Cav' wins on the Champs; Contador crowned Tour champion
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Alberto Contador collected the final yellow jersey of the 2009 Tour de France on Sunday as Mark Cavendish won the 21st and final stage on the Champs-Élysées.
"The Tour is the hardest race in the world, but this year it was particularly difficult. That's why I am so happy," said the Astana captain after finishing the 96th Tour with 4:11 over Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and 5:24 over teammate Lance Armstrong.
The runner-up credited his brother for his success.
"I owe part of this achievement to my brother Fränk, who for three weeks sacrificed himself trying to help me," said the younger Schleck.
As for Armstrong, the seven-time Tour champ said he had no regrets about finishing third.
"I came here to do my best and I came across some guys who were clearly better than me," he said.
"I don't have any regrets. I got put out a couple of times, but considering my age and recent racing, it's not a bad performance overall."
Coming home to Paris
The traditional parade into Paris this year was a 164km ride from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to the famous 6.5km cobbled circuit through the heart of the French capital.
Only one jersey remained up for grabs — green jersey Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) had a 25-point advantage over Cavendish (Columbia-HTC). Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) led the white jersey, while Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) had a lock on the polka-dot mountains jersey.
Astana escorted the yellow jersey into Paris and onto the Champs-Élysées for the final race of the Tour — eight laps of the 6.5km circuit.
The attacks began immediately, and a seven-man group quickly formed, containing Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), Fumiyuki Beppu (Skil-Shimano), Fabian Wegmann (Milram), Arnaud Coyot (Caisse d’Epargne), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Jussi Veikanen (Française des Jeux) and Alexander Pichot (Bbox Bouygues Telecom).
2009 Tour de France
- Stage 21: Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris
- 164km (101.9 miles)
- Stage winner: Mark Cavendish in 4:02:18
- Stage winner's average speed:40.6 kph (25.2 mph)
- Final GC leader: Alberto Contador (Astana)
- Final Points leader: Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam)
- Final Climbing leader: Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)
- Final Team GC leader: Astana
- Final Best young rider: Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)
- Final Most Aggressive rider Pellizotti
- Stage wins/GC leaders
- Stage 1 (ITT): Fabian Cancellara/Cancellara
- Stage 2: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 3: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 4 (TTT): Astana/Cancellara
- Stage 5: Thomas Voeckler/Cancellara
- Stage 6: Thor Hushovd/Cancellara
- Stage 7: Brice Feillu/Rinaldo Nocentini
- Stage 8: Luis Leon Sanchez/Nocentini
- Stage 9: Pierrik Fedrigo/Nocentini
- Stage 10: Cavendish/Nocentini
- Stage 11: Cavendish/Nocentini
- Stage 12: Nicki Sorensen/Nocentini
- Stage 13: Heinrich Haussler/Nocentini
- Stage 14: Sergei Ivanov/Nocentini
- Stage 15: Contador/Contador
- Stage 16: Astarloza/Contador
- Stage 17: Frank Schleck/Contador
- Stage 18 (ITT): Contador/Contador
- Stage 19: Cavendish/Contador
- Stage 20: Juan Manual Garate/Contador
Columbia-HTC assembled at the front to chase, with Hushovd tucked in behind, but the break began taking time, building an advantage of 30 seconds with six laps to go.
Katusha, which missed the break, sent two riders out of the field in an attempt to bridge to the leaders. One immediately dropped back but Mikhail Ignatiev briefly staked out a lonely spot in no-man’s land before getting sucked back in.
With four laps to go the break held 32 seconds on the chase, hitting speeds of 48kph (30mph) and up. If Cavendish had any hopes of collecting intermediate sprint points, he was out of luck, as the break swept them all up, leaving just 35 up for grabs at the finish.
Columbia took something of a breather with 30km to go, apparently unconcerned about the deficit and their ability to close it on Cavendish’s behalf. Marcin Sapa (Lampre) used the lull in the action to launch a bridge attempt but got nowhere.
Three laps from the finish the gap had shrunk, to 21 seconds. A lap later the advantage was 16 seconds and falling as Columbia twisted the throttle.
The break shattered going into the final lap, with Beppu, Wegmann and Veikanen staying off the front as the other four were swept up.
The final showdown
The trio took a lead of nine seconds into the bell lap. As the catch came Garmin-Slipstream tried a sneak attack, led by David Millar; no luck.
With 3.5km to go Garmin had another go, led by Christian Vande Velde, challenging Columbia for control of the finale. Millar took the front as Vande Velde dropped back, leaving Julian Dean to lead out Tyler Farrar.
But Columbia had George Hincapie and Mark Renshaw to lead out Cavendish — and when Hincapie shot to the front and drilled it with 1km to go, followed by Renshaw, who floored it out of the final corner, it was all over but the shouting.
Cavendish won his sixth stage going away — and his leadout man hung on for second.
"First and second on the Champs-Élysées is every sponsor's dream," Cavendish said afterward.
Farrar hung on for third, while Hushovd finished sixth to clinch the green points jersey with 280 points, 10 more than Cavendish.
"I started this morning with one aim, to keep this green jersey," said Hushovd. "I battled throughout the race to win this jersey. I didn't want to take any risks in the final sprint."
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