Monday, July 27, 2009

The real stars

The Schleck brothers were the real stars of the Tour for us. Whilst politics were being played out in the Astana camp about who should be the leader of the team and Cavendish was rubbing his sores after being denied the green jersey, these two just got on with racing.

Ahdy Schleck led his brother Frank to win on Stage 17 Bourg-Saint Maurice to Le Gran-Bornand and on Mont Ventoux he kept looking behind him to see where is brother was rather than digging in to challenge Contador. It was more important for Andy to ensure his brother kept his ranking than go for glory himself.

Working together in the way the Schlecks did will ultimately prove more successful than wrangling within a team as we saw with Armstrong and Contador. Throughout the three weeks, it wasn’t clear who Johan Bruyneel was supporting. At the press conference following the climb of Mont Ventoux, it was obvious it wasn’t Contador – Bruyneel was absent.

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