Tour de France 2006…momentous
By Camilla Mancini
The 93rd Tour de France was thrilling and unpredictable until the end. This excellent test for professional cycling teams finished last Sunday, July 23th after three weeks of races which covered 3,653.6 kilometers (2,270 miles).
The Tour was won by the American Floyd Landis, despite a degenerative right hip that will require replacement surgery soon and, of course, the meltdown Wednesday that seemingly ended his hopes, Landis stood on the highest step of the victory podium in Paris last Sunday.
“I had parents that taught me the value of hard work and patience. That, and persistence is what I’ve learned in this race”, said the winner on his final press conference.
He was certainly persistent, since he didn’t obtain the yellow jersey until 22nd July; he wasn’t a “secure” winner. But on Saturday, when he had to beat a deficit of 30 seconds, the yellow jersey came along for him, putting everything on a different perspective.
This is the 11th Tour won by the Americans in 21 years; the last 7 Tours were won by Lance Armstrong who has the higher number of winnings in the Tours de France history, and the first 3 by Greg Le Mond on the 73’, 76’ and 77’.
On the podium Oscar Pereiro, a Spaniard with the Caisse d’Epargne team and Andreas Klöden, a German with the T-Mobile group, joined Floyd Landis. Pereiro got the second place after losing in the time trial, and Klöden, in third place also made up a deficit to overtake Carlos Sastre, a Spaniard with CSC, and moved from fourth place to third, 1’29 seconds behind Landis.
None of them had ever won a grand Tour before Sunday, although Klöden got the second place two years ago in the Tour de France.
Pereiro, Klöden and Sastre, weren’t team leaders on the original Tour record. Pereiro replaced Spain’s golden boy Alejandro Valverde, who in Stage 3 hit the deck hard as riders ahead of him turned sharply in order to avoid a large pot hole (according OLN) causing him to crash out with a busted collar bone which is common in cycling.
Klöden substituted, La Grande Boucle winner Jan Ullrich, who was suspended after being named in a doping investigation. As well Sastre stood in for his teammate Ivan Basso who got excluded for the same research Ullrich was involved in.
Le Tour 2006 it is also the goodbye to the Tour Director, Jean Marie Leblanc, who directed it since 1989. As a nice gesture the race staff applauded him across the yellow carpet at the end of the presentations.
The Tour de France gave us a lot of delight, revelations, drama and probes of what it is required in life to be a winner. We’ve seen on this few weeks’ great teams with outstanding partnerships. But it is over now and it is time for the next year cycling riders to get prepared, while we wait for the next year La Grande Boucle and its surprises.
