The 2011 Tour de France was the best Grand Tour I’ve ever seen. It should be noted that I’m no expert, and I’ve probably watched, start to finish, less than a dozen. That said, cycling experts all over the place agree that it was a fantastic event, and perhaps the best Tour de France in many, many years.
I’ll get slated by pro-cycling fans the World over for saying it, but from someone relatively new to the sport, it’s an easy way in if there are Brits doing well - if you’re from the UK. Early in the race, it was easy to see that Bradley Wiggins was in form; Geraint Thomas managed to get his hands on the White jersey for a few days; Ben Swift looked in awe of the race at first, but settled well; David Millar was his usual dandy self; and Mark Cavendish, well he doesn’t need me to tell him that he’s head and shoulders above all other sprinters right now.
Not that I care only about the Brits; some of my favourite moments came from those outwith this little island. Below are my favourite riders, taken from the Top 10 in each classification, but not necessarily the winner of each.
General classification winner: Cadel Evans; Love Bikes pic: Thomas Voeckler
Voeckler defied the naysayers for days, and days, and days. He’s not pure climber so shouldn’t have been able to stay with the GC contenders in the Pyrenees, let alone the Alps, but he held the yellow jersey for 10 days and did France proud. In the end, he knew he was spent and let his super domestique leave his side and push for the win on Stage 21. Pierre Rolland, another Frenchman, did just that.
Points classification winner: Mark Cavendish; Love Bikes pic: Thor Hushovd
This was a fantastic tour for Norway, but ended up being in the shadow of the recent killings that took place in Oslo and Utoya. In fact, before the final stage, both Hushovd and Boasson Hagen - the other Norwegian in this year’s Tour - were photographed observing a moment of silence to commemorate those that had died.
Hushovd himself took two stage wins, one of those an amazing endeavour over the Pyrenees mountains, in pursuit of the ever-present-in-the-breakaways Jérémy Roy. As sorry as I felt for Roy, I couldn’t help but be delighted for the big, likeable Norwegian.
The God of Thunder showed his class throughout this race and did the World Champions jersey proud.
Mountains classification winner: Samuel Sanchez; Love Bikes pic Johnny Hoogerland
How could you not admire Johnny Hoogerland, after all he went through in the early stages of the race? Taken out by a combination of a French TV car and Sky’s Juan Antonio Flecha, Hoogerland needed the majority of the skin on his legs to be stitched back together, and still carried on, all the way to Paris.
From what I understand, he’s not the most popular man in the peloton, but he definitely won the hearts and minds of the watching public as he fought through the pain to finish the race.
Young Riders classification; winner: Pierre Rolland; Love Bikes pic: Pierre Rolland
Pierre Rolland was as much a part of Thomas Voeckler’s yellow jersey as Voeckler himself was, such was his constant presence alongside the maillot jaune. The White jersey changed hands a few times and finally came to rest on the young Frenchman’s shoulders, ensuring not only that the he achieved legendary status among his countrymen, but also raised expectation for next year’s tour.
If the tour had finished a week earlier, I would’ve had Geraint Thomas in here as the Love Bikes White jersey pic, but the young Welshman faded a bit towards the end and was actually overshadowed by his Norwegian teammate in terms of performances.
All in all, it’s been a great Tour and I’m very much looking forward to the next one. That said, it’s only a few weeks until the Vuelta a España.
