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Team Discovery, currently America's lone ProTour team, capped its best-ever Tour de France on Sunday, locking down the yellow jersey, the white jersey, two places on the final podium and the overall team classification.
Discovery Channel's impressive quartet of achievements - highlighted by Alberto Contador's GC victory - exceeded any of the Lance Armstrong years, and gave the team formerly known as U.S. Postal Service eight Tour wins in nine years.
Contador is the first rider since Jan Ullrich in 1997 to win both the maillot jaune and the white jersey of the best young rider; and he’s the first Spaniard to triumph in the three-week grand tour since Miguel Indurain’s five-race run ended with his retirement in 1995. Both are remarkable feats considering the 24-year-old needed emergency surgery following a gruesome crash in the Tour of Asturias in 2004, and ended up in the hospital, nearly losing his life to a brain hemorrhage.
"Lance was a role model for me. I read his book in the hospital when I was recovering," said Contador about the seven-time winner and part owner of the Discovery squad who was in Paris to congratulate this year's winner.
Teammate Levi Leipheimer added to the Discovery haul, placing third overall and winning Saturday’s stage 19 time trial.
"I'm very proud. It's a dream come true," said the 33-year-old, who is only the fifth American to make the Tour's final podium, and continued the country's decade-long run of having a rider finish among the final top three. "I watched the Tour since I was a kid. I dreamed of riding it and winning a stage. Being on the podium really fulfills me.”
"Alberto was better than I was in the mountains. I did my best. I think it was clear that I wasn't going to win, so for a teammate to win is great."
Now the Tour’s dominant team, which also won two Tour stages this year, must hope success translates into a new title sponsor. Discovery Channel announced in the spring that it would not be back in 2008, and a replacement has yet to be found.
Sandwiched in between Contador and Leipheimer was Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), the first Australian to make the Tour's final podium. The Land Down Under's previous best was a pair of fifth-place efforts by Phil Anderson in the 1980s and Evans’ own top 5 in 2006.
Evans opted not to chase any of the bonus time available on this year’s final stage, thus maintaining the 23-second gap to Contador, which is the second smallest in the race's 94 renditions, trailing only the eight-second differential between 1989 winner Greg LeMond and runner-up Laurent Fignon.
"I think I have a pretty good idea how to ride this Tour now," said Evans, who continued to lament the lack of fight shown by some teams on the 15th stage when he was unable to follow Contador and Michael Rasmussen and lost 56 seconds to the eventual winner. "I don't know everything, but to me that’s where I lost the Tour de France.”
The 2007 Tour was also a best-ever affair for Tom Boonen and his Quick Step-Innergetic outfit. The Belgian superstar ended the three-week, 3547km journey with two stage wins and his first green-jersey triumph, while his team tallied up four stage wins.
Boonen abandoned his last two Tour campaigns, but came to this year’s race determined to make it to the finish. With his mission accomplished, he was content to sit back during the final charge to the line.
“The legs were fine today, but the stress of racing and trying to hold on to the green jersey has taken it out of me," he said. “All the sprints I did during the Tour I did to win, but today was all about protecting the green jersey. It's taken it out of me and I'm glad it's over, but I'm super happy."
That left Sunday’s spoils to Italian Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital), who pulled off a convincing win at the end of stage 20's 146km ride from Marcoussis to Paris. Bennati powered past Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) to take his second stage of the Tour, crossing the line in 3:51:03. Erik Zabel (Milram) was third on the Champs-Élysées, closing out a final day of racing that was devoid of meaningful action until the peloton reached the finishing circuit deep inside the City of Light.
It was a welcome break from the seemingly endless drama that has made this one of the most contentious, controversial and compelling Tour's in the race's 104-year history. The 2007 edition will be remembered equally for epic battles in the Pyrenees, stage 19's dramatic race-deciding time trial, a litany of crashes - including two involving unleashed dogs - and a steady stream of doping scandals that saw pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov kicked out of the race after returning a positive test for undergoing an illegal blood transfusion, and then-race leader Rasmussen’s dismissal by his Rabobank team for lying about his whereabouts on the lead-up to the race and missing several out-of-competition drug tests.
