 Category: ManGame (Tour de France 2007, ProTour)
Winning the Tour de France as a French rider with a French team? We're too young for such a thing to happen, ain't we? Well, sort of. But not all of us.. Almost eight years back from now, the ManGame held it's first ever Tour de France. Robbie McEwen would take out six stages (including the first four road stages). Alessandro Petacchi went to win two - with the prestigious victory on Champs-Élysées. Thomas Dekker dominated the first week with three victories to finish 9th in the final GC.. so far, so good.
Christophe Moreau (Bouygues Telecom)? Would take the maillot jaune in the final timetrial on the penultimate day! While Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) looked set to take the overall victory, the Kazakh struggled in the final mountain stage to lose a minute on Moreau and some other favorites. Entering the final timetrial with a 17 seconds advantage on Moreau, our well beloved Vino would then indeed gave away yellow:
Check 1: Moreau has 9 seconds on Vinokourov. Vino still has Yellow by 8 seconds.
Check 2: Moreau has 18 seconds on Vinokourov. Moreau now has yellow by 1 second.
Finish: Moreau has 23 seconds on Vinokourov. Moreau will be in yellow on the Champs Elysses - by 6 seconds.
A thrilling first Tour in the ManGame. Levi Leipheimer (Team Milram) completed the podium and all fans of French cycling would probably do bad things to make such a thing happening in real life, won't you?
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