Age dominates… for a while.
A 41-year-old Tour de France competitor leading a stage is quite a reassuring sight for those of us cyclists nearing that age! Jens Voigt— the oldest rider of this year’s Tour– shed the breakaway and set the pace for more than 30 miles heading into the finish of stage 20. This impressive moment not to be overlooked, youth ultimately prevailed however. The very steady and poker-faced Nairo Quintana finally earned himself not only a stage win in his first Tour, not just the polka dot jersey in addition to the white jersey he was already wearing, but perhaps the biggest accomplishment for the 23-year-old Columbian, a bump up to second place overall. Maybe now this newest rising star of cycling will relax and show us some more personality, perhaps after a lesson or two from the master show-off himself, Peter Sagan.
Speaking of the colorful Slovak, green remains his main one as it has throughout this Tour, aside from his Cannondale kit of course. The green jersey that became Sagan’s after stage 3 and stayed on his back ever since, is sure to be his for keeps in Paris tomorrow, again! This champion sprinter– also 23 by the way– has the right to show off!
Last year’s second is becoming this year’s first. In other words, yellow today did not change shoulders. And on that note, this Centennial Tour is set for its grand finale, as 170 surviving riders– far more than last year’s number– get set to pedal their last 83 miles in this 2,115-mile journey, ending on Le Champs-Elysees as usual, while unusually– at night! I can’t wait to see this, while for other obvious reasons surely the 170 can’t either!
At last, all smiles!
Ryan R. Sanderson 