Tour de France: Good Tour / Bad Tour - Losers

Alberto Contador

Contador struggled to stay on his bike on several occasions, during the first week, and it seemed that combined with his Giro exploits was a bit too much. He was caught up in the huge crash, on stage one and lost over a minute and was later, allegedly, pushed over by Vladimir Karpets. He did look like he might be catching on the main contenders, but bonking on the Galibier spelled the end for the 2010 champion. He did earn respect of fan, especially after thumping a rude spectator, but he will have to look at his calendar hard next year, if he hopes to win another tour.

Tour de France: Good Tour / Bad Tour - Winners

Cadel Evans

Evans became the first Australian and first Southern Hemisphere rider, to win the Tour de France’s 108 year history. It was his ability to stay with his rivals in the mountains that put him in the prime position to win. Evans knew he had superior time-trialling ability to the Schlecks and really showed it, by beating them by over two minutes. The victory has been received very well in his home country, who has declared a national holiday to celebrate it. Evans is hoping to carry his tour success to London next year, with an Olympic Gold medal.

2011 Tour de France - In numbers

3430 – The Kilometres ridden during the 2011 Tour de France

Days Thomas Voeckler spent in yellow - 10

2,020,500 – The amount of prize money given, in Euros, over the three weeks.

The amount of stitches Johnny Hoogerland received, after his collision with a TV car. - 33

TdF: Sanchez wins on the Luz-Ardiden as Contador loses yet more time

Samuel Sanchez beat all of the other GC contenders, in the first big mountain stage, as Frank Schleck moved closer to the yellow jersey.

Sanchez began to pull away from some of the big names, with Jelle Vanendert, with around 13km to go. It was a Spaniard who had the legs, in the final couple of hundred metres and managed to pull seven seconds out on the Omega-Pharma Lotto rider. Hot on their heels was Frank Schleck, who moved himself in to second and 1 minute 49 second behind the yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler.

Video: 2011 Tour de France - Stage 9 - Flecha/Hoogerland crash

TdF: Sanchez wins in the Massif Central as Voeckler takes yellow

Luis Leon Sanchez sprinted away from his breakaway compatriots, to win Stage 9, while Thomas Voeckler took the yellow.

Voeckler looked like he wanted to add a stage victory to the yellow, but Sanchez was too powerful and put in a 5 second gap in the last 100 metres. The Spaniard, who finished 11th in last year’s tour, now moves in to second in the classification, with a 37 second gap over Cadel Evans. Third across the line was Sandy Casar, who didn’t have the legs to challenge Sanchez and Voeckler.

TdF: Edaval Boasson Hagen times it right to beat Goss and Hushovd in Stage 6

Edvald Boasson Hagen finally made it stick, as he went from 200 metres out, to win a rain soaked stage 6.

Boasson Hagen had to hold off charges from experienced sprinters Matt Goss and, yellow jersey holder and compatriot, Thor Hushovd. Despite controlling the bunch several times, over the last few stages, this is Team Sky’s first victory of the 2011 Tour. The Norwegian took his opportunity, as the bunch was recovering from a series of attacks. He stayed behind his teammate and white jersey wearer, Geraint Thomas, until just the right moment to slingshot him to the line.

Bart de Clercq holds off a charging Michele Scarponi for his first proffesional victory on Stage 7

Bart de Clercq started his professional career off with a bang by beating the Giro’s finest on Stage 7.

The Belgian attacked, as the peloton collected the breakaway with 7km to go, and managed to hold on to win on the first mountain top finish of this year’s Giro, going in to Santuario Di Montevergine. His teammates Sebastian Land and Francis de Greef took their chance, before De Clercq, taking advantage of the leaders watching each other. Michele Scarponi launched a late attack and almost spoilt the part for the debutant, but there wasn’t enough road for the Italian. Following close behind were Roman Kreuziger, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and maglia rosa wearer Pieter Weening.

Tour of Britain - Round Up

This year’s Tour of Britain boasted a high quality including Olympic champions Bradley Wiggins and Ed Clancy.

Stage one brought the riders from Rochdale to 132km up the road to the seaside town of Blackpool. Despite the tough nature of the course it was sprinter Andre Greipel who opened his account with victory. Saxo Bank rider Jonny Bellis only managed 54km before he was forced to climb off the bike. The Manxman is coming back to form after suffering from a near fatal accident in Italy last September.

Team Sky’s Greg Henderson gave the home crowd something to cheer in stage 2 about when he beat Heinrich Haussler and Michael Albasini to the line. The Kiwi was joined in the 18-man breakaway by teammates Wiggins and Geraint Thomas.

The home knowledge helped them on a course that was much more difficult than it looked on the profile.

HTC Columbia was back on the top step and back in yellow after stage 3 with Albasini crossing the line first. The stage was difficult from the start and several riders were dropped immediately the race was de-neutralised. Albasini became the third man to wear the yellow jersey in three stages.

Vacansoleil put on a big show in stage four finishing first and second after the pair launched an attack on the final climb of the day.

ToB: Borut Bozic beats Greg Henderson to give Vacansoleil second victory

Borut Bozic finally managed to take victory ahead of Greg Henderson in stage 7 of the Tour of Britain.

Bozic has been the bridesmaid on a couple of occasions this year, but this time the Vacansoleil rider had the legs on the Kiwi in Colchester on the uphill finish. However, the pair were a full three seconds ahead of third place man Richie Porte. The win now puts him just over a minute behind race leader Michael Albasini who has been suffering from illness for the past few days.

The Slovenian’s victory added to Wouter Poels’ on Tuesday means Vacansoleil now sit at the top of the team classification 6’15 ahead of Sky Pro Cycling. He will hope that the departure of his teammate Pim Lighart will not hamper his hopes of staying on the podium and possibly winning the yellow jersey on the final stage.

TOB: Wouter Poels take victory in stage four but Albasini keeps the lead

Wouter Poels launched an attack on the final climb of the day to beat teammate Borut Bozic and win stage four of the Tour of Britain amid panic for the organisers.

The Dutchman survived the early attacks made on the group to ride away from his teammate Bozic by five seconds. The win added to the news he’d received the day before that he would be part of the team going to the World Championships after Laurens Ten Dam crashed in the Vuelta.

Stage four took riders from Minehead to Teignmouth and was billed as the Queen stage of this year’s tour. It proved to be too difficult for most of the field who couldn’t keep up with the pace set by the front group.