CEBU, Philippines – Alberto Contador won the Tour de France once and 99% of the cyclists would give an arm for that. But when you are trying to win again while having a teammate who has won it seven times, it’s an awkward situation. As the saying goes, cycling is a team game with an individual winner. Kobe and Shaq fought, but both still ended up as champions. With Contador and Lance Armstrong, there could only be one.
Today, there was just one and it was Contador. If you ask me, the only real rival left for Contador right now isn’t Andy Schleck but force majeur. Andy hopes that Contador will “bonk”, but it is a hopeful wish of a beaten man. What else does has have to say? There’s no chink in Contador’s armor, he’s the best climber and time triallist this year. As for the dynamics and polemics in team ASTANA, all forces will be funneled to ensure that Contador will win primarily and keeping Lance secondarily on the podium.
During the race, I think ASTANA’s rivals were waiting for Lance to betray and chase Contador. But it didn’t happen because he played the team game and most importantly, his mojo wasn’t there anymore. They don’t have to be rocket scientists to tell that. And in the twisted logic of bicycle racing, Lance’s chance of winning a stage gets better because he can now be let go in a breakaway due to his perceived weakness.
The tempo set by SAXO BANK on last climb was so vicious that defending champion Carlos Sastre was dropped right away; however, he was able to claw back. Try as he might to close in on Contador, Andy kept losing time. For Cadel Evans, he can start planning for next year. Denis Menchov was nowhere to be seen. Christian Vande Valde didn’t have it, too.
If the revelation last year was CVV, today, it’s his English teammate, Bradley Wiggins, who is sitting comfortably at 3rd overall. Wiggins originally came from a track cycling background, like most British riders, and wasn’t expected to hold such lofty position at this point. He’s an exceptional time triallist and won two gold medals in the Olympics. He doesn’t come with the resume of his compatriots David Millar and Chris Boardman but he has gone further in the third week of Tour than both Millar and Boardman. He was basically a domestique for CVV until he decided to lose 5kilos this year. If he can keep up his climbing, and gets a good result in the 40km ITT this Friday, then we’ll probably have the first Englishman on the podium.
WORD OF THE DAY: “BONK”, to run out of gas. – THE FREEMAN