By the time the peloton reached Paris, two teams had been sent home - Vino's Astana squad and the French formation Cofidis, which withdrew after Italian Cristian Moreni was popped for using synthetic testosterone. T-Mobile was also engulfed in controversy when a day after crashing out of the Tour, it was revealed that Patrik Sinkewitz had tested positive for testosterone in an out-of-competition test administered in June. The German team’s status for the 2008 season remains in doubt.
The Tour's 141 remaining riders (189 started in London) enjoyed a leisurely start to Sunday's action, meandering 90km through the southern suburbs of the French capital. Race director Christian Prudhomme kicked off proceedings at 2:01 p.m., waving the white start flag. Soon all four jersey holders - Contador, Boonen, KoM winner Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) and most aggressive rider Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - took to the front for photo ops. The ensuing two hours offered more of the same pomp and circumstance, each team taking a turn at the front of the slow-moving bunch.
There were some who thought Evans and Predictor-Lotto might take a shot at time bonuses. But the passage of the sprint spot at Châtenay-Malabry, the Paris suburb famous for the renowned anti-doping lab, came and went without incident, and by the time the field reached Issy-les-Moulineaux at the 74km mark, it was nearly 40 minutes behind the slowest scheduled arrival time.
Finally, with the field rolling over the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées, Agritubel's Freddy Bichot launched the first attack with 48km to go. It's been a quiet three weeks for the French wild-card team, which was clearly in search of a little TV time. Bichot's move was short-lived, and several reshufflings ensued until a group of 10 scooted away with 40km to go.
The selection was comprised of Christian Knees (Milram), Mickael Delage (Française des Jeux), Murilo Fischer (Liquigas), Anthony Charteau (Crédit Agricole), Ronny Scholz (Gerolsteiner), Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), Simon Gerrans (Ag2r), Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank), Niolas Portal (Caisse d'Epargne) and Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne). Five kilometers into the move they had a 30-second gap on the field.
Back in the bunch Barloworld moved to the front, intent on keeping things under control to give Hunter a shot at his second stage win. With four laps of the 6.5km circuit to go, the 10 escapees led by 34 seconds. That margin would top out at 45 seconds before the pullback began in earnest.
Crédit Agricole was the next team involved in the chase, the French squad hoping for a repeat of 2006 when its sprinting star Hushovd took the win on the Champs-Élysées. With two laps to go the gap was down to 20 seconds, and going into the final lap the field was all together.
That left the endgame to the sprinters, and it was Bennati flying off the front, then powering his way to the line for a convincing win ahead of Hushovd and Zabel.
“I can't believe I've won here," said the Italian one-day specialist, adding he doesn't consider himself a sprinter. "I came here to win a stage and now I'm going home with two, and the most prestigious one on the Champs-Élysées. I'm not even a real sprinter, I like to get into breakaways. In the past I've had a lot of injury problems. My success here is the fruit of my patience, and hard work.”
Stage 20
1. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre-Fondital
2. Thor Hushovd (N), Crédit Agricole
3. Erik Zabel (G), Milram
4. Robbie Hunter (RSA), Barloworld
5. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic
Overall
1. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, 91:00:26
2. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, at 00:23
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, at 00:31
4. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 07:08
5. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 08:17
Points
1. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, 256 pts
2. Robert Hunter (RSA), Barloworld, 234
3. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, 232
4. Thor Hushovd (N), Crédit Agricole, 186
5. Sébastien Chavanel (F), Française des Jeux, 181
KOM
1. Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez (Col), Barloworld, 206 pts
2. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, 128
3. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, 104
4. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, 92
5. Laurent Lefevre (F), Bouygues Telecom, 85
Team
1. Discovery Channel , 273:12:52
2. Caisse d'Epargne, at 19:36
3. CSC, 22:10
4. Rabobank, 36:24
5. Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 46:46
Best young rider
1. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, 91:00:26
2. Mauricio Soler (Col), Barloworld, at 16:51
3. Amets Txurruka (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 49:34
4. Bernhard Kohl (A), Gerolsteiner, at 1:13:27
5. Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr), Barloworld, at 1:15:16
Most aggressive
1. Amets Txurruka (Sp), ,Euskaltel-Euskadi
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