The tainted Tour de France-2007 finally concludes with 24-year-old Discovery Channel rider Alberto Contador keeping his thumb up to be the ‘king of kings’ and becoming the first Spaniard to capture the feat in more than a decade.
The three-week long spectacle witnessed nearly 1 million people marking their presence at the route of the prologue starting, at the very onset from London and finally concluding at Paris.
The 3,500-kilometre errand landed the front-runner finishing just twenty-three seconds ahead of Australia’s Cadel Evans while American Levi Leipheimer finished 31 seconds behind by clinching the third spot, in the overall.
Elated with his accomplishment Contador said:
It’s an extraordinary joy ... a dream. It really marked me for life, but allowed me to better savour this moment. This year, I hoped to win the white jersey. I did not know that with the white jersey, the yellow one would come, too.
However, it also seems that the unending Doping scandals and controversies have almost handed Contador the tour win title, by default.
The event would have posted a different picture, which probably is considered the turning point of the overall sprint, with the Danish Michael Rasmussen being sacked of the race for posing dishonesty about his training whereabouts. Prior to Rasmussen’s expulsion, two other riders, including pre-race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and Cristian Moreni of Italy were expelled too, following drug abuse.
Overall, at the end of the day it’s the win that counts, no matter how it comes but in a justified manner.
Moreover the recent plight confronting cycling have provoked several members of the International Olympic Committee to make stern efforts to see the sport cleaned up or face isolation from future Games.
Via: cbc
