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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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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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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Most Tour fans are aware of the etiquette on the sidelines. But this chic on the phone just doesn’t get it! Sacrebleu!
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Vicenzo Nibali (Astana) won his fourth stage at the Tour de France on Thursday, solidifying his lead.
Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, known as “The Shark of Messina,” won stage 18 of the Tour de France and now holds a lead of more than seven minutes over Thibaut Pinot (FDJ). Only an accident or extreme bad luck can prevent Nibali from winning the 101st Tour when it ends on Sunday in Paris.
The winning move: Nibali marked Chris Horner’s attack.
Thursday was the final day in the Pyrenees. The stage began in the city of Pau and traveled over the Col du Tourmalet before finishing up the famous climb to Hautacam ski area. With six miles to go, American Chris Horner (Lampre) attacked the yellow jersey group. Nibali responded, closely marking Horner’s wheel. Then Nibali sought revenge. He dropped Horner, who beat him to win last year’s Vuelta a España. Nibali rode away from Horner with ease as if he were on a flat road instead of a steep mountain climb. He caught the day’s escapees, passed them all, and won the stage by 1:10, further securing the yellow jersey on his back.
The Best Young Rider leads the chase after Nibali.
The next group of riders were fighting for the leftovers: podium places and jersey points. France’s Thibaut Pinot finished after Nibali and holds onto the Best Young Rider white jersey. Poland’s Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), who won yesterday’s stage, finished third today and remains the King of the Mountains. Jean-Christian Peraud (AG2R) finished fourth and moved up to third overall. And American Tejay van Garderen (BMC) finished fifth.
Moviestar’s team leader worried about his finish, 1:54 behind Nibali.
Further down the road, Spain’s Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) cracked and lost almost two minutes on the stage. He slipped from second to fourth in the overall classification.
Nibali has now won four stages and has been in the yellow jersey for 16 days– unheard of in the modern era at the Tour de France. Could it be the lack of competition or perhaps the result of riders clean from doping? Who knows. But it has certainly been a unique Tour.
The moment Valverde lost his second place. When Van Garderen (top in red) attacked, The 34-year-old Valverde (bottom right) had nothing left in his legs. Valverde finished :45 behind the young guns.
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Vicenzo Nibali won stage 13 into the ski town of Chamrousse. Photo by AFP.
Sicily’s Vicenzo Nibali (Astana) claimed his third stage win at the Tour de France today, annihilating his rivals and solidifying his yellow jersey lead. Nibali rode with 20 of the cream-of-the-crop riders up the final climb but dropped them all and rode solo in the last mile of the 122-mile race from Saint Étienne to Chamrousse.
Porte, number seven, gets some help from his teammate but it was already too late. He could not keep up the pace with the lead group.
It was a really bad day for Australian Richie Porte (Sky), who bonked in the searing heat of the final climb and lost more than eight minutes to Nibali. Porte started the day in second and is no longer a contender for the podium and not even the top ten.
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Alberto Contador sits in his team car after dropping out of the Tour de France following a horrible crash on Monday. Photo by AFP.
One of the biggest stars in this year’s tour is out of the race. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) crashed during the tough stage 10, suffering a nasty gash to his right knee. Blood poured down his leg as he waited for more than four minutes to get treated by medics. He got back on his bike, escorted by his teammates, but the pain was too severe, especially on one of the hardest days in the mountains with seven steep climbs and cold, rain and fog bearing down on him like doomsday.
“Alberto has a broken tibia. It’s not a bad fracture but he needs surgery,” team coach Bjarne Riis told journalists. “He’s in a lot of pain and is getting stitches.”
After getting his leg patched up, Contador continued to ride only to abandon shortly afterward. Photo by AFP.
Vicenzo Nibali wins his second stage at the Tour de France. Photo by AFP.“This was the hardest stage I’ve ever done in a Grand Tour, with seven climbs and so many crashes,” Nibali said. “I was very sad that Contador had that really nasty crash. I hope that he has a good recovery. There was nothing that I could do about it. I was only about three meters away when that happened to him.”
Nibbles takes a selfie with his prize toy lion. Photo by Nibali.Filed under le tour 2014
le tour babe 