Tour de France, in Paris Cavendish scores a trio on the day of Wiggins' triumph

Fabulous and unattainable. Mark Cavendish, burning Sagan and Goss, makes the trio at the finish line in Paris, in the setting of the Champs Elysées, where the Union Jack anthem rang out to celebrate the English triumph on the Tour with Bradley Wiggins, four times world champion in the pursuit, which this season has won all the stage races in which it has participated. The Tour crowns a career that still has a lot to say on the road even if "Wiggo" is now 32 years old. Yesterday in Chartres, triumphant in the time trial, his fist raised to vent the tension accumulated in three weeks of racing, today in Paris the final progression to pull the sprint to his fellow world champion who in this Tour had been his follower also bringing him the water bottles : Wiggins – long sideburns, excited as never before at the awards ceremony behind dark glasses – tried in every way to legitimize his over-predicted yellow jersey on the eve and protected at all costs by Team Sky up to harnessing the exuberant strength of the mate Christopher Froome, second in the general classification. It was a disappointing Tour all in all, with Wiggins, ever vigilant, being driven through the streets of France by his team, a race full of pitons from the saboteur in the Pyrenees but lacking in the excitement that the Grande Boucle usually offers. The only feats – apart from the two superb time trials of Wiggins and the sprints of Cavendish, Greipel and Sagan – came from non-ranking riders, who had the go-ahead from Team Sky: thus the exploits were born and matured, admirable but all insignificant for the fight at the top, of the various Vocklers, Valverde, Luis Leon Sanchez. The Italian expedition returns home without stage victories but with the more than deserved third place of Vincenzo Nibali, which earned him the lowest step of an all-English podium. In the report cards of the Tour, the Sicilian climber is the only Italian who deserves the sufficiency.
THE THREE ON THE PODIUM
Bradley Wiggins: a season to frame. At 32, he is the first Englishman in 109 years to wear the yellow jersey to Paris after winning all the stage races in which he has taken part: Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, Giro du Dauphiné and now the Tour as well. They say that raced and won the Grande Boucle like Lance Armstrong did thanks to a formidable team, Team Sky, which has always protected him like the US Postal did with the Texan superman (now on the verge of doping). Armstrong did control the race but every now and then he attacked creating a vacuum and doing the feat that Wiggins was careful not to accomplish by settling for dominating his rivals in the two time trials, a specialty in which he is truly formidable, putting his experience as a pistard to good use. In races against the clock only Fabian Cancellara – who left the scene after being in the yellow jersey for six days – can threaten the supremacy of the Englishman with his unique aerodynamic style. More than Evans and Nibali, Wiggins suffered attacks from his team-rival Christopher Froome who has always shown himself to be stronger than him in the mountains and who was only forced to... brake by team orders. An offense to sportsmanship, a humiliation even for Wiggins who might have won anyway. It will be interesting to see him again at next year's Tour when there will also be a certain Alberto Contador, who is about to return to racing after a long disqualification.
Christopher Froome: enlisted in Team Sky, all focused on the Wiggins project, nobody had taken him into consideration, this Englishman born in Kenya, who stage after stage proved to be a diesel, capable of blistering uphill sprints that left the others on the pedals, even its Captain Wiggins. The victory on the final wall at La Planche des Belle Filles was the sharpest best of him. Second at 3'21” from the yellow jersey, Froome was only inferior to Wiggins in the races against the clock. But not by much. If he changes teams, as it seems, next year Wiggins will have one more uncomfortable rival.
Vincenzo Nibali: perhaps calling him “Shark” is excessive but the Liquigas captain was the only man in the standings to attempt some attacks. Grit and determination have never lacked him. Even if he prefers the mountains he is not a Gaul or a Bahamontes, nor a Pantani. Little helped by an increasingly subdued Basso, Nibali gave everything he could give as long as his health held him up. He only gave up a little in the Peyragudes stage but defended his third place deserving of the podium in Paris after having completely distanced Van den Broeck, fourth in the standings, in the Chartres time trial. It's unlikely that he will be able to win a Tour, more likely that he will win a Giro d'Italia.
