Daily Sports News

Alberto Contador became the second Spaniard to win the tour more then once; his last victory came in 2007 and could not take part in the 2008 as his team Astana was banned from the tour due to a drug scandal. After the 20th stage it was quite clear that Contadore would take victory in Paris, as the last day is considered as a day of enjoying the stage, moving in to Paris and enjoy the grandeur of Champs-Elysées.

The stage also saw another display of the sprinting ability of the fastest sprinter in the world, Mark Cavendish. This was his 6th stage in the tour this year making a total of 10 stages including 4 from previous year. Cavendish gave another stage win to his Team Columbia-HTC.

The 21st and final stage of the tour was 164 kilometers from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris Champs-Élysées. The last stage had no climbs but two intermediate sprints, first at Haut des Champs-Elysées at 120 kilometer mark and the second on the fourth lap at Champs-Elysées at 133 kilometer mark.

Team Colombia-HTC took control of the pace making from the time the peloton entered the Champs-Elysées. All the nine riders of the team were committed to get their man, Cavendish a stage win. Colombia train worked in an excellent manner and the effort was lead by Renshaw and Gorge Hincapie, Renshaw took the second spot behind his teammate. Garmin – Slipstream rider Tyler Farrar took the third spot.

This year’s tour saw excellent results for the young Luxemburg rider Andy Schleck who came on the second place in the tour and also won the white jersey in the young rider classification. Another impressive result came from Lance Armstrong who came back to the tour after years of game, he finished third. The King of the Mountains crown went to Franco Pellizotti of team Liquigas. Thor Hushovd of Cervelo Test Team took the green jersey.

The second last day of a tour was full of surprises and some great riding. The two opportunists took away the glory of the final climb from the General Category riders. Team Rabobank got its first stage victory of the tour when Spanish rider Juan Manuel Garate crossed the line first at Mont Ventoux, he was closely followed by the German rider Tony Martin from Team Colombia-HTC. They both managed to cross the line 38 sec ahead of the tour leader.

Also there was great display of riding skills by the while jersey leader Andy Schleck. He is an amazing young rider and will be a great star in future tours. Though his work to get elder brother and teammate Frank went to vain as the old tour horse Lance Armstrong made sure that he is lined up for a podium finish tomorrow in Paris.

The 167 Kilometer stage from Montelimar to Mont Ventoux and was considered to set the tone for the final day. There were two intermediate sprints Les Pilles at 48 kilometers and Mormoiron at 138.5 kilometers. The stage also had five climbs. The cote de Citelle a category-3 at 14 kilometers, col d’Ey a catagory-3 at 65.5 kilometers, col de Fontaube a category-4 at 87 kilometers, col des Abeilles a catagory-3 at 121.5 kilometers and the most dreaded of all the the hors category at the finish at Mont Ventoux which is 1912 meters above sea level. Mont Ventoux has a 10% plus gradient on its ascent and riders had to face winds of upto 40 km/h.

It is now clear that Spanish rider Alberto Contador of Team Astana is sure to take this year tour victory and will carry his yellow jersey on the final day. Andy Schleck is most likely to take the second podium spot in Paris followed by Lance Armstrong. Team started the tour with the goal of finishing as the No.1 team and the have achieved it and are certain to carry it to Paris. Tho Hushovd has just won a single stage but he will continue to wear his green jersey on the last day of the tour.

is always said that the last time trial of the tour is a day that the yellow jersey driver should take pride in winning and Alberto Contador came out on flying colors. He not only surprised everyone with a victory, but also increased his lead margin over Andy Schleck. He and Fabian Cancellara were the only two riders to have ridden the time trial with average speed above the 50 Kilometers per hour. He really left Olympic gold medalist clueless today.

The 18th stage of the tour started with mild weather conditions but it gave way to warm and sunny as the temperature climbed to early 30s. The first rider and last in the classification standing to start the time trial was Yauheni Hutarovich of team Francaise Des Jeux. There was one retirement in the form of Kenny van Hummel who had a crash in the stage 17.

The first to setup a quality time was Russian rider Mikhail Ignatiev of team Team Katusha although he started 19th in the time trial. He rode so well that even Fabian Cancellara could not beat this time at the first two intermediate checks. During the last part of the time trial there was a change in weather with 19 riders yet to take the time trial. The showers did not last long and it was quite dry by the time general classification riders started.

