Vicenzo Nibali of Astana won this year’s Tour de France. We saw a lot of the race on television, but here you can see behind the scenes of Nibali and his crew. Chapeau to the Svetlana Baranova, the videographer who spent 25 days with the team to capture the story!
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Marianne Vos, the women’s Tour de France champion and Tour champ Vicenzo Nibali take a champion selfie in Paris where both were victorious on the same day.
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Tour de France winners podium: 1. Vicenzo Nibali (center), 2. Jean-Christophe Péraud (left), and 3. Thibaut Pinot (right). Photo by Sirotti.
This is one of the most successful Tours for the French! Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) finished second and third, taking honors on the final podium in Paris. Pinot, who is 24 years old, (13 years younger than Péraud), also takes honors as the Best Yong Rider in the white cycling jersey. It’s been 30 years since two Frenchmen stood on the final podium in Paris. In fact, it was the first time since 1997 that any Frenchman finished higher than fourth overall.
French president François Hollande issued a communiqué on Sunday evening congratulating them.
“Seeing them on the second and third step of the podium of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées is a matter of great pride for French cycling, which has waited for this for thirty years,” Hollande said.
The French team Ag2r La Mondiale was the best placed team at the Tour de France. Photo by B. Bade/ASO.
Vive la France!
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For the third year in a row, Peter Sagan wins the green sprinter’s jersey at the Tour de France!
“I’m very happy to be once again on the podium of the Tour de France, for the third time in a row,” Sagan said. “I haven’t won a stage but I’m satisfied with the green jersey. Every year is different. I’m happy with the form I had during this Tour. When I win, people say that I easily win but it’s not true. This Tour has reminded everyone that I don’t easily win bike races.”
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Marcel Kittel sprinted to victory in the final stage of the Tour de France on Sunday in Paris. Photo by AFP.
He’s one of the nicest guys in the peloton, and I wish I could give him a big madamoiselle kiss to congratulate Germany’s handsome sprinting star Marcel Kittel. He won three stages in the first week of the Tour and we hardly heard about him since. But Kittel was saving his strong legs for the grand finale, and today on the Champs Elysees, he proved he is the world’s fastest sprinter, winning his fourth stage on the last day of the Tour. Chapeau Marcel!
Vicenzo Nibali finished in the peloton with the same time, so he became the Tour champion! See more in story below.
The taste of victory. Photo by Marcel Kittel.
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Vicenzo Nibali and his Astana teammates toasted his victory with a glass of champagne during the final stage of the Tour de France on Sunday. Photo by Jean-Paul Pelissier/AP.
Vicenzo Nibali is the 2014 Tour de France champion! The Shark of Messina earned the yellow jersey in stage 2, and wore it for what must be a record 19 days during this year’s Tour. I don’t recall anyone ever wearing the maillot jaune for that long.
Nibali won with a lead of more than seven minutes over the next best rider. He won four stages and finished in the top ten riders in nine of the 21 stages. He ceded the jersey one day, in stage 9, to Tony Gallopin. That day, Nibali finished 1:34 behind the Frenchmen, but he took back the lead the following day in the Alps.
HOW NIBALI WON THE TOUR
The key moment of his victory came in stage 5 in the daunting rain and wind. It was the race over the cobblestones– a day where everyone suffered, almost half of the 190 or so riders crashed. But Nibali almost won the race, finishing 19 seconds behind the stage winner Lars Boom, while top contenders Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador were more than two minutes back. Defending champion Chris Froome quit the race that day after suffering a series of crashes in the early stages and was unable to hold his handlebars any longer. Nibali’s lead that day gave his Astana team momentum. Nibali showed his cards early and didn’t bluff in three weeks of racing. When he attacked, it stuck, and he won. He is the deserving champion. Veni, Vidi, Vic-enzo!
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Marianne Vos of the Netherlands, (right), crosses the finish line ahead of Kirsten Wild of The Netherlands and Leah Kirchmann of Canada to win La Course. Photo by Laurent Rebours/AP.
Marianne Vos won the women’s Tour de France on Sunday in the Champs Elysees. The women’s race was held two hours before the men’s race began. Vos won the sprint after the 57-mile race, (13 laps) around Paris.
