Paris dresses up with its lights and colors to welcome the Centennial tour, for the first time at night, with the "flèches tricolores" flying over the Arc de Triomphe, filling the sky of the French capital with blue, white and red: a magical setting for celebrate Chris Froome, the winner of an edition dominated in a big way which, as is tradition, ended with the sprinters' festival on the Champs Elysées. Marcel Kittel won with an impressive rush, ahead of his longtime rivals, Greipel and Cavendish. For Kittel, first jersey of the Tour in Bastia, it's a fabulous four-of-a-kind.
Froome's Tour goes on file. A race that confirmed the new geographical boundaries of today's cycling, ever more stingy with victories for the countries that were once its historical cradle such as France and Italy, which in all collect only two stage wins: we with Trentin a Lyon, the transalpines with Riblon at Alpe d'Huez. Very little indeed. And if the blue pedal has Vincenzo Nibali ready, to be thrown into the fray next year, and he has never deluded himself that Damiano Cunego, now in vertical decline, would do something important in the Tour, the French one does not see any talent around the Hexagon: Pierre Rolland ran out chasing the polka dot jersey; Thomas Volcker is always more of a clown than a cyclist; Joseph Péraud was especially brave in running the Chorges time trial with a broken collarbone until he crashed into it in another disastrous fall two km from the finish. Too little to think of winning again a Tour that hasn't seen a Frenchman in the yellow jersey in Paris since 1985, the last Tour won by Bernard Hinault. Even Spain, while placing its best exponents in the top ten of the rankings, remained dry. By now the winners among the Europeans are above all the English and Germans, who until a few decades ago were marginal in the cycling scene. Unsurprisingly, the Tour saw the first yellow jersey worn by an African with Daryl Impey, of Orica Greenedge, the Australian team that lined up in the Nice time trial. And English - no small revolution in a "nationalist" country like France - has taken over French as the official language of the Grande Boucle. But if the French cyclists have failed, France has not disappointed which with the Tour has shown the world its scenic and monumental beauties that make it the most attractive tourist country in Europe, where Vincenzo Nibali is expected in great fashion next year challenge Froome and who else wants to win the 2014 Tour.
Given ten with honors to the extraterrestrial, here are the report cards of the "humans" in the centenary Tour.
Nairo Quintana: second, polka dot shirt, first of the youngsters. For the Colombian, born and used to the three thousand meters of the Andes, it was a dream Tour, enhanced by the victory of Annecy-Semnoz ahead of Rodriguez and Froome. Very strong in the mountains, decent in the time trials, everyone sees him as a future winner of the Grande Boucle, certainly the opponent to fear most for those who want to win him, whether they are called Nibali or Froome himself. Score: 8
joaquin rodriguez: he had bet everything on the Tour and after two thirds of the race there were many who turned up their mouths in front of the disappointing position in the standings of the Spanish rider, who had let himself be detached from the best in the Pyrenees. But what Purito has shown since Ventoux has made everyone change his mind about his decline. An escalation to the noble places of the standings up to earning the third place which is worth the podium overtaking Contado and Kreuziger. Score: 7
Alberto counter: he was and is the current rider with the richest palmarès with two Tours (2007 and 2009), a Giro d'Italia (2008), two Vuelta de Espana (2008 and 2012). But of that rider who won so much, after his disqualification for doping, what remained was more the temperament than the legs. At least this is the sensation we had seeing him run this Tour: always generous, tactically intelligent as in the furious attack into the wind of Saint Amand-Montrond, but uphill his dash "en danseuse", at the tip of the pedals, lost the strength and effectiveness of the past. So he tried going downhill, to outdistance Froome, but in the end he took more risks without getting any advantage. Score: 6
