Alberto Contador's Dream? Or His Nightmare?

The end of another Tour de France, leaving us with a good taste on our tongue. The taste  that derived from the fever and the challenges.

There was a story on each of the stages. And endless discussions. And not only the battle for Yellow Jersey, but also the battle for Green Jersey was tough.

The efforts of the "almost retired" riders to win a last stage. Contador, Schleck, Armstrong, Sastre, Cavendish, Petacchi, Cancellara, Evans, Vinokourov and others. You could write an article for each of them.

Alberto Contador – Andy Schleck

Contador considers himself “the best of the world." Indeed, he knows. Yet, there are two things he cannot get rid of: the heavy stress his rivals put on him and the shadow of Armstrong.

Last year, when he would come to France as a team leader, Armstrong suddenly appeared and declared his return with Astana team. Contador was overstressed as his dreams of being the legend of post Armstrong era were blurred. And moreover, his leadership became questionable. But he succeeded somehow.

This year's big event happened on Stage 15. When Schleck, the yellow jersey holder, started an attack that could not be chased by Contador, his chain dropped. As Contador saw this he started a devastating attack and captured the yellow jersey.

Calculation is: Schleck was 31 seconds ahead of Contador before the mechanical problem. He lost 28 seconds while repairing. But with a support of two high quality ascendars, Samuel Sanchez and Menchov, Contador passed the finish line 39 seconds ahead of Schleck.

Then rest was as expected. Although Schleck did not accuse Contador, he mentioned this by saying “if I was there I would wait but…” The reaction of the authorities for violating the fair play rule were heavy.

Only Barnard, L’Equipe author pointed on Schleck’s fault by increasing the possibility of an accident by this kind of gear jump. However, Contador lost the sympathy of a lot of people.

And on Saturday, a very interesting—appalling indeed—result occurred. Contador was ahead of Schleck by 39 seconds after the time trial! The same amount of time that he won against Schleck on his “unfair” attack.

In fact, Contador is expected to achieve a bigger difference on time trial, but “panic and instinct to save his lead”—as he mentioned—would almost cost him the yellow jersey.

Ghost of Armstrong

On the other hand, “should wait for Schleck” discussion became popular by Armstrong. He had waited for Ulrich—his closest rival—when he could not hold on the road and crashed. He even took care of him.

Then in 2003, when he and Mayo crashed during an attack on the mountains, chasing group passed them first but slowed down then to wait for them. Ulrich was amongst the ones who wait.

Armstrong

He was a secret when he came here, but he was also a factor that every rider took into account. However, after his three times fall on Stage 8 he lost 11 minutes to Contador and became aware of his dreams flew away to win his eight title. And it was clear that time and the break he gave was not on his side.

In fact, most of the people, who did not want to see the truth that he spends most of his time on the war against cancer, were expecting an excessively heroic effort from him. Let’s not forget his explanations about the pain he faced during trainings in the winter to win Tour de France in the past.

Goodbye Armstrong. And thank you.

Mark Cavendish—Alessandro Petacchi

Lineker, the striker who got bored with losing the Germans on penalty shootouts, once said that

"Soccer is a game for 22 people that run around, play the ball, and one referee who makes a slew of mistakes, and in the end Germany always wins."

Now all the sprinters of the world says that, "sprint finishes are kind of battles attacked by a lot of good sprinters, planned by a lot of strategists and won by Cavendish at the end."  I guess even most if his rivals are fascinated by his intelligence and his incredible explosive power.

Yet, another admirable performance was of Petacchi’s, as the 36-year-old sprinter captured the Green Jersey, adding two deserved stage wins.