Hispanic Alberto Contador Wins Tour de France

PARIS (By Juliet Macur, NYT) July 27, 2010 — With the Arc de Triomphe in the distance and a sea of fans along the roadside, Hispanic Alberto Contador of Spain stood on the podium at the Tour de France on Sunday.

From 1999 to 2005, Armstrong won this race, the most prestigious event in cycling. This time, he was third, behind the winner Alberto Contador of Spain and Andy Schleck of Luxembourg.

But for the 37-year-old Armstrong — and for many in the cycling community — it was a victory, even though Armstrong fell short of crossing the finish line first.

“I did my best,” Armstrong said before the 21st and final stage of the race, which is typically a ceremonial ride to the Champs-Élysées for the top overall riders. “I came across some guys who were better than me. That’s all I could ask for.”

With Armstrong at this Tour — a 2,150-mile, or 3,459.5-kilometer, race through four countries and two principalities — the race commanded more worldwide attention than the last four Tours did. Those races had gone on during his short-lived retirement.

This time, Hollywood stars like Robin Williams, Ben Stiller and Matthew McConaughey dropped in, paying a visit to Armstrong, the most famous American cyclist.

And this time, the race was in the headlines for good reasons, not bad. Though Armstrong has been dogged by doping allegations throughout his career, particularly in France, his return to the sport after a three-and-a-half-year break overshadowed that.

Also, for the first time at least four years, there were no positive doping cases among riders competing at the Tour. But, as the Italian rider Danilo Di Luca has proven, positive tests could emerge long after the race was done. Earlier this month, Di Luca, tested positive for taking the blood-booster CERA at the Giro d’Italia, in which he was the runner-up in May.

Here, though, the Armstrong-Contador rivalry — not the sport’s lingering doping problems — made daily headlines as the two Astana teammates challenged each other, both mentally and physically, mile by mile.

“Rivalries, like Armstrong-Contador, Borg-McEnroe, Federer and Nadal — it doesn’t matter who — are what feed sports,” the Tour’s director, Christian Prudhomme, said. “And Contador and Armstrong gave us a duel. In France, when we have this rivalry, every time there is a good guy and a bad guy. I’m not saying which one is which.”

Armstrong, the brash Texan, appeared to win the hearts of the people of France, the country that once loved to hate him. No longer invincible, he is an underdog now. He also is oldest rider to finish in the Tour’s top three since the 40-year-old Frenchman Raymond Poulidor did so in 1976.

The picture of him chatting with other riders during the final stage — nearly every other rider, in fact — was far different from the ultra-focused and cold rider the French once knew.

“I don’t know if it’s true, but this is the image that everyone saw at the Tour,” Prudhomme said of the friendlier Armstrong who showed up for this race three weeks ago. “It’s going to change everything from now on.”

Already, Armstrong’s return has changed the landscape of cycling in the United States. Steve Johnson, the chief executive of USA Cycling, can attest to that. He said that Armstrong’s return this year had directly affected the popularity of the sport in the United States.

USA Cycling’s general memberships grew about 5.5 percent per year during the time Armstrong won the Tour from 1999 to 2005, Johnson said. When he retired, the membership dropped by 3.5 to 4 percent annually. This year, with Armstrong back in the peloton, Johnson said the membership growth was back at 5.5 percent.

Also, the network Versus, which broadcast the Tour, said the average viewership for its live morning coverage was up 95 percent through Stage 18.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Johnson said in a telephone interview from the Provence region of France. “It’s pretty clear that now he’s back and there’s an increased awareness. People are interested in the sport.”

Next year, American fans will see Armstrong riding not for Astana — a team based in Kazakhstan — but for Team RadioShack, a team based in the United States. Last week, he announced the formation of the new team.

On Saturday, Contador said he would not be joining him. He and Armstrong are parting ways, with Contador heading to a new team, too, but one that has not been announced yet.

On the eve of Sunday’s final stage, Armstrong already began to distance himself. He did not celebrate Contador’s victory, cemented by a grueling climb up the infamous Mont Ventoux.

Instead, he said, he already was thinking about next season.

“To be honest with you, went to dinner with the RadioShack guys,” he said, adding, “had a few more glasses of wine than I normally would.”

The Armstrong-Contador rivalry is expected to return next year, though, when each will be representing different teams. Johan Bruyneel, Astana’s team manager who is likely heading to Team RadioShack, said he understood that both riders needed their breathing room — particularly after the way this Tour unfolded.

Bruyneel and Armstrong both say that Contador, who also won the Tour in 2007, is talented enough to win multiple Tours after this one. Still, they criticized Contador several times here for going against team orders.

In one example, Contador took off up a climb, leaving his own teammate, Andreas Kloden, struggling in the distance. That ruined the chance at a podium sweep for Astana, Bruyneel said. Contador said it was an honest mistake.

“When there are two champions who want to win, of course there’s going to be tension, but we were able to manage it within the team,” Bruyneel said, adding that he considered Contador “the best rider in the world.”

But Contador’s supremacy this year, beating Scheck by 4 minutes 11 seconds and Armstrong by 5:24, caused questions about how he did it. In particular, his amazing performance on the steep climb in Verbier, Switzerland, raised eyebrows.

“It is like a Mercedes sedan winning on a Formula One circuit,” Greg LeMond, the three-time Tour champion from the United States, wrote last week in the newspaper Le Monde. “There is something wrong. It would be interesting to know what’s under the hood.”

Contador also had to address allegations of doping in 2007, when he was allegedly involved in a Spanish doping ring. His involvement in that ring was never proven.

This time, he responded to his naysayers by saying that the mentality of the riders had changed regarding doping in the sport. He said he was always available for drug testing, without excuses. For the last year and a half, the sport has used a biological passport program that monitors riders’ blood profiles. It watches for any variations that could indicate doping.

“It’s good for the sport, for cycling, which I love so much,” Contador said of those doping controls. “I always pass the controls with a happy face and I will keep undergoing them.”

Despite the doubts about him, Contador still appeared ecstatic as he made his way to Paris on Sunday from Montereau-Fault-Yonne, for the 102-mile final stage of this Tour. The British rider Mark Cavendish won the stage, his sixth victory of this Tour.

Contador sat back in his saddle and sipped Champagne with some of his teammates. He grabbed a Spanish flag from a fan and tied it around his neck, letting it fly behind him like Superman’s cape.

As he headed to the podium, his struggle with Armstrong and the other top riders was far away. Like a carefree boy, instead of a 26-year-old man, he skipped there. And for the first time at this Tour, he smiled so widely that he showed his dimples.

As his arch rivals flanked him, it was Contador’s time to rejoice.

“It has been an especially difficult Tour for me,” Contador said, “but I savor it and it is more special because of it.”