Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Final Thoughts on 2012 Tour de France

I find the race both thrilling and frustrating for all the reasons I have previously discussed.  If it weren't for the final time trail where Bradley Wiggins blew away the rest of the field, I would have dismissed his win in the general classification as akin to Hulk Hogan "winning" the WWF championship in the 1980s.   His Sky team was so strong that it isn't clear how much was BW and how much was the work of his team. 

I actually prefer the competitions that are more individual in nature and less entangled between team discipline and individual accomplishment.  Kudos to Peter Sagan who won the points championship (not clear how one wins the overall points and still finishes so far back in the general classification).  Kudos to Thomas Voekler the king of the mountains and Mark Cavendish the top sprinter for heroic accomplishments.  The duel between the 23 year old American and the 22 year old Frenchmen for best young rider was probably my favorite part of the race.

I think I am even going to geek out even further and start following the other multi-stage road races in Italy, Spain, California and some of the others if I can find good internet feeds for watching the race highlights.  At a minimum, I now know many more Olympic riders than ever before.

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