2010 Tour de France
Le Tour de Tension
After 3,500 kilometers of racing, after the majestic Alps and daunting
Pyrenees, the 2010 Tour de France remained without a clear leader.
Two riders, young challenger Andy Schleck and defending champion Alberto
Contador stood clear of the field. But only one could reign in Paris...
In the final time trial epic through the vineyards of Bordeaux, the
battle rages. A tiniest error, even one misjudged corner for Contador
would cost him his third title. For Andy Schleck it would lose any
chance he has of turning the tables on the wily Spaniard.
The showdown crowns a Tour de France rich in bluffs and counter-bluff,
packed with searing attacks and blistering counter-charges.
It’s a Tour where strategy, stealth and the sport’s unwritten laws all
play a huge role. It’s a Tour where friendship, ultimately, gains the
day over rivalry - yet where rivalry has rarely been so intense.
And there’s more, much more. Weaved into the struggle for overall
supremacy come Mark Cavendish’s appalling early setbacks, then a roaring
return to power as the uncrowned sprint king of the peloton. Equally
unmissable is the slow, agonising odyssey of World Champion Cadel Evans,
riding to Paris with a broken arm. We track Lance Armstrong on his
painful long goodbye to the race he once made his own.
There’s a lavishly detailed account of the crucial stage over the
bone-jarring cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. There’s full, sumptuous coverage
of each and every mountain stage. And there’s every key minute of that
final time trial, of course, the climax to the most unpredictable,
compelling and hard fought Tour of modern history.