Vos took home the 22,500 Euro prize (about $30,000), which is the same amount the men get for winning a stage in the Tour.
La Course podium: 1. Marianne Vos (center), 2. Kirsten Wild (right), 3. Leah Kirchmann (left). Americans Shelley Olds and Coryn Rivera (not pictured) got fifth and sixth.
La Course is a revival of sorts. Until 2009, the women’s version of the Tour de France was called La Grand Boucle Feminin. The event, which was much shorter than the 21 days that the men raced, struggled financially and faded away. This year is the first time the women race on the same day as the men. Maybe in the future we’ll see a true multi-week Tour de France for les dames!
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Vicenzo Nibali was smooth through the time trial. Photo by Tim de Waele.
Italy’s Vicenzo Nibali (Astana) will be the new Tour de France champion on Sunday in Paris. He finished today’s 33-mile time trial two minutes behind stage winner Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), but kept his overall lead.
Three-time world time trial champion Tony Martin finished the 33-mile time trial in one hour and six minutes. Photo by Tim de Waele.
But the real excitement was the battle for second place between two Frenchmen. Jean-Christophe Péraud and Thibaut Pinot traded places in the overall standings after today’s intense time trial. Péraud is 37 and Pinot is 24. The older Frenchman was riding well but then got a flat tire halfway through the race. His mechanic was slow getting him a replacement wheel. For a moment, it looked like he might lose his place on the podium, but he regained his momentum and recovered the lost time. After today’s results Péraud moved up to second place overall and pushed Pinot to third. It has been 30 years since two Frenchmen finished on the podium at the Tour de France. Vive la France!
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After winning four stages in the Tour de France and holding a seven-minute gap over the next contender, Vicenzo Nibali has a lot to smile about. Unless he has a bad fall (which he luckily avoided today), Nibbles is going to be crowned Tour champion on Sunday in Paris. Now that’s something to smile about! Photo by ASO/B. Bade.
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Finally, Garmin gets a stage win!
He was the long shot in the horse race. Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) won stage 19 at the Tour de France in the pouring rain. Had it not been for the massive crash of the peloton, he might not have made victory. But he did. The 26-year-old Lithuanian rider was almost dead last in every stage of this year’s Tour. Today, he got into the record books as Tour stage winner. Here’s how it happened:
Today’s route was 130-miles from Maubourguet Pays du Val d’Adour to Bergerac. With eight miles to go in the race, Navardauskas attacked on the final climb– the only categorized hill of the day — the cote de Monbazillac. With about one mile left, he was alone, 20 seconds ahead of a furious chase from the sprinter’s teams. And then… crash! Several riders in the pack went down on the rain-slicked pavement including notable contenders Romain Bardet (AG2R), Frank Schleck (Trek) and sprinter Peter Sagan (Cannondale). Riders who avoided hitting the deck were stuck behind others trying to get up. In the meantime, Navardauskas was time trialing to the finish line ahead of them all.
It was an important victory for team Garmin-Sharp, who lost its star rider Andrew Talansky to a crash earlier in the Tour. And Navardauskas achieved what his teammate Jack Bauer could not. Bauer was caught at the line last Sunday in the finishing sprint.
“I knew I had 20 to 25 seconds lead for all those last ten kilometers or so but I didn’t know what was happening behind me really,” Navardauskas said. “When five top sprinters go full gas shoulder to shoulder, it’s amazing how fast they go and it’s hard to stay ahead of them. So I just went as fast as I could, hoping I wouldn’t end like Jack who was caught with 25 meters to go. I was afraid of turning back. I didn’t want to lose and tell myself later that I could have done better. I gave all the energy I had left.”
Navardauskas finished seven seconds ahead of the approaching pack. Anyone with money on this horse would have made a bundle.
Because the wreck happened inside the 3km mark, all riders got the same finish time with no effect on the overall standings. Italy’s Vicenzo Nibali (Astana) leads the tour with a seven minute gap. He essentially could ride tomorrow’s 33-mile time trial, stop for coffee and a baquette and still hold onto the yellow jersey. C’est incroyable!
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le tour babe 