Wrap-up for 2015 Tour de France

If you were holding your breath for my blog posts these last few days, I apologize.  I was out of town on a fun little road trip.  If you are serious about the Tour, you already know what happened.  But, just for the record, here is my report.

Three of the four mountain stages in the Alps were won by underdogs, and two of those by French cyclists.  Great for the French national morale!  French riders Romain Bardet (AG2R) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) finished 1 & 2 in Stage 18.  Both had hoped for high GC placements, but suffered disappointments in the early weeks.  So, this was sweet redemption for both of them – especially for Bardet.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) overcame three weeks of frustration by winning Stage 19 and making up almost 2 minutes of his deficit to Chris Froome (Sky).  This moved him from 7^th place to 4^th, and somewhat restored his wounded prestige as defending champion.  Nairo Quintana (Movistar) made up 30 seconds, but remained in 2^nd place overall.

Another French hopeful, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) won the Stage 20 race to l’Alpe d’Huez, again bringing honor to France, and somewhat redeeming his frustrating Tour.  Quintana knocked off another 1:18 from his deficit to Froome, but still trailed the Yellow Jersey by more than a minute.

The ride to Paris for the final stage (No. 21) followed the normal pattern of being mostly ceremonial.  Because of rain on the course early, the judges stopped the clock on the first lap around the Champs Elysée, with everyone receiving the same time.  The only remaining drama would be the sprint for the stage win 7 or 8 laps later.  André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) powered to the line for his 4^th stage win of this year’s Tour.  (And to think that I had accidentally reported him absent from the start of the Tour because of illness!  Could my blunder have acted as a reverse jinx?)  Greipel enjoyed the level of success I had predicted for Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quickstep) who only won one stage.

The major prize winners were:  Yellow Jersey (General Classification) Chris Froome (Sky), his second time as grand winner of the Tour.  2^nd place Nairo Quintana (Movistar), at -1:12.  3^rd Place Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), at -5:25 – didn’t I say to not overlook the “other Spaniard?”  4^th Place Vncenzo Nibali (Astana), at -8:36 – defending champion from 2014.  5^th Place Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), at -9:48 – tough Tour for one of the Big Four favorites.

White Jersey (Young Rider) Nairo Quintana.

Green Jersey (Sprinter Points) Peter Sagan (fourth year in a row!)

Polka-Dot Jersey (King of Mountains) Chris Froome – one mountain stage win, and several close finishes, and the points kept adding up.

Best Team: Movistar – Quintana and Valverde consistently finishing near the front, along with one or more of their domestiques.

Super Combative Romain Bardet (AG2R).

Lanterne Rouge (last place) Sébastien Chavenel (FDJ) – almost 5 hours cumulative behind the winning time of Chris Froome.

Where did Froome win the race?  I predicted that the time trials would not be decisive; and they were not.  However, those two stages did account for between 9 and 35 seconds of Froome’s advantage over the other four top riders.  The two most decisive stages for Froome were Stage 2 and Stage 10.  In Stage 2, crosswinds near the coast of Holland split the peloton and gave Froome a 1:28 advantage over Quintana, Valverde and Nibali.  (This should have been a flat stage for a sprint finish, and no time differentials for the GC boys.)  In Stage 10 – the first climbing stage in the Pyrénées – Froome, with a giant effort from his Team Sky helpers, attacked the peloton, won the stage, and scored time gains of between one and ten minutes on his four top rivals.  The gains on those two stages alone exceeded any gains by his rivals in all of the other stages.  There were nine stages (out of 21) where all of the top 5 finished with the same time.  In the other 12 stages the rivals mostly lost time (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot).  Quintana only gained time in two stages – a total of 1:50, not enough to overcome Froome’s gains just in Stages 2 and 10.  Valverde only gained time in two stages – a total of only 3 seconds.  Nibali gained time in 3 stages (including a stage win) – a total of 2:19, but he had already lost over 4 minutes just in Stage 10.  Contador often matched the time of Froome, but did not beat Froome’s time in even one stage.  You can’t win the Tour if you never have even one stage where you beat your top rival.  All in all, it was a very dominating win for Froome and Team Sky.

Au revoir tout le monde.  Et merci d’avoir visité mon blog.

Since the Tour de France always ends in Paris, here are some photos from there.  A different view than normal of the Eiffel Tower.

The Mona Lisa, inside the Louvre Museum.

Notre Dame Cathedral, taken from a bateau mouche floating up the Seine River.

Stage 20 included a pass through the small town of Bourg D'Oissans, at the base of the climb to l'Alpe d'Huez.  This is where we rented bikes when our family did our own version of the Tour de France in 2011.

About half-way up the climb to l'Alpe d'Huez, the road curves past the little church at "Dutch Corner" - so named because of all the crazy Dutch fans who commandeer this corner each year for the Tour de France.  Here we see our very own Matt Jensen climbing up out of Dutch Corner.  Half-way there Matt!  Keep on pumping!