THE final stage of the 2009 Tour de France, and indeed the entire race, could be said to be swathed in two flags: that of Spain, who, in Alberto Contador, provided the winner for the fourth year in succession, and – take a deep breath – the Union Jack of Great Britain.
"The Brits are coming," said Dave Brailsford, the GB performance director who is setting up a team to take on the Tour next year, but, although he uttered those words only recently, they are out of date. Now, with the performances on this year's Tour
of Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins, the Brits are no longer coming – they are here.
It is possible that the sport has never witnessed a sprinter as dominant as Cavendish, who yesterday, with what looked like preposterous ease, claimed his sixth win on the most prestigious stage of them all, the final one on the Champs Elysées. But for a harsh relegation on stage 14, where he was adjudged to have impeded Thor Hushovd, he would also have won the green jersey of points winner. It is surely only a matter of time before he does.
Cavendish's tally means that Britain won more stages than any other nation. Or, if you prefer, the Isle of Man won more stages than any other nation, since they all came from the stocky legs of the 24-year-old Manx Express. No rider has been so prolific since 1981, when the great Belgian Freddy Maertens cleaned up in eight.
"Winning on the Champs Elysées is a dream for every sprinter," said Cavendish, who again lavished praise on his Columbia-HTC team, which set him up perfectly, with his lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, even managing to claim second for himself.
"When we came out the last corner (on to the Champs Elysées] to be honest I s*** myself, but I knew if Mark thought we could get round it we'd be OK. To win there, in front of the Arc de Triomphe, is a beautiful feeling."
Parochial interest aside, this Tour threw up no shortage of talking points and intrigue, though it was arguably the off-the-bike shenanigans that produced more in the way of drama than the actual racing, with Contador as superior in the mountains as Cavendish was on the flat.
A sub-plot that ran throughout, of course, was the feud between Contador, the 2007 winner, and his Astana team-mate, the returning Lance Armstrong.
The frostiness between them was evident on the final podium in Paris yesterday, when Armstrong embraced the second-placed rider, Andy Schleck, then almost blanked Contador. As he went to shake the Spaniard's hand you half expected him to withdraw it at the last moment, and thumb his nose.
It might have been petty, but it was hugely entertaining and fuelled by Armstrong, while Contador kept a dignified silence. The 26-year-old from Madrid isn't the most charismatic of champions, which puts him at a serious disadvantage against someone who arguably is.
However, on Saturday night, with victory all but confirmed after the climb of Mont Ventoux, Contador's impenetrable mask finally slipped, just a little. In response to a question about the "tension" in the Astana team, he replied: "It has been a hard Tour… every day there was a certain amount of tension and now I can think of the victory and forget about all the other stuff."
The 'other stuff' included the suspicion that Johan Bruyneel, the Astana director and long-time Armstrong mentor, wanted the American to win. Was that the case? "It's a good question," Contador smiled. "I really don't know. You'll have to ask him."
What is certain is that Contador and Armstrong will not be team-mates next year. While Armstrong is setting up his own team, sponsored by RadioShack, Contador will also leave Astana, though where he will go is open to speculation, including that Formula 1 star and cycling fanatic Fernando Alonso is building a team around him. "For sure, I will be on a different team to Lance," he said.
Perhaps Contador will join Brailsford's new project, Team Sky, which will aim to produce "a clean British winner of the Tour de France". Or perhaps not. In any case, Wiggins' fourth place overall – equalling Robert Millar's best-ever British placing, achieved a quarter of a century ago – confirms his new status as a Tour contender.
He will return next year with the aim of making the podium, though whether that will be in the colours of Team Sky remains to be seen; he said during the Tour that he would remain loyal to his current team, Garmin-Slipstream, to whom he is contracted until the end of next year.
Wiggins began Saturday's stage with a shot at the podium, though with a formidable rival in Armstrong. As Schleck and Contador forced the pace on the slopes of Ventoux, the 29-year-old Englishman rallied at the end to hold on to fourth: a monumental achievement.
For Armstrong, too, there was satisfaction in ending his comeback Tour on the podium. His performance – full of trademark determination, even if the strength of old deserted him at crucial moments – seemed also to go some way to redeeming him in the eyes of the French public, with whom he has had an even frostier relationship than with Contador.
In 2005, after the seventh of his victories, the front page of L'Equipe read 'The Armstrong Lie', above a report that accused him of cheating on the 1999 Tour. Yesterday, the French sports daily's headline, following Armstrong's performance up the Ventoux, was 'Chapeau, Le Texan' (Hats off to the Texan). He says he'll be back next year to win.
With Contador around, however, it seems unlikely. Saturday's stage to Ventoux demonstrated that it takes more than a great script to produce great drama, thanks in large part to the Spaniard's clear superiority.
The only question mark over Contador is his past associations with subsequently discredited teams and managers, not helped by his vague responses to questions on doping.
"Can you tell us you've won clean and can you make a strong stand against doping?" he was asked. "I am available 365 days to doping control," he replied. "I am always in favour of the anti-doping controls; it's good for the sport, for cycling, which I love so much. I always pass the controls with a happy face, and I will keep undergoing them."
When rumours linked Contador to the Operacion Puerto blood doping scandal in 2006 he refused to submit a DNA sample, which could have been tested against the bags of blood uncovered in the Spanish investigation. As a model of transparency, it would be refreshing if he were to follow the example of Wiggins, who today will release all the data from his blood tests over the past year.
Wiggins is aware that his performance has given rise to suspicion, and, as he stood on the Champs Elysées, reflecting on a performance that he admitted "has changed everything for me", he explained his motivation for publishing his test data: "That's the next step and it will dismiss the doubts if people have them. Everyone knows where we stand as a team and that level of transparency is important. I have nothing to hide, so why not put it out there?"
STAGE 21 RESULTS (Montereau-Fault-Yonne – Paris Champs-Elysées, 164km): 1 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Team Columbia – HTC 4hrs 2mins 18secs, 2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia – HTC at same time, 3 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin – Slipstream at same time, 4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram at same time, 5 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Francaise des Jeux at same time, 6 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team at same time, 7 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at same time, 8 Marco Bandiera (Ita) Lampre – NGC at same time, 9 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas at same time, 10 William Bonnet (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom at same time, 11 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at same time, 12 Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) Agritubel at same time, 13 Nikolai Troussov (Rus) Team Katusha at same time, 14 Cycril Lemoine (Fra) Skil-Shimano at same time, 15 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne at same time, 16 Sebastian Lang (Ger) Silence – Lotto at same time, 17 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Quick Step at same time, 18 Steven de Jongh (Ned) Quick Step at same time, 19 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank at same time, 20 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) BBOX Bouygues Telecom at same time. Selected others: 55 Bradley Wiggins (Gbr) Garmin – Slipstream 4hrs 2mins 18secs, 138 David Millar (Gbr) Garmin – Slipstream 4hrs 2mins 48secs, 139 Charles Wegelius (Gbr) Silence – Lotto at same time.
