Stage 19: Saturday, July 24 – Bordeaux to Pauillac (52km individual time-trial)

The penultimate day of this year’s Tour was a 52km time-trial, heading north from Bordeaux to Pauillac. With Alberto Contador (Astana) leading Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) by just 8 seconds overall, the main business of the day would be to confirm who would wear yellow in Paris. But the fight for the final podium place would also need to be sorted out, with Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) third at 3′32, and the acknowledged better time-trialler Denis Menchov (Rabobank) fourth at 3′53.

As always, the start order for the was in the reverse order of the riders’ overall positions. And it’s this which proved crucial to the outcome of the stage. At the start of the day, conditions were fairly still, and decent times were registered by Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) and Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), mimicking their fine performances in the prologue time-trial in Rotterdam.

But as the day progressed, the wind kicked up significantly, meaning that the high-placed riders competing towards the end of the day would be riding straight into a stiff headwind. This meant that no-one would match the early best times, gifting Cancellara the win, Martin second, and third place for overall last-placed man Bert Grabsch (HTC-Columbia).

The stage win was largely unimportant – the key question was whether Andy Schleck’s time-trialling capabilities had really improved, as had been rumoured. Live TV coverage flipped between Schleck and Contador as soon as the Spaniard was out on the course. At the first split-time point, the clock showed Schleck had put in a tremendous performance, gaining a 6-second time advantage over Contador. This meant the Luxembourgeois was just two seconds away from the ‘virtual’ yellow jersey.

Schleck’s valliant effort continued, with Contador perhaps looking slightly nervy and rattled – news of Schleck’s pace will have been relayed over team radio. However, by the time the second split-point had been reached, it was clear that Contador had increased his effort, and was extending his lead overall. At the finish, the Spaniard came in 31 seconds faster than Schleck, increasing his overall lead to 39 seconds. Alberto Contador had won the 2010 Tour de France.

The battle for third had played itself out shortly before this. Dennis Menchov, a previous winner of flat time-trials in the Vuelta a Espana, had a very good day. The Russian finished a full 2 minutes faster than Samuel Sanchez, leap-frogging him to take the 3rd place on the podium in Paris.

Leader board after this stage:

Overall GC
WINNER – Alberto Contador (Astana)

Points
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre)

King of the Mountains
WINNER – Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom)

Young Rider
WINNER – Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)

Tomorrow’s stage is the 102.5km grand finale from Longjumeau to Paris Champs-Elysees. The only competition still undecided is that of the green jersey. Points are available on two intermediate sprints, shortly after the arrival in Paris, and of course for the stage win itself. With Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) unable to contest sprints as strongly as before, the battle for green is between holder Alessandro Petacchi and the world’s fastest sprinter Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia). In a mathematical conundrum rather like of the last day of the football season, if Cav repeats last year’s stage win on the Champs-Elysees, with Petacchi and Hushovd finishing more than 7 places back, the green jersey leaves Paris on the shoulders of the Manxman. After Cav’s disastrous first week, this had seemed an impossibility.