Alejandro Valverde: up to Tours he seemed the fittest among humans in the challenge to the extraterrestrial. He was second in the standings when the mechanical accident in the Saint Amand-Montrond stage changed the course of his Tour with Movistar who from that moment staked everything on Quintana, also sacrificing Rui Costa, winner of two solo stages who make one of the unexpected protagonists of this Tour. Valverde did well to climb back into the top ten in the last week of the race until he finished in eighth place about 16 minutes behind Froome. All in all, a result that makes him leave the Tour less disappointed than Contador. Score: 6
Cadel evans: 39th over an hour and a half from Froome. Just look at the standings and the gap to understand the total flop of the Australian, who won the Tour just two years ago by beating the two Schleck brothers. Already detached in the Pyrenees, badly in the time trial of Mont-Saint-Michel, in crisis on Ventoux, almost like a cycle-tourist in the time trial of Embrun and in the three Alpine stages, Evans, at 36 years of age, has perhaps demanded too much of himself, setting a season that included the Giro and the Tour. In the Giro he held up with dignity by finishing third, in the Tour he collapsed. Score: 4
Andy Schleich: no one had any illusions that the Luxembourgian had returned to being the one he had been for a few years (the 2010 Tour is his, the one won and then taken away from Contador), but never having seen him in an action worthy of note, always in the rear, confused in the group, agrees with those who speak of him as an ex-racer, a beer lover more than a bike lover, listless and disoriented even more since he no longer has his brother Frank by his side, stopped for a year for doping and kicked out of Radio-Shack. In Paris he finished the Tour in 20th place, more than 42 minutes behind the yellow jersey. Score: 4
Ryder Hesjedal: who is he? One could say so if this Canadian hadn't won the 2012 Giro by beating Purito Rodriguez by a handful of seconds in the last time trial in Milan. But since then he has only collected lean. Even in this Tour, finished in 69th place two hours and 22 minutes from Froome, he has never been seen, except in the unrealistic breakaway on Glandon and the Madeleine. A little too little to still be considered among the big names. Score: 3
Philip Gilbert: an increasingly emaciated rainbow jersey driven on two wheels through the streets of France without ever a sharp, almost a curse for the Belgian since he hasn't won since the World Cup in Valkenburg. Score: 3
Tejay Vangarderen: fifth place and white jersey in the 2012 edition, he had come to this Tour, after winning the Amgen California Tour, as one of the possible "outsiders". But the American, except for his second place behind Riblon on Alpe d'Huez, strongly disappointed completing the unsuccessful Bmc Tour with Evans and Gilbert, which had in the old Jens Voight, 42 years old in September, the only representative who as always gave his best. Score: 4
Marcel Kittel: with four stage wins, he is the cyclist who has achieved the most partial victories in this Tour, ahead of Froome himself who is stopped at three. For the German of Argos-Shimano it was the consecration at international level: the authentic king of the sprints this year, clearly above all, in particular of his compatriot, André Greipel, who after the 2012 Tour (three victories ) had left Corsica with the label of anti-Cavendish. Score: 9
Mark Cavendish: always devastating when he wins, always a pitfall even when he loses. At one point Cannonball seemed to suffer from Kittel's continued successes, who also beat him in Paris, where the English sprinter had been a subscriber to success for years. The second victory at Saint Amand-Montrond however brought him to the 25th stage won in his career on the Tour, a performance that puts him on a par with Leducq (two Tours won). Score: 6,5
Marcel Greipel: a victory in the Tour can mean a career for many, but not for Lotto's Gorilla who, after last year's three successes, set off with warlike intentions also to win the points classification. But something went wrong and the triumph in Montpellier was never repeated. Score: 6
Peter Sagan: green jersey for handily winning the points classification, the Slovakian leader of Cannondale only managed to put his wheel in front of everyone in Albi. For the rest, many honorable placements and a methodical dedication to scoring points in the sprints for the flying finish lines. In that place in the stage that ended on Mont Ventoux he put on a show by wheeling his bike like a circus juggler. Absolute protagonist in today's cycling. Too bad that for now the climb is hostile to him. Score: 7
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