Stage 21 - Contador wins le Tour de France 2009.
Le Tour is over. Contador claimed his second victory, Cav maintained his amazing ability to outsprint everyone in the race, Bradley Wiggins surprised us all with his bravery and ability, and the world watched Lance Armstrong with baited breath. It’s been a whirlwind few weeks (except for that steady slog in the middle) and I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted - and that’s not just because I’ve only just got in after two trains and a taxi from Paris.
There’s not much to report from the actual riding of Stage 21 - the riders take it easy and drink champagne whilst nattering amongst each other and posing for photos, and you already know how it ended.
Mark Cavendish crossed the line in a little over 4 hours, with around 120 riders in the bunch immediately behind him, including Green Jersey rival Thor Hushovd. Cav couldn’t scrape together enough points to claim the jersey back, so the Norwegian kept the points jersey. The other jerseys all remained unchanged after the final stage with Pellizotti in polka dot and Andy Schleck in the white ‘young riders’ top.
The top five of the GC remained unchanged also, with Contador at the top (completing the 21 stages in 85 hours, 48 minutes and 35 seconds), Andy Schleck second at 4 minutes 11 seconds down, Lance Armstrong third at 5 minutes 24 seconds down on his team mate Contador, Bradley Wiggins in fourth at 6 minutes 1 second down and Frank Schleck in fifth 6 minutes 4 seconds behind Contador and just under two minutes slower than his younger brother.
Aside from Wiggins finishing in the equal highest position ever achieved by a Brit in the Tour de France (matching Robert Millar’s 1984 position), Charlie Wegelius was the second highest Brit in the GC at 59, followed by David Millar in 85th place and Mark Cavendish at 131.
