength of ten. The riders are much closer together, the racing is harder and the margins are smaller. All good signs.

Without doubt, Tour de France riders are a breed unto themselves.

What other sport do we see a rider knocked off the road by a car to land in a barbed wire fence, get up, continue to ride.

What other sport do they hurl themselves down a narrow mountain decent in the wet at 60 miles per hour. Riding on the edge either trying to gain time or pull back lost time. Constantly on the edge.

The Tour is a spectacle. Long may it remain.