Tour De France Results

Results:

Yellow Jersey : Alberto Contador (ESP)

Green Jersey : Tom Boonen (BEL)

Polka Dot Jersey : Juan Soler Hernandez (COL)

White Jersey : Alberto Contador (ESP)

Team Classification : Discovery Channel Team (USA)

It all started over a coffee with my colleagues when we were discussing about Tour de France.No one seemed to know about this and I decided to write a blog and share about this to my colleagues and friends.When I searched for the information and read through it I really got impressed with this game.I wondered how these cyclists can ride for more than 150km's and in few stages it exceeds 200km's at an average speed of more than 45Km/h.Its not only the stamina but also the attitude of these cyclists is quite astonishing and very impressive.Even after riding for such a long time the sprint these guys produce when nearing the 200 meters mark is amazing.Its worth sitting for the whole 4 to 5 hours.The tour itself is quite extraordinary not only coz of the riders but also due to the beautiful outskirts of France and the Paris-Champs Ellysee where the tour ends.

This years tour has been one of the most happening and an eventful one.It was filled with lots and lots of dramas,doping scandals, accidents and rookies ruling the tour.This is the second closest finish in the history of the event, with only 31 seconds seperating the first three riders.Previous being just 8 seconds.

Alberto Contodar (ESP) the winner of the Yellow jersey was just 24 years of age and he was a rookie in this years tour.He won the White Jersey competition too, only the second time this amazing accomplishment has ever happened in the tours history.The first being done by Jan Ulrich in 96.Since he won the most coveted yellow jersey the white jersey goes to the next best placed rider in that category, but Soler Hernandez he being a rookie himself won the king of the mountains (Polka Dot Jersey) to his name so the white jersey was awarded to the third best rider in that category Txurukka(ESP) .So overall the tour was rocked by the introduction of these rookies.

Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ) , one of the favourites for winning the Yellow jersey was kicked out of the tour after winning the 15th stage due to an illegal blood doping.Remember he won two stages in the tour (13 and 15th stage) , the team he was representing ASTANA pulled out of the tour due to this doping scandal.Remember ASTANA was leading the team classification by over 2 minutes ahead of Discovery Channel.This produced a lot of issues with the other riders and some even delayed the start of next stage race by almost 13 minutes.

The biggest setback of the tour is yet to come, the leader of the general classification and the holder of Yellow Jersey Michael Rasmussen(DEN) was thrown out from the tour since he broke the internal rules of his team RABOBANK.He was accussed of lying about his whereabouts when the official drug test occured.He avoided almost four doping tests prior to the tour.This was totally initiated from his own team and he was also banned from the Denmark national team due to the same reason prior to this.



So I had fun watching this years Tour De France, and have become a big fan of the game.Its really quite worth watching it, and waiting for the next year's tour.