Alejandro Valverde finally makes a sharp note worthy of his past and wins the last mountain stage of the Tour by posting. After the Pyrenees too, Wiggins now has the Grande Boucle in his pocket: he will be the first Englishman to win in France but also today on the final ramps that lead to the finish line in Peyragudes he undergoes a new test of strength by his special wingman, that Chris Froome who instinctively tries to reach Valverde and then accelerates, but once again, as in La Toussuire, he almost has to stop at wait for the captain in the yellow jersey for team orders. Today Froome does it more explicitly by turning back and waving his arm as if to say to Wiggo: "where are you?". For the first time in this Tour with the two Englishmen who came within 19″ of Valverde (Froome second and Wiggins third) there is no Nibali: after yesterday's brilliant stretches, which bode well for today, the "Shark" is even remained detached from the leading duo of Sky, losing 18”. The Belgian Van den Broeck also arrives with an advantage of 11” ahead of the Liquigas captain, the only one who could threaten Nibali's third place on the podium in Paris, but there are still 3'12”, a margin of complete tranquility for the Italian runner.
Before Valverde's solo, on the hills of the stage, Thomas Vockler and the Swede Kessiakov waged a completely personal war to secure the polka dot jersey, a challenge that ended to the advantage of the Frenchman who, once he secured the lead in the special classification of climbers, he got lost along the way, even getting sucked in by the small group of Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov: for the Australian it was another day to forget, for the Russian who also won a Giro d'Italia the confirmation of an irreversible sunset.
Thus the Tour, stingy with emotions like few other editions, has now taken the direction towards Paris. The Chartres time trial will serve to fix the final gaps. Wiggins will only have to beware of Froome who, however, has never been stronger than his captain in races against the clock. It is the Tour of betrayed expectations and constant postponements. The Alps were expected to ignite the battle. Nah, full sleep. So everything was postponed to the Pyrenees. Another disappointment. Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde have left unchanged the gaps established by the two time trials of Liège and Besançon among the top three of the standings. Today he confided in the Port de Bales but even the dreaded pass gave birth to a mouse. It only served with Peyragudes' ascent to decree the lowering of the flag for some top players weighed down by age such as Evans and Basso. For Ivan, certainly an ex-great, the Giro had already given not encouraging indications.
