Alberto Contador has won his 3rd Tour de France after a memorable duel with Andy Schleck who finished 2nd, 39 seconds behind. Schleck won the young riders classification.
Thirty-six year old Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) won two stages and the green jersey. It was a very close points competition ending with Petacchi scoring 243 points, beating Cavendish by 11 points and Hushovd by 21 points.
"It's an outstanding result that, considering also the two stage victories, makes this Tour de France unforgettable," Petacchi said. "The green jersey is the best prize for the regularity of performances and of results: I always gave my best and the team was always perfect. At the beginning of the Tour the points classification was not my target but, stage by stage, I understood that I could be competitive and now I'm very happy that I decided to battle for this result. A special thanks to the team and to the sponsors: they were always with me, especially in the tough moments".
Anthony Charteau (Bbox) won the mountains classification.
Adriano Malori (Lampre-Farnese Vini), a TT specialist who did so well in the prologue (12th best time), was last in the GC at -4:27:03. "I'm happy I completed my first Tour de France at my debut," Malori explained. "I suffered in the early stages because of a crash which I was a victim of, but I did my best to recover and to be at the support of my team mates. The last place in the overall standing is not a problem for me, it's particular." Bravo.
Final top 10 GC:
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
4 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:03:40
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:06:54
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:09:31
7 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions 0:10:15
8 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:11:37
9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:11:54
10 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack 0:12:02
Photo: Sirotti
Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.
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