Tour de France Final Review - Cavendish and Wiggins cap celebration of British Cycling

Today's stage: A sprint battle royale on the Champs-Elysses to finish the Tour de France.

Who won today's stage? Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) won the final sprint for a record 4^th year in a row, taking his third stage win of the Tour to match Peter Sagan (Liquigas) and Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol). The win also gave Cavendish the record for career Tour de France stage wins by a sprinter.

What matters in the GC race? Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) finished to win the Tour de France. He is the first British rider to win the Tour. As a side note, Team Sky was formed three years ago with the goal of having a British Tour de France champion by 2015. Objective achieved. Also, Wiggins has completed the greatest stage race season ever having won Paris-Nice, the Tour of Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine. Second place was Chris Froome (Team Sky) and third place and on the final podium was Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas).

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Peter Sagan (Liquigas) did his green jersey proud by finishing second on the stage today behind Cavendish. Sagan was by far the strongest rider among those that really contested the jersey.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) won this jersey with his two mountain stage victories after the two rest days.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Tejay van Garderen (BMC) ended up winning by over 6 minutes. Next up for him are the August stage race in the United States.

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – RSNT won the team competition, it's biggest objective with no GC contender on the roster after Andy Schleck's injury before the Tour de France.

Biggest surprise of the entire race: Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) wasn't supposed to race the Tour de France. Too young (youngest rider in the race) and too inexperienced (no Grand Tours, these guys usually race at least one Vuelta or Giro before getting a shot at the Tour). But Pinot lobbied for the final team spot after an injury occurred and he made it pay off. A stage win and a top 10 overall finish for a Frenchman is incredible. Along with Pierre Rolland (Europcar), French cycling finally has a future other than stage hunters again.

Biggest disappointment of the entire race: Nobody ever really challenged Sky. Early on, Team Sky just rode at the front and let the crashes behind kill off their rivals (looks at Garmin and Rabobank's tattered remains after stage 6). Then they pounced in the mountains (Jurgen Van Den Broeck did puncture right before the start of the climb on stage 7, costing him over two minutes), killing everyone except Vincenzo Nibali off easily at some point during the race. As for Nibali, he had no help at all. Liquigas has little mountains support and all of it was tired and off-form after racing very hard to control the race (futilely I add) in the Giro. Eventually, he tired as well and no matter he was never going to take the necessary time to avoid being smoked in the time trials by the specialists.

Other items of note: For teams, the stage win breakdown is as follows: Team Sky, 6 (Cavendish, 3; Wiggins, 2; Froome, 1); Liquigas, 3 (All Sagan); Lotto-Belisol, 3 (All Greipel); Europcar, 3 (Voeckler, 2; Rolland, 1); FDJ, 2 (Pinot, 1; Fedrigo, 1); RSNT, 1 (Cancellara); Movistar, 1 (Valverde); Rabobank, 1 (Sanchez); Garmin, 1 (Millar)... The Super-Combative Prize for most aggressive rider of the whole Tor went to Chris Anker Sorenson (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff). Sorenson was in a multitude of breakaways searching for either a stage win or King of the Mountain points. He ended up third in the KoM and 14^th overall.

What is coming next for the peloton? Next up for many are the Olympics. The Road Race is on Saturday (I will be in London for the festivities) and the Time Trial on Thursday the week after that. From there, it's back to the normal schedule. For the American riders and teams, that means prep for the USAPCC. For everyone else, that means relax time or get ready for the Vuelta and World Championships. The Vuelta, and the return of Contador is less than four week away.

Tour de France Stage 16 Review - Voeckler wins again as Sky suffocates race

Today's stage: Big mountains and a major GC battle. Descent finish.

Who won today's stage? Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) went into the breakaway looking for King of the Mountains points. He got a bunch of those and then dropped his companions one by one over the climbs until going solo on the final climb and descending home for his second stage win of this year's Tour.

What matters in the GC race? No changes in the podium. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) attacked three separate times out of the GC group and shed everyone, except the two guys he needed to shed: leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and his second place domestique Chris Froome. Most notably behind, Cadel Evans (BMC) was dropped on both of the final two climbs and lost over 4 minutes. He will remain in the top 10 as Janez Brajkovic (Astana), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) were all dropped by the second GC group led by Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol). Van den Broeck is now 4^th overall followed by Haimar Zubeldia (RSNT), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Evans.

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – No changes, but that doesn't matter. As long as Peter Sagan (Liquigas) remains in the race, he will win this category.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Voeckler was in the break for the KoM points, and he got enough of them to take the lead from Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana). The lead is only four points though with another huge mountain stage tomorrow.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – With Pinot dropped, Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) made his lead nearly insurmountable unless he explodes tomorrow. Still, this is a head to head battle.

