@ sutty, baia, dienblad: If Janez makes it through the coming two mountain stages, he should have good chances to keep the fifth spot in the time trial. But it'll be tough, you'll see...
@ Teddy: KoM is the plan Another stage win will be hard, though...
The stage looked like a great oppportunity for Roman Kreuziger to come closer to his goal of the polkadot jersey. And indeed, he found himself in the strong break of the day with Levi Leipheimer (Unicef), Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Jurgen Van den Broeck. He scored the full 20 points on the first climb but couldn't keep up on the second one, the efforts of the last days showed their impact. He could still hold on to the fourth place over the top, increasing the lead in the ranking.
The rest of the break made it to the finish. Leipheimer outsprinted the others and took the win. Following, Alberto Contador and Igor Anton were again the strongest. They got away on the climb and increased their lead, eventually gaining almost 1'30 on a small group around Wiggins, Gesink and Sanchez. Brajkovic had his first really bad day, lost more than 3 minutes on that group and falls back to tenth overall. It's still very close though.
1
Levi Leipheimer
Unicef – Oracle
4h22'10
2
Pierre Rolland
Europcar
s.t.
3
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
Stage 17
The last mountain stage, the queen stage, started as most recent mountain stages did: With a breakaway including Roman Kreuziger. And again, they managed to stay free for a long time – long enough for Kreuziger to take all the three intermediate mountain sprints, thus 42 points. An advance that Contador won't be able to draw level with! The Czech is the winner of the polkadot jersey 2012!
Czech Roman Kreuziger presents his polkadot jersey in the pack. He'll bring it to Paris.
After he was caught on the last flat part, the battle for the stage win and for important time began. Several riders including Top 10s Taaramäe, Klöden and Rodriguez entered the climb with a deficit of about a minute and couldn't come back. Rodriguez and Klöden lost their places to Brajkovic, who finished on a strong eigth place, Taaramäe is only seconds ahead now.
The group was reduced by numerous attacks on the last kilometers and eventually, it was Igor Anton who managed to keep a small gap and take his first stage win. He also gained important time on the other podium contenders. Gesink finished third, 20' behind, Wiggins fifth (+ 37'.
1
Igor Antón
Leopard – Trek
6h09'07
2
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
+ 20
3
Robert Gesink
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
Stage 18
Although classified as flat, this stage provided another very tough challenge for the riders due to its length (190 km) and the two ascents towards the end. A strong break inlcuding the likes of Matti Breschel and once again Sebastian Langeveld delivered a great fight but were caught on the last flat part.
On the ultimate hill, Igor Anton and Alberto Contador attacked. As a consequence, the pack temporarily split but on the last 8 kms, many riders could catch up again so that eventually 87 riders finished within the same time including all Top 20 riders. With a late attack, Cadel Evans managed to create a gap large enough to hold off the chasing favorites. With this stage win, he might get a bit of reconsiliation for a very mediocre Tour. Anton and Contador were again the strongest of the rest and finished on the podium.
1
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
4h33'07
2
Igor Antón
Leopard - Trek
s.t.
3
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
s.t.
-----
General Classification after Stage 18:
1
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
78h23'52
2
Igor Antón
Leopard Trek
+ 5'06
3
Bradley Wiggins
Sky ProCycling
+ 6'49
4
Robert Gesink
Rabobank Cycling Team
+ 6'51
5
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 10'25
6
Andy Schleck
Leopard Trek
+ 12'53
7
Rein Taaramäe
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
+ 13'37
8
Janez Brajkovic
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 14'15
9
Joaquím Rodríguez
Katusha Team
+ 14'34
10
Andreas Klöden
Team T-Mobile
+ 16'17
Sprint Classification
1
Tyler Farrar
Team Garmin - Cervélo
227
2
Mark Cavendish
Team T-Mobile
220
3
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
184
Mountain Classification
1
Roman Kreuziger
Liquigas - Cannondale
130
2
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
103
3
Igor Antón
Leopard Trek
92
Young Riders Classification
1
Rein Taaramäe
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
78h37'29
2
Romain Sicard
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 23'44
3
Cyril Gautier
Team Europcar
+ 28'21
Comment:
Some great and some bad news for us in these three stages. On the one hand, Roman secured the mountain jersey, achieving one of our important goals for this Tour. That is terrific! On the other hand, Stage 16 was a disaster for Janez. He lost a lot of time and thus his ambitions for a Top 5 overall. But we'll have to cope with that. Plus, in the time trial, he might still attack Taaramäe and Schleck.
