Tour wrap-up

CEBU, Philippines - Alberto Contador proved that he is the best cyclist in the world today. At 26, he has a realistic chance of beating Lance Armstrong’s seven TdF wins. The scary thing is that not only is his climbing heads and shoulders above the rest, so too, is his time trialing. Only injury and bad advice can prevent Contador from winning more than LA. Just like LA, Contador will leave ASTANA but won’t be in the same RADIOSHACK team with LA. I think the best scenario for him would be with GARMIN rather than any Spanish squad. GARMIN has the better structure and riders to support him.

But rather than being ecstatic at having a future multi-TdF winner, GARMIN is cautious because Contador has been dogged by doping allegations as recently as last week. They’ll have to look hard at his biological passport with a fine tooth comb before making any commitments.

You can blame it on his age, his retirement, his broken collarbone and the feel good comeback nothing but LA failed to accomplish his goal. But at 38yo next year, you still can’t right him off. It will be interesting if he can still get the people to surround him at this point in the season but LA is a magnet and a lot of cyclists would like to ride for him.

Andy Schleck is still 24 and has accomplished a lot in his young career. The danger is career flat-line and end up as a Jan Ullrich to Contador’s LA. He needs to better his climbing and his time trialing to be at least level with Contador. Big brother Frank Schleck would be better playing second fiddle to Andy rather than trying to win the yellow jersey or get up the podium. It almost worked because of the ASTANA situation but I don’t think it’ll happen next year.

Carlos Satre’s win last year was a fluke and I was right. He took his frustrations to the press, lambasting them for disrespecting, aka “forgetting”, him and instead just talked about LA and Contador. He’s have to set his sights for stage wins rather than overall. Cadel Evans also needs a career change. He’ll be demoted at least to co-captain with a rising star, Jurgen van den Broeck. To be told as such by the team owner in the middle of the TdF isn’t exactly inspiring. Brad Wiggins will be this year’s fluke because he will be under a great amount of pressure from his British fans next year and because he doesn’t have the natural talent for this kind of event. Remember that he’s track rider first. But he’s Britain’s Great White Hope so it’ll be interesting if he’ll stay with GARMIN if the latter signs Contador.

Finally, Mark Cavendish, 23yo, is the real thing. He won 6 stages and beat the best sprinters in the world by 30 meters at the Champs Ellysee. He’ll give his rivals fits in the years to come.

Things to cheer:

The almost a million people lining the 21km climb to Mont Ventoux didn’t come to see Contador, they came to see LA. Contador is an exceptional talent but doesn’t have the charisma like LA……No positive dope test, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be one. Retro active testing has caught Danilo diLuca this week, a month after he finished second to Denis Menchov at the Giro d’Italia…Next year na sad!!! (BANAT NEWS)