Mark Cavendish makes it 6 stage wins on the Champs-Elysees

Here he is leading out on his final assault in this last stage:

Here is what Mark said in an interview after his win:

“I’ve always said that I wanted to win on the Champs-Elysées. Every sprinter dreams of putting their hands up in the air as they cross that line, seeing the Arc de Triomphe in the foreground and it’s an amazing feeling to do so. It didn’t disappoint at all.”

Of course, the winner of the Tour itself was Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong ended up in third place overall with Andy Schleck in second.

Image via Wikipedia

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Lance Armstrong found the “legs” to keep his 3rd place

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It was up and over Mt. Ventoux in the company of Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador (#1 and yellow jersey). It is one of the toughest climbs and Lance had the legs to stay with riders more than 10 yrs younger than himself. It was an amazing performance as I viewed it on OLN with one hour of uninterrupted TV streaming from the bottom to the top of Mt. Ventoux.

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Mark Cavendish got his fifth stage win today

n the end, it was the sprint maestro Mark Cavendish who won, becoming the first rider since Lance Armstrong in 2004 to win five stages in one Tour de France. The Texan was the best of the GC riders, finished 12th – four seconds ahead of the next group.

I am definitely going to watch the commercial free Versus TV report of the Cote de Ventoux climb tomorrow AM!

Image via Wikipedia

The Big Picture on the Tour de France

Finally they have posted their Tour de France gallery. I have used Skitch to borrow a few images for my blog.

Here’s the front part of the peloton on Stage 6:

And then there is this image of Jens Voigt after a serious tumble off his bike on the race down the Petit Col St-Bernard. Out of the Tour:

And to contrast here is the yellow jersey on the same stage, Alberto Contador!

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Lance Armstrong is a tremendous athlete

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It was amazing to see Lance spurt ahead to rejoin the leaders of the pack, including his team-mate Contador, who is the overall individual leader of the Tour de France, at the top of the Petit Col St-Bernard.

At the end of the day he kept his overall second place standing, 1:37 behind his team make, Contador, who wears the yellow jersey.

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The Tour de France web site calls him a “winning machine”

And he did it again today bringing his lifetime record to 8 stage wins, and four in this Tour deF.

He is an exceptional sprinter. Phil Leggett, who calls the Tour for OLN, didn’t think that he could do it today since the last 500 meters was uphill and curvy. But with a great HTC team effort George Hincapie put Mark C in the right spot and Mark turned on his spring jets to win again!

Velo News puts it simply DESIRE:

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Today’s Tour de France victor – Mark Cavendish, confident and arrogant ( they say ) rider from England

And it’s his third stage win in 2009! Probably the best sprinter running in the Tour de France!

Whatever Lance Armstrong undertakes, he will achieve, for now anyway

Image via Wikipedia

This image appeared with this article in NY Times.

And it took only three days of the Tour de France 2009 for him to do it with his Astana team. His and their performance in the team time trial was astonishing and they came first by 40 seconds. It is true that Lance has been very circumspect in his comments about his expectations in the Tour, but who can doubt that he thinks he has a chance to win!

Here’s what he said after the race end, “This is a confession,” he said in the news conference afterward. “I expected it to be easier. I’m not going to be last, but it won’t be like 2004, 2005 or 2001.”

And this comment from a 36 yr old official with another race team, “This certainly could mean something big or it could prove to be nothing,” Jonathan Vaughters, Garmin’s team director, said of the surge in the standings by Armstrong, who is 37. “But it’s pretty impressive.

“Thirty-eight years old and on a comeback to be two-tenths away from yellow? I mean, I’m 36 and I couldn’t do that.”

But even if he doesn’t win his performance boggles the mind. What a physical specimen and what a will to win.

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Le Tour de France gets to Paris at the end of the 20th stage

Image via Wikipedia

and the winner, Carlos Sastre, enjoys his triumph with l’Arc de Triomphe in the background!

In case you are interested you can view a lot more Tour de F photos at Big Picture!

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WOW what a contrast!

With thx to AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski who is obviously following this year’s Tour de France.