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – Even without Frank Schleck (out of the Tour after doping positive), RSNT extended its lead in the team competition. They now lead Sky by over 17 minutes and look likely to extend that lead again tomorrow before surrendering at least some of the lead back to Sky on the Saturday time trial.

Biggest surprise: The GC attacks were saved for the end. The big climbs of the Aubisque and the Tourmalet were early, possibly too early for an attack given the strength of Team Sky. Still, it was a surprise that nobody tried anything on the Col du Aspin to try and shed some Sky domestiques as there were so many remaining on the Aspin that there was no hope of dropping the Sky leadership on the final climb.

Biggest disappointment: Nibali couldn't make any of his attacks stick. Everybody else either didn't have the legs or had no desire to go. Nibali has obviously been one of the strongest guys in this race, but he has had no help in his attacks to stop the Sky train and today was no exception.

Other items of note: The breakaway today started as a ridiculous 38 riders. Expect the same tomorrow has Sky has no real reason to chase any breaks at this point in the race... There was no obvious on road fall out after the Frank Schleck positive test other than Schleck not being on the road... With Voeckler's win, he became the first non-Sprint double stage winner of the Tour this year. I suspect Bradley Wiggins will join him in the time trial on Saturday (especially with Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin no longer in the race)

What is coming tomorrow? Another short climbing stage like the one to La Toussuire. This one also has a summit finish and is the last chance to remake the GC before the time trial on Saturday.

Tomorrow's prediction: Don't ask me. Sky lets breakaways go everyday and predicting that correctly is like trying to win a roulette with one number.

Tour de France Stage 10 - Voeckler claims Spots and the Stage

Today’s Stage: The first foray into the high mountains, but a likely breakaway stage

Who won today’s stage? Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) got himself in the early breakaway and then attacked constantly up the Grand Colombier, dropping most of the breakaway that had a whopping 25 riders in it to start. Then Voeckler attacked in the final kilometer, winning a very slow sprint to the line from a reduced group that included Michele Scarponi (Lampre), Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank), Dries Deveryns (OPQS) and Jens Voigt (RSNT).

What matters in the GC race? Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) attacked on the final descent in an attempt to help his standing but made no real gains. His attack did spring RSNT to the front to protect the interests of Haimar Zubeldia and Maxime Monfort, giving Bradley Wiggins and his Team Sky teammates a rest after they used a ton of energy to chase down an attacking Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas).

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Both Peter Sagan (Liquigas) and Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) got themselves in the large breakaway and both got to the sprint point just before the Grand Colombier. Goss won the sprint and Sagan was 3^rd leaving Sagan’s lead at 232-205.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Voeckler won the Grand Colombier climb with its huge 25 point cache at the top and also takes the lead in the King of the Mountains in addition to his stage win. He now leads previous leader Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) and breakmate Scarponi by seven points.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) finished with the GC group while leader Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) finished just behind. This lowered the gap between them to 25 seconds with van Garderen still leading.

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – RSNT extended its lead over Team Sky to 4’ 58”. More importantly, RSNT is one of the two teams that didn’t bring those silly looking yellow helmets that Team Sky was forced to wear the whole first week. Therefore, they don’t have to look stupid like Sky did.

Biggest surprise: The attacks flew from the GC guys today. The summit of the Grand Colombier was a long way from the finish. That didn’t stop Van den Broeck from attacking on its upper slopes or Nibali from attacking on the descent. While both were reeled in, Van den Broeck attacked again later and made up 30 second on all of his GC rivals.

Biggest disappointment: RSNT did some of the chasing for Team Sky. In an effort to protect Monfort and Zubeldia, RSNT did a good chunk of the chase on the final run-in to the finish with Frank Schleck and Chris Horner on the front. This also gave Team Sky’s tired pacesetters a break, most likely much to the chagrin of Cadel Evans led BMC and Vincenzo Nibali lead Liquigas.

Other items of note: Tony Martin (OPQS) finally abandoned the race after all of his crashes and horrible luck through the early part of the tour. Martin will heal and rest before the Olympics…  In the annual rest day scandal, Remy di Gregorio (Cofidis) was arrested yesterday and ejected from the race. First thought, as is usual in this sport, is doping, but nobody knows for sure and the rumor going around is that de Gregorio was involved in some sort of cocaine ring.

What is coming tomorrow? Mountain pain. This is where the Tour really ratchets up the intensity. Two beyond category climbs (why on Earth is the sprint point after a HC climb though I guess it had to be somewhere) followed by a Cat. 2 and then a cat. 1 finish atop La Toussuire, famous for the Floyd Landis bonk in 2006.

Tomorrow’s prediction: 1. Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) 2. Cadel Evans (BMC) 3. Chris Froome (Team Sky)