Athlo Blog

It has been 4 years since Lance Armstrong last dominated the toughest bike race in the world but American cycling is still growing in strength and popularity despite his retirement.  Christian Vande Velde from Team Garmin-Chipotle finished 5th overall despite a painful crash in one of the stages.  Team Columbia finished 7th overall in team standings and managed to rack up a very impressive 5 stage wins, 4 of them coming from Great Britian’s Mark Cavendish.  Team Columbia held the yellow jersey for 4 days and also held the green, polka dot and white jerseys during multiple stages in the Tour.

Carlos Sastre and his CSC teammates proved they are by far the most dominant team in cycling but with more doping scandals in this year’s Tour resulting in team’s losing their sponsors, Team Garmin-Chipotle or Columbia could definitely add some strong riders to their roster in the off-season and give CSC a legitimate challenge next year.  American Christian Vande Velde proved he can climb with the best in the Pyrenees and Alps this year and said he intends to do just as well if not better next year.

A Spaniard has won this race the past three years (American Floyd Landis was stripped on the yellow jersey three years ago for failed drug tests) but it looks as though an American team, and possibly an American rider, is posed to change that in 2009.