Manx Missile fires again on Champs-Elysées ahead of Astana rider's overall victory
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) won the twentieth, and final, stage of the Tour de France between Longjumeau and Paris Champs-Elysées to take his fifth stage of the race this year. The Manxman flew past all of his rivals in the last few hundred metres to finish well clear of Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) in second, and Julian Dean (Garmin-Transitions) in third.
The usual celebratory procession recovered from early disruption before a breakaway group tried in vain to foil the sprinters on the cobbled streets of Paris.
“I came around the last corner and I just jumped and started my sprint,” said Cavendish after his victory. “It’s different on the Champs-Elysées to every other sprint in the Tour de France where you kind of have save as much energy as possible because every day is so hard. In Paris you’ve got nothing to save your energy for so you just go balls-out to the line and that’s kind of what I did today.
“I’m disappointed this year not to win the green jersey,” he said of the race-long points classification, in which he was pipped into second place by Petacchi. “I set out to do so – it was a target for this year – but I had some bad luck in the first days and was out of the running but the team fought back, did our best and I lost it by 11 points. But we won five stages and we’ve got to be happy with this year’s Tour.”
A bitter tasting end to a long Tour career
Before the stage had even started there were farcical scenes as race commissaires ruled that the RadioShack team was not allowed to race in its special commemorative jerseys. It was agreed that the riders could wear the jersey through the 5.2km neutral zone but no further; the peloton was forced to stop at the départ réel and wait while all nine riders switched to their official red and grey jerseys, and pin on their numbers, before the race proper could get under way.
Good humour in the peloton as Contador attacks!
The first real action in the race, once the Astana team of race winner Alberto Contador had enjoyed their celebratory Champagne, saw an attack from Contador himself. He was immediately chased down by second placed Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and the two riders laughed as the peloton caught them up.
To commemorate what will be his last Tour de France, Rabobank’s Koos Moerenhout was allowed to ride ahead of the peloton for a few kilometres. The 36-year-old Dutchman was joined by teammates Robert Gesink and Lars Boom, before drifting back to the meandering peloton.
The peloton hits Paris and the breakaway boys hit the gas
As has become traditional in recent years, the Astana team lead its race leader onto the Paris circuits and onto the cobbles of the Champs-Elysées. US champion George Hincapie (BMC Racing) punctured as soon as the race hit the cobbles, but the experienced rider calmly got a new wheel from his team car and rejoined the back of the peloton.
Attacks began almost immediately with Aleksandr Kuchynski (Liquigas-Doimo), Alexandr Pliuschin, Christphe Riblon (AG2R-La Mondiale), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) and Stephane Augé (Cofidis) getting clear.
Most of the group was pulled back, but the first intermediate sprint on the “haut des Champs” was taken by Kuchynski; he was followed over by Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing) and Ruben Perez, thus denying the sprinters in their battle for the green points jersey.
Anthony Roux (Française des Jeux) was next to attack, and he was joined by Remy Pauriol (Cofidis) as the pair rode on the opposite side of the wide boulevard. They were quickly joined by nine more riders, forming an eleven-man break ahead of the peloton.
The group gets a gap but can it stay away?
The group was made up of: Roux, Pauriol, Nicki Sorensen (Saxo Bank), Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Christophe Riblon (AG2R-La Mondiale), Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), Karsten Kroon (BMC Racing), Christian Knees (Milram), Alan Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Aitor Perez (Footon-Servetto).
HTC-Columbia leading the peloton preventing them from getting too far away, and Martin sat at the back of the group without contributing to the pace. The group’s lead grew slowly though, and with 25km to go it stood at 25 seconds.
Team Sky moved forward to help the chase on behalf of Edvald Boasson Hagen and the gap began to come down. With 20km to go the Katusha Team also moved up to help for Robbie McEwen, who has won on the Champs-Elysées twice in his career.
With 15km to go, the gap still stood at 20 seconds and the sprinter’s teams seemed to be having trouble reducing it further with 10 of the 11 riders working hard together. Hondo, who is Petacchi’s leadout man was the obvious favourite for victory if the breakaway stayed away.
The finish is in sight but the fugitives start to fall out
As they crossed the line with two 7.2km laps to go, the eleven riders still held 16 seconds over the peloton, but now they were getting close to the finish their cooperation began to disappear. Near the top of the Champs-Elysées, Knees attacked, but he was quickly chased back by Kroon and the others followed.
