By now, if you've followed my sporadic Tour posts, you surely know that the 2009 Tour de France was won by Alberto Contador. Climber Andy Schleck finished second and ancient champion Lance Armstrong finished third. Yes, in cycling, 37 is ancient. Although Lance isn't the oldest person to finish on the podium. in ’76, a 40 year-hold managed to land in the top three. He, however, had not won the Tour seven times previously.

The only drama on the the ride into Paris, as is typical, was the race for the Green points jersey, typically won by the top sprinter. This year, the top sprinter was clearly Mark Cavendish: he won six stages, all in sprints. Six stage wins is a record for an English rider and ranks among the best Tour performances in history. Only the true greats of sprinting do that. But the winner of the Green jersey proved that the points jersey is not a sprinter jersey: it's a consistency jersey. Thor Hushovd was consistently in the mix for sprint finishes, but marked himself as an outstanding all-around rider by charging ahead on a tough mountain stage to get the intermediate sprint bonuses needed to arrive in Paris in green. 

Sprinters are obligated to hold a straight line during sprints for safety reasons. In the mid-90s, a gendarme stepped out into the road to take a picture. Focusing on the peloton behind the sprinters, he didn't see a sprinter charging at him. The sprinter, going all out with his head down, didn't see him. While the gendarme was miraculously unharmed, the sprinter hit with such force that his frame split in two. He was out the rest of the season with major injuries, including skull fractures.

So when Hushovd challenged Cav's line, the infraction—while apparently unintentional—was serious. Cav was relegated to last place that day, losing the 13 points he would have gained. Cav complained loudly—and in my opinion, childishly—in the media. Hushovd came back the next day and raced ahead of the peloton to gobble up intermediate sprint bonuses. Most sprinters struggle just to finish at within the time cut-off on tough mountain stages. Bravo for a well-earned honor, Thor.

In the on-going Team Astana drama department, Lance Armstrong snubbed Astana's Saturday night celebration for Contador, choosing instead to hang out with his new sponsors. Technically, Armstrong was in violation of UCI rules about announcing new teams, but it's a rule never enforced with penalties. 

On Velonews live coverage poll today, readers were asked who—on the basis of character—was their favorite rider. Armstrong won, as would be expected with an American poll, but Contador got only 4% of the vote. (My vote goes to Carlos Sastre, see below). Clearly, Armstrong fans are unhappy with the way he rode. To some extent, Contador did behave uncharitably towards his teammates. He rode for the win more than the team. But he was put in an untenable position with the arrival of Armstrong. Unquestionably the best stage racer in the world going into this season, he entered the Tour with a large question about whether his team would support him. Instead, an ambitious but untested rider with serious questions over his capabilities was demanding a shot at the leadership. Had Armstrong been anybody else, the press would have vilified him for his disruptions. Certainly, Armstrong himself would not have allowed a similar situation on his own teams.

The real villain in the Contador-Armstrong brouhaha was not the riders but Director Sportif Brunyeel, who should not have accepted Armstrong onto his team. You commit to one rider as your team leader. When that rider is secured under contract, you don't bring in another rider to challenge for leadership unless there is doubt about the first rider's capabilities. This tour would have been even more exciting with Armstrong riding for another team.

My favorite pro rider is been Carlos Sastre, last year's Tour winner. Known in the peloton as Papa Major (big daddy) for his habit of celebrating wins by putting pacifiers in his mouth, in honor of his young children. Well known as an affable, humble rider, Sastre surprised the media last week with a spontaneous outburst, criticizing coverage for being completely focused on the Contador-Lance controversy and ignoring the other riders, including himself and last year's second place rider, Cadel Evans. Humorously, after testily answering questions in Spanish for 40 minutes, the first question an English speaking journalist asked him was what he thought of Contador's chances. Then, after the press conference, a fan asked for a photo. He asked a nearby pressed photographer to do the honors. The photographer said, "Smile, Alberto." Carlos asked him where he was from. After the photographer said Australia, Sastre responded, "Oh, Austria," with a smile.

Yesterday, Sastre showed the character that makes him my favorite with this statement:

“They say that to err is human, but it’s not because I’m human that I’m apologizing for certain things I’ve done wrong during this Tour de France; I’m just recognising my own mistakes.

“For various reasons, despite believing that I’d come to this Tour in excellent physical condition, in a good frame of mind and well-prepared, the truth is that I’ve felt something was wrong since the beginning; things weren’t going as I’d expected. I tried to pull myself together and perhaps I made the mistake of becoming too absorbed in myself and taking my problems out on others.

“When I was in a bad frame of mind I made the mistake of speaking to the media in a press conference that was called by the team on the second rest day, at which I voiced some fairly tactless opinions.

“Regardless of my professional opinion of each journalist, I made the mistake of generalizing in my criticisms when not all journalists and not all cyclists are the same. There are many professionals and journalists who have always treated me well, to say the least, especially during and after my victory in the 2008 Tour.

“Also, I don’t think I showed a good attitude towards my teammates and assistants because they’ve been making an effort to help me and I haven’t always accepted their help very graciously. I hope to have learned from this situation so that it won’t happen again in the future.

“So having got over the mood I’ve been in for the last few weeks, I’d like to publicly apologize (regardless of any private apologies I might make) to the media, my teammates and all the fans who I’ve let down.”

Another controversy arose from an editorial written by the first American winner of the Tour, Greg LeMond. The editorial was publish in Le Monde, a French newspaper, so I haven't read it. Media characterizes the editorial as challenging Contador to prove that he's clean. 

LeMond has good reason to challenge the legitimacy of the sport. After his third victory, Miguel Indurain became the first man to win five consecutive Tours. After Indurain won the fifth time, the next three riders to win were all eventually caught doping, caught in police raids with dope, or admitted it. Then the Lance era began.

LeMond's personal attacks against Armstrong always came off poorly, no matter the reason behind them. However, early on, one could believe it was possible that LeMond knew people in the peloton who were telling him Armstrong was a doper. While whatever hearsay LeMond was getting would hardly be conclusive, it would make his actions more sympathetic (if still wrong, in my opinion).

With Contador, it has reached the point of absurdity. Not because there is anything about Contador that puts him above suspicion, but both because LeMond is so far removed from his riding days that he can't possibly still have active contacts to be feeding him rumors and because doping controls are now much more rigorous. I won't say Contador categorically isn't cheating.  Giro winner Danilo DiLuca's had a blood control come back positive during the tour. While two positive controls are needed for a reliable confirmation (the first should be considered as likely to be a lab problem as a positive result), the specter of cheating will always remain. But testing is now rigorous that there is nothing Contador or any other rider could realistically do to prove his innocence. LeMond has raised the standard to guilty until you surrender all privacy in your life, 24/365. Assuming the media reports of LeMond's editorial are correct, he's tarnished the sport for a paranoid witch hunt.

I'm no fan of ESPN.com's Armstrong, erm, cycling coverage, but Bonnie Ford is a great writer and makes the trip to ESPN's pages worthwhile. She wrote a wonderful piece on Jens Voight that I highly recommend.