There were some impressive performances by Cadel Evans of Team Silence Lotto, Christophe Moreau of Agritubel and Bradley Wiggins of Garmin – Slipstream. There was not change in any of the jersey standings. Lance climbed up in the overall standings to third place with best young driver Andy in second.

Alberto Contador the dark horse of the race and the Astana strong man took the first climb of the Alps in style. He powered ahead on the base of the final climb and took away the yellow jersey. He is now ahead of his Astana teammate and seven times champion Lance Armstrong with a gap of one minute and thirty seven seconds. Andy Schleck of team Saxo Bank finished an impressive second behind Contador.

As the tour returned to the mountains the 15th stage after a rest day was from Pontarlier to Verbier. The 207.5 kilometers stage had 6 climbs and two intermediate sprints. There were four category-3 climbs the cote du Rafour at 8 kilometers, cote des Etroits at 18.5 kilometers, cote de la Carrière at 54 kilometers and the cote de Prévonloup at 74 kilometers, a category-2 climb: col des Mosses at 135.5 kilometers and a category-1 climb to the finish at Verbier. The two sprints were Thierrens at 56.5 kilometer mark and Martigny at 181 kilometer mark.

Although the pace of peloton was dictated by Milram, Liquigas and Saxo Bank but just 6 kilometers from the finish and the final ascent Contador surprised everyone and took the lead. He quickly crossed all the escaped riders and finished the race with a 43 second gap.

Yellow jersey holder Nocentini was dropped at 5 kilometers and could just watch the yellow jersey going away from his hand. Thor Hushovd keeps the green jersey and is ahead of Cavindish by 18 points. In a post match interview Contador said that he was a different rider as compared to team mate Lance Armstrong and was looking for a tour victory this time and was not here to make records like Armstrong’s seven tour victories. Team Astana also had a good outing as it came back to the number one spot in the team standings and taking the place away from AG2R La Mondiale.

It’s been an amazing tour this year, out of the 11 stages 5 have had excellent sprints and what’s most amazing is that 4 have been won by the phenomena Mark Cavendish. The sprint king took away the green jersey from Norwegian Thor Hushovd and also equaled Barry Hoban’s British record of eight stage wins. There were doubts if this would be an ideal stage for Cavendish to charge, but he timed it to the perfection. Till now Cavendish has been the one who started the sprint but in this stage he waited for the right moment and showed the world his caliber as a class sprinter, not to forget he won four stages in last years tour and also has an Olympic gold to his name. It was a disappointment for the green jersey holder as he could manage only a fifth place finish and also lost the jersey to Cavendish.

The 192 kilometers stage 11 was between Vatan to Saint-Fargeau and had 170 riders with one casualty on stage 10 as Kurt Asle Arvesen was forced out of the tour due to a fractured collarbone. The stage consisted of two category four climbs at cote d’Allogny at 40.5 kilometers and cote de Perreuse at 150 kilometers. There were three intermediate sprints in the race Quincy at 26.5 kilometers, St-Geols at 73.5 kilometers and Suilly-la-Tour at 114.5 kilometers. The stage saw an early accident when at the 14th kilometers mark Vande Velde and Rosseler crashed. At the 15 kilometer mark the race came to a halt due to a road block caused by a collapsed structure. This helped the two accident riders to join the main peloton. There was another crash involving Rojas and Righi at the 24 kilometer mark.

Tour leader Nocentini finished the stage at 34th place and will wear the yellow jersey on Thursday in stage 12. He his followed closely by Astana riders Contador and Armstrong.

There was an escape in the early minutes of the 10th stage and for most of the race they stayed ahead by 150 seconds but were finely caught by the sprinters as the wonder by Mark Cavendish crossed the line in Issoudun. Thor Hushovd tried his best but the Colombia boys were as usually on the top and made sure there sprinter took the victory. Even though Hushovd lost but he still leads the green jersey points table at 147 points with Cavendish following him at second with 141 points.

Benoit Vaugrenard, Samuel Dumoulin, Thierry Hupond and Mikhail Ignatiev were part of the breakaway and could only hold with 1400 meters to the end. The train formed by Colombia caught the three Russians just 1900 to the finish and Mikhail Ignatiev was caught in the end with just 1400 meters to finish. For a change team Astana did not do any hard work and did not take part in the chase, maybe this was a way to show the tour officials a sign of protest against the banning of the radio contact.