MORE THAN PROMISES
Peter Sagan: three victories, three second places, the green jersey in the points classification, an explosiveness in the last kilometers of the race which now make this 22-year-old Slovak, a true bike acrobat, a reality of cycling today and in the coming years. Should he improve (a lot) on the climbs, he would be unbeatable. He has all the time and desire to learn.
Tejay Van Garderen: almost unknown, the American from Bmc is the beautiful revelation of this Tour. Almost always with the best, fifth in the standings 11'04” behind Wiggins, he gets the well-deserved white jersey, symbol of the best-placed youngster.
Pierre Roland: it is with Thibaut Pinot, the new man of French cycling who in recent years has had in the histrionic and generous Thomas Vockler, the best climber's polka dot jersey, the only lifeline. Winner last year at Alpe d'Huez, Rolland triumphed this year in the stage that went up to La Toussuire. In the coming years he has all the potential to win the Tour by breaking the transalpine fast that has lasted since 1985 (Hinault's victory).
BREED SPRINTERS
Mark Cavendish: triumphs for the fourth consecutive time on the Champs Elysées, Cannonball the king of the sprints, even if Greipel and Sagan have won three stages like him. But in this Tour, Team Sky, intent on defending Wiggins' yellow jersey, left him practically alone without a supporter to give him a sprint. Not only that, the world champion was often seen collecting water bottles to distribute them to Wiggins and his companions. Exceptional. After today's peremptory sprint he is increasingly the big favorite for the Olympic gold medal in London.
André Greipel: less character than Cavendish, but capable of an impressive power that led the "Gorilla", this is his nickname, to triumph in three stages. An authentic dynamite in the calves exploded in the arrivals of this Tour.
Matthew Goss: he tried several times but his mouth was dry. For the Australian, a more sour than sweet Tour. But he has everything to resurrect at the next opportunity.
THE BIG FLOPS
Cadel evans: sorry to put him at the top of the "lost", but the great refinement of the 2011 Tour has remained more than the pedaling: some unrealistic attacks before a last nightmare week. Unforgettable is the gesture with which he thanked his teammate Hincapie for assisting him in the disastrous stage of Bagnères-de-Luchon. At 35, it's hard to think that it's just an unfortunate Tour, a parenthesis in a successful career. But the Australian champion has a great desire to try again.
Janez Brajkovic: disappointing even if ninth in the ranking. If he worked in the world of cinema, he would have been at most a chief extra. Never protagonist in the 3.500 km of the Tour.
Frank Schleich: perhaps those who say without his brother Andy are lost are right. After having betrayed all expectations, in the Tour he was in turn betrayed by a diuretic: excluded for doping, by which time he was out of contention for the yellow jersey.
Denis Menshov: very little has been seen of the rider who in 2009 was also able to win a Giro d'Italia. Never in the race, the Russian - twice victorious at the Vuelta too - seems to have now entered the avenue of sunset.
Iván Basso: age weighs more and more on the legs. After a Giro with disappointing results, he came to the Tour with the sole purpose of helping Nibali. Modest task for a champion like him, moreover done sufficiently only in the last two Pyrenean stages.
Michele Scarponi: in his plans there was the victory in the Giro (also failed in terms of podium), certainly not the one in the Tour. Always bad in the time trial but also bad uphill: for the 2011 pink jersey, a more anonymous Tour than that could not have imagined.
SUPER JELLY.
Robert Geink: for Bernard Hinault he was with Evans and Wiggins the third favorite for the final victory of the Tour. But a series of crashes in the initial part of the Tour immediately put the Dutch rider out of the classification who tried to resist the bad luck. But wounds and bruises transformed each stage into an ordeal until he retired.
Samuel Sanchez: with Alejandro Valverde was the ranking man of the Spaniards. But he didn't have time to try to attack Wiggins in the Alps: he ended up badly in hospital due to a bad fall which prevented him from participating in the Olympics.
Ryder Hesjedal: arrived at the Tour after the unexpected success at the Giro, the Canadian was expected in France for a new test. He didn't have time to be put to the test, as he too was involved in the gigantic tangle of bikes and injured in the Metz stage.