 News Letter
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‘In the (Time) Zone'
David Olle, France, +33 66 16 909 87
Tour de France, July 3 - 25, 2010, Report Stage 20
Stage 20 Sunday, July 25 105 km Longjumeau → Champs-Elysées
Results:
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC - Columbia 2:42:21
2 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini
3 Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin - Transitions
Final general classification
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 91:58:48
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:39
3 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:02:01
General report
170 riders finished this year's Tour de France yesterday, while a few very unlucky riders did crash in the first week, and it did affect the overall results, this is a good finish rate. Unfortunately an important three of the injured were Frank Schelck, Lance Armstrong and Cadel Evans, all worthy GC contenders, not to mention Simon Gerrans, Tyler Farrar et al. It's worth noting that a large amount of quality talent was removed with the few ‘unlucky'. With the mountain climber's competition lacking spark, and only two young riders fighting for the overall, I found most of my enjoyment for the 2010 Tour amongst the sprinters. With Petacchi's blazing return to the tour after a 6 year absence, Thor and Robbie McEwen talking big, and our Mark Renshaw removed midway through, not to mention Julian Dean's aggressive efforts, although Cavendish dominated in the end, each sprint was enthralling to watch. Love the sprinters!
Skippy report: final results for all the skips here:
26 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:50:27
37 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia 1:10:11
47 Matthew Lloyd (Aus) Omega Pharma-Lotto 1:30:02
103 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram 3:04:07
149 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank 3:42:39
152 Wesley Sulzberger (Aus) Française des Jeux 3:46:59
159 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Cervelo Test Team 3:57:00
165 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha 4:08:28
Tomorrow: We're out of here, we've had baguettes up to Pussy's bow, duck, duck,and more duck, and chartreuse to boot, we're off to Madrid for a wedding next Saturday, then home for August, au revoir until La Vuelta Espana (Tour of Spain) in September.
For those in Australia, SBS shows a daily report on the Tour de France, along with many stages broadcast live, catch them if you can.
Not forgetting our own Topbike TV on digital channel 44, check your local guide for details.
The Bike Race:
This year's Tour starts in the Netherlands (making that 3 grand tour prologues in a row, for Holland) belts into Belgium, before following a clockwise trace around France, finishing, of course, on the Champs Elysee in Paris. July 3-25, 3,596 kilometres, more than enough for anyone.
The Writer:
David Olle's cycling reports are used by 3GG Gippsland, ABC radio's 774 DRIVE show in Melbourne, ABC radio 702 breakfast show in Sydney, ABC national overnights and 3RRR FM's Breakfasters. He chats regularly with all. He also created and produces the magazine style TV show ‘Topbike TV' which is seen throughout Australia and New Zealand on community televison. The reports are also published here, www.cyclesportnews.com, along with any photos.
These reports are independent, opinionated, Australian biased, and could miss a day here and there, along with containing the odd error and repeating the odd comment. We make no apology for this.
We aim to send these reports daily, while any worthy bike race is on. You have the power to control your interest in these reports, see details below.
We also run good bike tours.
David Olle
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