Le Tour Toujours

We are now 48 hours post-Tour and the 2008 edition will be remembered for a new winner - Carlos Sastre, a dominant team (CSC), and perhaps the turning point on the war on drugs in cycling. Ok, we'll get to doping in a bit, but let's illustrate just how genius CSC was this tour.

They had arguably the best climber in Sastre - who finally made a move on the rest of the GC on Alpe D'Huez that race favorite Cadel Evans made the mistake not to cover. Perhaps Evans thought that Sastre would come back to the pack like all the rest of the contenders (Menchov, Vande Velde, Valverde) always did. But with the seemingly undroppable Andy Schleck and his brother Frank riding shotgun, Sastre knew it was his time. The two minutes he gained climbing Alpe D'huez turned out to give him a comfortable lead after Saturday's time trial, and he cruised into Paris with the race in hand. Kudos also to Andy Schleck for winning the white jersey as best rider under 25, despite sacrificing every stage for the team. And to Bjarne Riis who coached the team and gave them a strategy that they worked to perfection. Great to see...

Congrats also to Canada's Ryder Hesjedal, who completed his first Tour in 47th place. Although he was never given a lot of camera time, he placed high enough on every big mountain stage to never lose too much time (save one time i believe)and thus finished 2nd on his team. I'm still not sure what type of rider Hesjedal will be in the future - he's not a sprinter, not a pure climber, probably at best a super-domestique who can time trial pretty well. He did finish 14th overall during Saturday's time trial, so the future looks bright for both Hesjedal and his Garmin-Chipotle team.

Speaking of Hesjedal and his Garmin team, they are taking compression socks to a whole new level. They are using a product called NormaTec PCDs (Pneumatic Compression Device) which are giant inflatable legs that the riders use to aid recovery after racing during the tour. Here's a great pic of Hesjedal using the PCDs and you can read more here...


Is it too early to look forward to 2009? It should mark the return of Alberto Contador (2007 Champion whose Team Astana was not invited this year) and the return of the doped-once-and-admitted-it Ivan Basso (who will be on Team Liquigas). Those two, plus up-and-comers like Andy Schleck, Roman Kreuziger, Bernhard Kohl, and Tadej Valjavec (who all finished in top 13 of this years Tour) make the future look even brighter. Just make sure to stay clean boys...



More to come...