2014 Tour de France Review

I'm going to be on hiatus for a few days so I'll offer my 2014 Tour de France review now, rather than later.

From start to finish, with an exemption in Mulhouse, the overall lead was held almost in its entirety by Team Astana's Vincenzo Nibali, who will become the 6th cyclist to win all 3 Grand Tours (including Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana).  However, the battles that were exciting were the podiums.  Throughout the last week, a half dozen riders had a chance to fill 2 spots, joining Nibali on the Final Podium in Paris.  That was all settled this morning in the Tour's only time trial stage today that ended in Perigueux.  Joining Nibali will be Jean-Christophe Peraud who will finish 2nd, making it a career-best in the major events.  Finishing off is Thibaut Pinot, who also will win the Young Riders Category (White Jersey).  Speaking of Pinot, he had a great competitor in Romain Bardet, who struggled in the Pyrenees, most notably on the Port de Bales.  Bardet finished nearly 3 and a half minutes behind Pinot now in the overall standings. 

Even though Nibali was dominant on the mountain stages, most notably Chamrousse and Hautacam, which sealed the deal on the Tour win, he had a competitor in the King of the Mountains category: Rafal Majka.  Majka was racing on his 1st Tour de France and won stages in Risoul (Alps) and Pla d'Adet (Pyrenees).  Both finishes were 50 points each towards the competition and proves to be a tough rider to look out for in the future, just like Giro winner Nairo Quintana.  Alejandro Valverde had a chance for a podium, but that fell apart on Hautacam.  The points classification was no contest, as it was easily dominated by sprinter Peter Sagan, who has of today, has not won a stage in this year's tour. 

The sprinters had a good showing, with Marcel Kittel winning 3 stages in the 1st week, Andre Greipel won 1 and Alexander Kristoff winning 2 in the last week and a half, including a finish in Nimes.  German time-trial specialist Tony Martin won today's stage in Perigueux, but also won his 1st non-time trial stage in Mulhouse.  Australian Michael Rogers, a veteran of the tour, finally won his 1st ever Tour stage this week in Bagneres-du-Luchon. 

A lot of records were broken, and we'll see another one tomorrow with Vincenzo Nibali's win in Paris.  The 2014 edition was exciting, but 2015 will be even better.