I am pretty stoked that Sastre was able to hold off Cadel in the final TT.  Cadel, man if you are gonna follow wheels the best you can hope for is 2nd.  Ya I know his team sucked the big one but he should have been driving it for all he was worth on Alpe d’Huez.  No way he should have let him get that much time without going all out to at least try and bring some seconds back.  He rode the entire Tour defensively.  As much as Sastre went out and took the yellow jersey, Evans let him do it.

Anyway here are the official Big Ring awards for le Tour:

The Chuck D Don’t Believe The Hype Award:  The run away winner here is Alejandro Valverde. After scaring the hell out of every one at LBL and Dauphine many (me included) thought he would run wild in France.  His Stage 1 V did little to dispute that prediction.  What no one saw coming was his meltdown on the Hautacam which truely put him in the Segway category of can’t miss, idiot proof, predictions that did miss. Adios podium!

Cippo Who?/Petacchi is a Pansy Award: Former ballroom dancer (?) Mark Cavendish sashayed across the finish line to the tune of 4 stage wins.  Ya, he didn’t make the Last Tango in Paris, but he is only 22 and his best years and a Green jersey are coming. 

The Wedding Crashers: I am sure when ASO invited Garmin/Chipotle they were thinking they were a novelty act with a strong anti drug message that would sit quietly in the pack and stay out of the way of the “real” racing.  Vaughters and Co responded like Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn cutting in line at the open bar.  Had it not been for an untimely crash Vande Velde might have run off with the new bride and the keys to the honeymoon suite.

The WTF? Award: Bernard Kohl was not a name I heard anyone mention as a podium contender, yet after 3 weeks of wondering when he will come to his senses and crack he never did.  Honorable mention to Stefan Schumacher for proving his 1st TT win was no fluke by going out and winning the 2nd one as well.  Seriously WTF?

The Big Ring Award: The whole CSC team wins this one.  Sastre got to stand on the final podium but the selfless riding of the entire CSC team got him there.  The damage Cancellara did on the Alpe d’Huez stage was jaw dropping.  Schleck 1 and Schleck 2 were nails in the mountains.  Frank Schleck could have just as easy ended up in Yellow that day but Sastre made the move that Cadel didn’t follow.  Bad for Cadel, good for Sastre and CSC.

That was some showdown today ya?  For someone who supposedly can’t climb Cancellara did a pretty good job of shelling most of the peloton.  It was painful to watch, I can’t imagine what it would be like to follow that monster.  Then to have Andy Schleck covering all the attacks after Sastre went away, it was a CSC clinic out there today.

I think Cadel is going to lose.  He put 1:20 on Sastre in the first TT and now he is 1:34 behind.  Sastre is not terrible against the clock.  I think he will ride the TT of his life and hold off Cadel.  Nice try Cadel but I think you rode too defensive and are a little over confident in your TT.  I guess we will see.

I Cadels defense he kinda had to just follow wheels since he had zero team mates on any of the final climbs.  If he wins this tour he will be lucky.  Lotto has to shell out some $$$ and get him some help in the mountains.  Horner did a much better job last year than Popovich has done for Cadel this year.  They should have kept Horner around for another year.  Lotto has failed Cadel and failed McEwen for that matter.

Vande Velde, damn that crash yesterday.