On the descent Knees went again and was followed by Sorensen, and the German and Danish champions rode away from the others; Kroon managed to jump across with the eight others frantically chasing.
At the bell with 7.2km to go, the lead trio lead by 15 seconds with just Roux and Pauriol stuck in-between. With Hondo caught though, the Lampre-Farnese Vini team moved forward in force and the French pair was brought back. Just before the top of the Champs-Elysées the breakaway trio was finally reeled in and the peloton descended together towards the Place de la Concorde once more.
The Cervélo TestTeam moved to the front on behalf of Thor Hushovd, and the breakaway riders were all finally caught with 3km to go. As the now complete peloton approached the tunnel under the Jardin des Tuileries for the last time, with 2km to go, Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) tried to escape; the Sky team was at the front of the peloton and at full speed by now though, and he was unable to get more than a few metres away.
Into the final kilometre and the sprinters teams fight for the front
Sky lead the peloton onto the Rue de Rivoli, and under the flamme rouge marking the final kilometre, but the Lampre-Farnese Vini riders began to infiltrate the front of the peloton; Cavendish, Petacchi, Dean and Hushovd were being brought forward by their teams.
Brett Lancaster (Cervélo TestTeam) took the front of the peloton acoss the Place de la Concorde, leading Hushovd into the finishing straight on the Champs-Elysées. As the Norwegian started his sprint though, he had Petacchi and Cavendish lurking on his wheel and they both kicked at the same time.
The Manx Missile is a Weapon of Mass Destruction again
Petacchi went to the left and seemed to have got the lead early on; once Cavendish was up to speed though he quickly pulled alongside, then pulled away, to win by several bike lengths.
As so often in this race, Hushovd found himself lacking enough top end speed to compete with the others, and he was swamped by the other sprinters. Dean came through to take third, Jürgen Roelandts (OmegaPharma-Lotto) took fourth, and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) repeated his Bordeaux result with fifth.
The peloton finished the stage all together, and so Alberto Contador (Astana) has won his third Tour de France in four years, 39 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and 2’01” ahead of Denis Menchov (Rabobank).
The other jerseys and awards
Having spent most of the race exchanging the jersey with Hushovd, Alessandro Petacchi was eventually pushed the closest by five-time stage winner Cavendish. With the Manxman winning today’s stage Petacchi just needed to finish sixth or better to hold on, so his second place won him the competition by 11 points. The Italian becomes one of the few riders to have won the points competition in all three Grand Tours.
After doing battle with Quick Step’s Jérôme Pineau in the Alps, Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouyges Telecom) managed to hold off Christophe Moreau (Caisse d’Epargne), the oldest man in the race, through the Pyrénées to take the polka-dot mountains jersey.
Second overall for the second successive year, Andy Schleck takes home the white jersey for the third year in a row. This is the last time the 25-year-old will be eligible for this award, but he wants the yellow one next year anyway.
Lance Armstrong managed to get himself onto the podium of his final Tour by virtue of the RadioShack team winning the team classification. They swapped the lead with Caisse d'Epargne on an almost daily basis throughout the race, before finally pulling clear on Thursday’s stage to the Col du Tourmalet.
His two solo stage wins, giving him two separate days in the yellow jersey, coupled with his constant attacks throughout the race, saw Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) elected the race’s most aggressive rider.
Result stage 20
1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Columbia
2. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
3. Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin-Transitions
4. Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
5. Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
6. Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
7. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervélo TestTeam
8. Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank
9. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha
10. Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
2010 Tour de France final overall standings
1. Alberto Contador (Spa) Team Astana
2. Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 39s
3. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank @ 2’01”
4. Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 3’40”
5. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto @ 6’54”
6. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank @ 9’31”
7. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Transitions @ 10’15”
8. Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 11’37”
9. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo @ 11’54”
10. Chris Horner (USA) Team RadioShack @ 12’02”
Points classification (Green jersey): Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
Mountains classification (Polka-dot jersey): Anthony Charteau (Fra) Bbox Bouyges Telecom
Young Rider classification (White jersey): Andy Schleck (Lux) Saxo Bank
Team classification: Team RadioShack (USA)
Most Aggressive rider: Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step