Le Tour de France Wrap-up

I loved seeing the Peloton detour and ride past the entrance to the Louvre. 

Le Tour de France ended on Sunday with the traditional kind, celebratory ride into Paris for the athletes, followed by the sprint to to the finish for the stage win. I remain grateful that they circle the Arc de Triomphe instead of pulling the 180 at the end of the Champ Elysees as they used to have to do. The broader curve of the Arc makes for a safer race for all. Here are the final stats for my past three weeks of watching and reporting: 

Congratulations to Egan Bernal for a great win in a really
messed-up Tour de France. He's a rider of the future at
only 22 years of age. 

Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) sealed the Yellow and won the Tour with some brilliant bike riding. He's not only the youngest winner, but also the first Columbian rider to win. That country will treat him like royalty - they love bike riding in Columbia. His total time for all 21 days ... 82 hours, 57 minutes. 

In the center is Egan Bernal, flanked by Geraint Thomas on
the left and Steven Kruijswijk on the right. The three top
riders on this year's Tour de France. Julian Alaphillipe, the
Frenchman who wore the Yellow Jersey for so many days,
ended up in fifth place overall. 

In second place came Bernal's teammate, Geraint Thomas, only 1:11 behind him. Geraint has been on the podium before and was a favorite to win this year's race. but second is nothing to be ashamed of. 

In third place was Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo-Visma), only 20 seconds behind. This was a highly contested race from start to finish. 

The three winners - Peter Sagan in Green, Egan Bernal in Yellow, and
Romain Bardet in the Polka Dot. A glorious wrap-up for
2019's Tour de France. I can't wait for next year! 

Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) won the stage on the Champ Elysees, but the Green Jersey win went to Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe) with a total of 316 points. 

The Polka Dot "King of the Mountain" win went to Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) but only eight points behind him was our Yellow Jersey winner, Egan Bernal. I'm not sure a climber who won the Polka Dot has ever also won the Yellow, but Bernal came really close! 

Finally, the winner of the "Best Young Rider" classification - the White Jersey - went to .... you've got it ... it went to Egan Bernal. This young rider from Columbia took two of the four jerseys, and almost got a third. What a phenom! I look forward to seeing him compete for years to come since he's only 22 years old. 

The winner of the Team classification was Movistar Team. Team Ineos, despite having two team members on the Podium, only came in 3rd for the team classification. 

So another Tour de France comes to an end. I hope I haven't bored all of my readers with all of m posts, but I do love Le Tour. Tomorrow I'll be back in the creative groove and we'll see where that takes me. Have a great Monday and I'll be back tomorrow.