Regarding the overall, the fight for the podium remains very exciting. In contrary to the belief of some experts, Bradley Wiggins was able to stay in touch with the other contenders through all the mountain stages and has now great chances for the second spot, with the long time trial still coming. Igor Antón couldn't convert his strong performances into enough time and has to fear to fall from the podium. And while both the mountain and the young riders classification are decided, the hunt for the green jersey is still very close. Two sprint stages remaining!
I have to say that I'm extremely happy about the win of the award I'd like to thank you all a lot, whether you voted for me or not, for all the support that you've given me over the past almost 8 months! I hope that I'll keep this story going for a long time and that it'll be as enjoyable as it seems to be now.
Regarding the current events in the story: I agree with all of you, although Brajkovic's time loss was a pity, the Top 10 is still very good. Not to mention Kreuziger's success.
I'm currently working on the review but I don't have that much time at the moment. I hope that I'll be able to post both the last 3 stages and the review this weekend. I'll be out of town for two weeks from this monday on and I don't know if I have time to update then. Just so you know
Congrats on the award I don't mind losing to you. It's just losing to valv321 that gets me Lol And in all honest shouldn't the Andy Schleck story finish 2nd, it only makes sense.
Edited by Mresuperstar on 13-01-2012 18:42
Mresuperstar wrote:
Congrats on the award I don't mind losing to you. It's just losing to valv321 that gets me Lol And in all honest shouldn't the Andy Schleck story finish 2nd, it only makes sense.
You mad?
Anyway, we should play something together on the PS3. Haven't done that in ages.
Edit: Unless you're serious in which case -> Edited by valverde321 on 13-01-2012 18:50
Just to say congratulations for the award, truly deserved. Voted for this one, although I could have easily voted on the other two aswell, because all of them are amazing.
Don't know, if I already left my congratulations to your award somewhere else here on forum, so I just put it here right after FreitasPCM We have three awesome One-rider-stories here, and this is for sure one of them! And good luck for the last TdF-stages!
Edited by tsmoha on 14-01-2012 20:05
While the stage racers used this stage to recover before the important time trial, this stage was the penultimate opportunity for the sprinters to take the win. The breakaway was caught early enough and the sprint could begin.
For Mark Cavendish, this could have been the chance to overtake the green jersey or at least to improve his chances before the last stage, but instead, the points classification was decided in Tyler Farrar's favour: Garmin once again delivered a perfect lead out which Farrar could turn into his fourth stage win. And Cavendish failed completely! The T-Mobile train got boxed in with 6 kms to go and lost lots of places. Eventually, he could only finish 16th. The green jersey is out of reach now. Simone Ponzi, well, he tried to follow Farrar but hadn't enough energy to keep up. He finished 20th.
1
Tyler Farrar
Team Garmin – Cervélo
4h01'16
2
José Joaquín Rojas
Movistar Team
s.t.
3
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
Stage 20
The long time trial should fix the final general classification today. Especially the podium was still in strong competition with Bradley Wiggins, Robert Gesink and Igor Antón all fighting for the two spots behind Contador. Bradley Wiggins was the big favorite after his recent performances and his win on the TT in stage 4. And he sure did well.
It was his team mate Geraint Thomas, though, who set the first exclamation mark. Starting on 58th position, he delivered a fantastic ride with a great time which lasted long and was eventually beaten by only 2 guys.
The first guy was indeed Bradley Wiggins. He completely crushed everything, overtaking Gesink and securing the second place overall easily. What a terrific achievement! Overall leader Alberto Contador also rode very well and finished second today.
The competition for the last podium spot was extremely close. Gesink did mediocrely well and finished 15th, 3 minutes off Wiggins. And Antón did everything to cover his bad time trialing with enormous effort and enthusiasm. But eventually, it wasn't enough: Gesink overtakes the Spaniard by 7 small seconds. No podium for Leopard this year!
