Who Are the Front Runners for the 2009 Tour de France?
Who are the front runners for the 2009 Tour de France?
There are at least four names to watch during this year’s Tour. Not surprisingly, Amercan Lance Armstrong is part of the list. The surprise is — he’s at the bottom.
Lance Armstrong, the 37-year-old cancer survivor who retired in 2005 but returned to the sport six months ago at the Tour Down Under, has used the publicity surrounding his comeback to promote his charity, Livestrong.
The other names on the list of notable cyclists — Mark Cavendish, considered one of the great “sprinters” of all time, Fabian Cancellara, the current overall leader, and Armstrong’s teammate Alberto Contador. Of all of these names, Armstrong is the least likely to “win it all”, still if Lance Armstrong is riding a bike in a competition, you should keep your eyes on him. He is second in history ranked by the number of minutes holding the lead, and first overall in number of wins. For all intents and purposes, Lance Armstrong IS the Tour de France.
Since Armstrong’s return to the race with team Astana — the team that his former sport director Johan Bruyneel now leads — the ostentatious Texan decided to have a go at the Giro d’Italia, a race he’d never participated in before. The Giro d’Italia, where he placed a decent twenty-fourth overall, was a comeback ride for Armstrong’s much anticipated return to the Tour de France, a course that he quite simply manhandles.
Some say that Armstrong’s dominance at the Tour de France is over, pointing out that minor rule changes and an increase in athleticism among the overall field should keep him from beating up on the rest of the race field. Mark Cavendish’s team, Columbia-HTC, won in triumphant fashion at the Giro d’Italia, and certainly have their minds on winning this year’s Tour. How big a deal is Columbia-HTC? Lance Armstrong’s own former ‘chief lieutenant”, the veteran rider George Hincapie, is now fitted with the job of riding protection for Mark Cavendish.
In the media, Armstrong’s loss of the “team leader” role has been fodder for speculation — what does Armstrong’s team know that we don’t? The leader of Armstrong’s team, Alberto Contador, won the 2007 Tour de France. Some reports suggest that Armstrong and Contador are friendly, while other journalists hint that Armstrong and Contador are about as good a match as oil and water.
For sure, this would not be the first major internal struggle at the Tour de France. Comparisons between this year’s race and the now classic 1986 Tour have already been made. In the 86 ride, teammates Bernaurd Hinault and Gred Lemond famously fought against one another, no doubt increasing their own skill levels and drawing attention from media and fans. Should Armstrong and Contador’s rivalry end up the same way, Lance Armstrong could well be on his way to an eigth Tour de France victory, besting the 7 win record he already holds.
Keep your eyes on Armstrong and Contador, but at the back of your mind, remember the names of Cavendish and Cancellara. For instance — during Monday’s third stage (a 196 kilometre trek from Marseille to La Grande-Motte) Armstrong again impressed viewers and sports analysts alike with his “leadership skills”. Armstrong blew right past a hefty amount of crosswind that split the rest of the pack. Armstrong never looked back, leaving his team leader, Contador, in the trailing pack while Armstrong ended the stage at the same time as the stage winner Mark Cavendish and the Tour’s overall leader Fabian Cancellara.
If Armstrong and his team perform with any skill at all during today’s 39 kilometer team time trail in Montpellier, he could improve on his third overall position, and maybe win his first leader’s jersey of this year’s Tour.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 7:24 am and is filed under Entertainment, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