The stage was a 194.5 kilometers from Limoges to Issoudun and was slow as it was just after a rest day and also one with banned radio contact between riders and the team cars. The stage had there category four climbs cote de Salvanet at 12.5 kilometers, cote de Saint-Laurent-les-Eglise at 27.5 kilometers and the cote de Benevent-L’Abbaye at 58.5 kilometers. The stage also had three sprints which were dispersed evenly. The three sprints were at Lauriere at 44 kilometers, Aigurande at 122.5 kilometers and Saint-Aout at 167.5kilometers.

Yellow jersey is not a new achievement for Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) but Wednesday’s victory got tears in his eyes, as he shook his head and looked behind the charging sprinter and crossed the finish line to add another Tour de France stage victory to his name.

The stage 5 between Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan had a distance of 196.5 km and 178 riders started the race. Piet Rooijakkers (Skil-Shimano) had to withdraw due to his crash in team time trial stage 4. Stage 5 consisted of two category-4 climbs (the col de Feuilla at 112.5 km and the cote de Treilles at 116.5 km) and three sprints (Capestang at 40.5 km, Saint-Jean-de-Barrou at 107.5 km and Canet-en-Roussillon at 158.5 km)

The first failed attack came from a Lampre team member but was quickly caught by the peloton. The next attack was at the 6 km mark by Beppy of Skil-Shimano team and was joined by Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Geslin (Francaise Des Jeux) and Sapa (Lampre – N.G.C). At the 12 km Mark Ignatiev (Team Katusha), Timmer (Skil-Shimano) and Hutarovich (Francaise Des Jeux) launched the next attack and joined the leaders at the 23 km mark they joined the leaders. When the leaders reached the 40 km mark the lead had increased to 9 minutes and 35 seconds. The first sprint was won by Geslin and Hutarovich came in a second place. We the race reached the cost there was lot of fight for position which was one of the reasons for accidents. The first crash was Staf Scheirlinckx (Silence – Lotto) and Stéphane Auge (Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne) at the 106 km mark and just one km after that was Matthew Lloyd (Silence – Lotto) turn. The worst crash was at the 120 km mark when Rabobank rider Robert Gesink fell in a gutter on the left side of the road. At this time the peloton split into 4 groups dude to aggressive riding by Fabian  Cancellara, Andy Schleck and the Saxo Bank team.

In the last part of the race just 22 km from finish all the three trailing groups had joined the yellow jersey group. What can be said that the sprinter teams did not calculate which helped the break away group. At the 15 km mark the sprinter teams started an aggressive chase lead by teams like Garmin – Slipstream, Agritubel and Team Columbia – HTC but it was too late as the breakaway held to their advantage. With 5 km left to finish, Thomas Voeckler launched an all out attack which at the end of the day was he move resulting in a stage victory. Mark Ignatiev finished ahead of the peloton at second place. The late charge from the peloton was lead by Mark Cavendish who finished third and got some consolation points and gets to carry on the green jersey. Fabian Cancellara can just think his lucky stars and will get to wear the yellow jersey for another day.

Team Astana continued there amazing run and is probable favorites to be the no.1 team at the end of the race.

Wimbledon on US Independence day will be the stage for the most enduring sibling rivalry in sports. Venus Williams butchered World No.1 Dinara Safina 6-0 6-1 in just 51 minutes in her semi-final match while Serena Williams had to sweat it out for 2 hrs and 49 minutes defeating Elena Dementieva. There was a sharp contrast in the fortunes of the two sisters, but in the end they both said to the fourth final together. This also got Venus to a 35th consecutive set win at Wimbledon. Venus is looking forward to a hat-trick at the greatest even on the tennis calendar and also looking for her sixth overall. Head to head the both sisters are locked at 10-10 and this looks out to be another great match on Saturday.

Serena survived a match point at 4-5, 30-40 down in the deciding set and came back strongly to win the match. The match was the longest semi-final clash in the women’s draw at Wimbledon. Serena in a post match interview said that it was one of her most dramatic career wins. Serena was equally matched by Elena as she neutralized the power game which been the weapon for Serena. Venus hit 20 aces during the match which also showed her game plan as she also capitalized by winning 80% on the point on her first serve.