For Liquigas, it was a really bad day. Brajkovic hoped to launch a last attack on Taaramäe and Schleck, who were less than 1'30 before him, but failed badly and even lost time on both. And Kreuziger couldn't achieve his goal of a decent daily result and finished only 36th. Their bad recovery stroke.
1
Bradley Wiggins
Sky ProCycling
1h15'25
2
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
+ 42
3
Geraint Thomas
Sky ProCycling
+ 1'21
Stage 21
The final stage to the Champs Elysées was meant to be an easy ride, enjoying the sports and celebrating the winners. While part of the peloton did exactly that, some others won't be celebrating at all today. But to that later.
The day was dominated by a large 14 men break including some of the most active riders of this Tour like Geslin or Langeveld. But as through the whole race, the sprinter teams had it all under control so that nothing could prevent a sprint finish. Even the late attacks by Pozzato and Gilbert couldn't.
The sprint was once again dominated by the two sprint trains of T-Mobile and Garmin. This time with the better end for T-Mobile. Although they couldn't gain the green jersey today, they at least get this prestigious win, the third for the Manx Missile.
But what happened behind them was way more important: A crash within the last 30 kms caused a large split which would never be fixed. Instead, the gap grew and grew. And while for someone like Kreuziger or Vinokourov, who fell from 14th to 16th, it didn't do that much damage, two riders lost a lot! Both Robert Gesink and Igor Anton were trapped behind and lost more than four minutes – the lucky winner was Samuel Sanchez, who jumped on the podium. Incredible!
In all those three weeks, there was never a doubt of the deserved and dominating winner of the Tour: Alberto Contador! The Spaniard was clearly the strongest in the mountain and rode great time trials. The places behind him were in constant motion. The podium seemed fixed after the time trial but a split on the Champs Elysées eventually vaulted last year's runner up Samuel Sanchez on the podium. That the places 6-15 are all within 10 minutes shows how dense the competition was.
Final Points Classification
1
Tyler Farrar
Team Garmin - Cervélo
315
2
Mark Cavendish
Team T-Mobile
274
3
Tom Boonen
Quick·Step Cycling Team
227
4
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
211
5
José Joaquín Rojas
Movistar Team
185
With the consistent riding of both Tyler Farrar (4 wins, 3 Top 3s) and Mark Cavendish (3 wins, 3 Top 3s), it was the one failure of the British on stage 19 that decided the competition in favour of Tyler Farrar. Both teams were so strong that only one mass sprint wasn't won by those two: The surprisingly strong Tom Boonen took a win as well, along with 7 Top 10s.
Final Mountain Classification
1
Roman Kreuziger
Liquigas - Cannondale
130
2
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
103
3
Igor Antón
Leopard Trek
92
4
Robert Gesink
Rabobank Cycling Team
66
5
Andy Schleck
Leopard Trek
34
As usual, almost all riders in this ranking are the GC contenders. All other riders would have to concentrate on the polkadot completely to win it - which Roman Kreuziger did! Taking part in numerous successful and even more unsuccessful breaks, he was one of the most active riders of all and really deserves this jersey.
Final Young Riders Classification
1
Rein Taaramäe
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
87h42'26
2
Romain Sicard
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 25'20
3
Cyril Gautier
Team Europcar
+ 32'56
4
Rigoberto Urán
Sky ProCycling
+ 42'50
5
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
+ 1h35'39
What applied for the GC applies for the white jersey even more: The winner was certain very, very early. Rein Taaramäe rode his first Grand Tour on top level and impressed with consistent climbing and time trialing. His winning margin is enormous.
Final Team Classification
1
Leopard Trek
263h03'37
2
Movistar Team
+ 12'29
3
Sky ProCycling
+ 21'15
4
Rabobank Cycling Team
+ 35'32
5
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1h11'38
The Tour in total has to be considered a failure for Leopard Trek once again. After the places 9 and 17, Andy's and Igor Anton's performances this year were surely better, but no man on the podium and only one stage win can't be enough. But at least one ranking was won dominantly!
Tops
Alberto Contador
Just like last year, the Spaniard was cut above the rest. Three stage wins, five more Top 3s – Contador was both the strongest as well as the most consistent rider of the GC contenders. With his fifth overall win of the Tour de France, he underlined once again that he is the best stage racer of his generation.
