Schleck's missed chance

Mathematically, Andy Schleck can still win the Tour de France. Other than that, the race for the Yellow Jersey is done. Only an event so unprecedented and so catastrophic would take away the jersey from the virtual 2010 champion, Alberto Contador.

The King of the Mountains jersey has been sewn up two days ago, and it’s on the back of Jerome Charteau, the only jersey that the French has been capable of winning since Bernard Hinault wore yellow in Paris back in 1985.

The White jersey, for the best rider under 25 years of age, has been with Andy Schleck for most of the race, has remained with the Luxembourger and will stay there.

Only two things are at stake tomorrow, and they are the prestigious final stage in Paris, and the Sprinter’s Green jersey which still is a tussle between the ageless Alessandro Petacchi, the big Norwegian Thor Hushovd and sprinter extraordinaire Mark Cavendish.

Interestingly, Schleck just gave up 31sec in the 52km ITT when I thought all along that he would need a 3-minute buffer going into stage 19.

And more interestingly, if we rewind the Tour back to stage 15, 31sec is the same amount of time that Schleck lost to Contador during that infamous, “Chaingate” where Schleck dropped his chain during an attack that seemed to trouble Contador and in which Contador, against the unwritten rule of cycling, attacked Schleck. Theoretically, they would end up with the same tie and Greg Lemond’s 8sec win over Laurent Fignon in 1989 would seem like an eternity!

If Schleck will never win the Tour, he and his team can always look back on stage 17. Defeat isn’t so much painful when you know that you did all you could have done against a superior opponent. But Contador didn’t really show superiority over Schleck, unlike in the previous Tour’s he won and therefore, this defeat will gnaw on Schleck for a long time.

In the technical department, the hands down winner is Specialized, the frame maker of Contador’s team, Astana and Schleck’s team, Saxo Bank.The biggest loser was Trek, who gave up its sponsorship on Astana and put all their eggs on the Radio Shack and Lance Armstrong basket. Component maker Sram was also a loser in spite of the fact that they spec’d both Contador and Schleck’s bike, with the latter’s chain problem.

Going back to Chaingate, I was really surprised why Saxo Bank was still using Sram’s chain when the industry knew that it was its Achilles Heel. Fabian Cancellara, Schleck’s teammate who won the stage 19, 52km ITT, had broken his Sram chain in last year’s classic, the Tour of Flanders.

The 2010 Tour is over, I can’t wait for the 2011 Tour.