The Withdrawal Starts

It's a shame about Cadel Evans. That will make second place in the Tour three years in a row after Christian Vande Velde wins next year.

Last year he was probably the best all-round rider, but lost to the best climber from the strongest team. He gained some time on the final time trial, but not quite enough to win. It was the Discovery Channel's one-two punch of winner Alberto Contador and (U.S. rider) Levi Leipheimer (3rd place) with massive team support that did him in, along with less than spectacular help from his own team. Evans was 1:50 back heading into the time trial and ended up losing by 23 seconds (Leipheimer went from 2:49 to :31) in a very close loss.

This year he was probably the best all-round rider, but lost to the best climber from the strongest team. He gained some time on the final time trial, but not quite enough to win. It was Team CSC's one-two-three punch of winner Carlos Sastre and Frank and Andy Schlek (6th and 12th places) with massive team support that did him in, along with less than spectacular help from his own team. Evans was 1:34 back heading into the time trial and ended up losing by 58 seconds in a very close loss.

Christian Vande Velde has been a teammate for Lance Armstrong and knows how to ride the Tour, but he's never been a team leader before or tried to contend for the overall. This year he was riding for Garmin-Chipotle in the team's first Tour, so no one expected anything spectacular. He surprised everyone, including himself. He was able to ride all the high mountains as well as anyone--even doing his share of attacking--and had the best final time trial of any of the contenders. "What if's" don't count and luck is part of the race, but it's likely he could have finished second had he not lost two-and-a-half minutes due to a crash in the last week of the race. He had no expectations of competing for a top spot this year and is thrilled just to finish fifth. Next year will be different.

Final General classification

1 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank......................87.52.52
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto.................................................0.58
3 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner..................................................1.13
4 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank....................................................2.10
5 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30.............3.05