Bradley Wiggins
By far the biggest surprise in the overall was the British Bradley Wiggins. He wore the yellow jersey for six days after his time trial win on stage 4 and was surprisingly strong in the mountains, limiting his losses brilliantly to claim the second spot in the GC with his second win in the last time trial.
Rein Taaramäe
The fight for the white jersey was decided way earlier than expected – Rein Taaramäe rode consistent, attentive and clever. Using the mistakes of the concurrence, the Estonian finally proved that he has a lot of potential and finishes in the Top 10 of a Grand Tour for the first time. He'll have to be taken in account of for the future.
Other positive appearances:
Sebastian Langeveld – A stage win, another second place and one day in yellow.
The sprinter teams – 8 of the 10 flat stages ended with the win of a sprinter. The strong sprint trains showed exciting fights.
Andreas Klöden – At the age of 37 in the Top 10 of the most important race of the world, that is impressive.
Taylor Phinney – His stage win from a break on stage 13 may be the most surprising one of this race. Well done for his age.
Flops
Ivan Basso
1h29'38. That's the deficit of Ivan Basso on Alberto Contador. Last year's third doesn't seem to have benefited from the team change to Katusha. Started with ambitions on the podium, the Italian lost easy time very early and fell back further and further. Eventually, he had to work for the new leader, Joaquim Rodriguez, and finished 98th.
Andy Schleck
The nineth place last year was fatal for Andy Schleck. This year, with the support of Igor Antón, everything should have been better. And although it indeed went better, Schleck's sixth spot can't be considered a success. Antón turned out to be better in the mountains and without one real leader, Leopard couldn't attack the podium. The Luxembourgian seems to waste his potential.
The French
After the weak last year, the French riders couldn't ameliorate the results on home soil. Again, their best rider in the GC, Pierre Rolland, sits in 19th position, and only one French stage win is in the palmarès. Not quite what the local fans wanted.
Other negative appearances:
Rigoberto Uran – started as Taaramäe's only realistic opponent for white, he couldn't live up to that at any point and finished way off.
Jurgen Van den Broeck – Similar to Basso, he lost time early, eventually 1h39'52, and didn't even finish in the Top 100.
Skil – No GC contender, almost no appearances in breaks: One would have hardly noticed if they hadn't participated at all.
Liquigas Résumé
First of all, I'm quite proud that every single rider made it to Paris! I didn't expect that, to be honest, but it shows that every rider of the team is competitive and made a good effort. Then, here's a review of each rider's performance with a short evaluation:
Janez Brajkovic: We aimed for a Top 10 overall and Jani delivered. With relatively steady riding and three Top 10s on tough mountain stages, he took the optimum without attracting much attention.
Roman Kreuziger: Our co-leader accomplished his mission with excellence. Taking part in numerous breaks, often on the hardest mountain stages, he could hold off the GC contenders and took not only the polkadot jersey but also our only stage win of the Tour. A perfect performance.
Simone Ponzi: We hoped for one Top 3 and several Top 10s in mass sprints. What we got was one single Top 10. Simone Ponzi turned out to be unable to compete on this level at the moment, but he has plenty of time and room for improvement. Still, this Tour was disappointing for him.
Alessandro Vanotti and Thomas Peterson: Both did their domestique works within their means. Of course those means are limited so they couldn't do anything extraordinary.
Paolo Longo Borghini and Matthew Busche: Same here. Both were ín a break once and otherwise did the water carrying without much ado. Solid performances.
Maciej Paterski and Davide Cimolai: I said in the preview that both would only be fill-ups. And that was partly true. As soon as the road ascended, they found themselves in the grupettos. But nevertheless, they fought their way to Paris, which I'm quite happy about. Plus, on the flat stages, they could do some domestique work and Paterski even was in a break once. So I'm quite pleased with them.
Great review of the Tour. Brajko did well with the 8th place, couldn't do more, pity, but Kreuziger's KoM jersey was one of the highlights of the race, and a great achievement aswell.
Another stage win will be hard, though...
. 
shame Brajkovic wasn't able to hold onto this high place. That said, anywhere in the top ten is great. 
Lol 
And in all honest shouldn't the Andy Schleck story finish 2nd, it only makes sense.
