2009 Tour de France
| 2009 UCI World Ranking, race 17 of 24 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Route of the 2009 Tour de France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates | 4–26 July | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stages | 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Distance | 3,459.5 km (2,150 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Winning time | 85h 48' 35" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2009 Tour de France was the 96th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on 4 July in the principality of Monaco with a 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) individual time trial which included a section of the Circuit de Monaco. The race visited six countries: Monaco, France, Spain, Andorra, Switzerland and Italy, and finished on 26 July on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
The total length was 3,445 kilometres (2,141 mi),sfn including 93 kilometres (58 mi) in time-trials. There were seven mountain stages, three of which had mountaintop finishes, and one medium-mountain stage.[2] The race had a team time trial for the first time since 2005, the shortest distance in individual time trials since 1967, and the first penultimate-day mountain stage in the Tour's history.
2007 winner Alberto Contador won the race by a margin of 4′11″, having won both a mountain and time trial stage. His Astana team also took the team classification.[3] and supplied the initial third-place finisher, Lance Armstrong. Armstrong's achievement was later voided by the UCI in October 2012 following his non-dispute of a doping accusation by USADA, and fourth place Bradley Wiggins was promoted to the podium.[4][5] Andy Schleck, second overall, won the young riders' competition as he had the previous year. Franco Pellizotti originally won the polka dot jersey as the King of the Mountains, but had that result (along with all his 2009 results) stripped by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2011 due to his irregular values in the UCI's biological passport program detected in May 2010.[1] Mark Cavendish won six stages, including the final stage on the Champs-Élysées, but was beaten in the points classification by Thor Hushovd, who consequently won the green jersey.[6]
Contents
Teams[edit]
20 teams were invited to take part in the race. They include 17 of the 18 UCI ProTour teams (all except for Fuji–Servetto) and three other teams: Skil–Shimano, Cervélo TestTeam and Agritubel. Each team started with 9 riders, making a total of 180 participants, of whom 156 finished.
The teams entering the race were:[7]
UCI ProTour teams
Invited teams
Pre-race favourites[edit]
Favorites for the race included 2008 winner Carlos Sastre, 2007 winner Alberto Contador, 2009 Giro d'Italia winner Denis Menchov and two time runner-up Cadel Evans.[8] Lance Armstrong came out of retirement and competed in the race on the same team as Contador. Menchov and Evans performed far below the levels expected of them, finishing 51st and 30th respectively, and Sastre only showed briefly among the leaders on the mountain stages that would have provided his best chance of making a bid for victory, coming 17th overall.
Alejandro Valverde, the team leader of Caisse d'Epargne, was not selected by his team for the Tour de France, because the race travelled through Italy on stage 16 and he had received a ban in May 2009 from the Italian Olympic Committee, prohibiting him from competing in Italy. He had finished in the top ten of the general classification of the Tour in the two previous years and was considered one of the favourites for overall victory.
News about a positive retest of a 2007 out-of-competition control concerning Thomas Dekker broke three days before the start; his team Silence–Lotto immediately withdrew him from the starting list.
Route and stages[edit]
| Stage | Date | Course | Distance | Type | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 July | Monaco | 15.5 km (10 mi) | 
|
Individual time trial |  Fabian Cancellara (SUI)
|
| 2 | 5 July | Monaco to Brignoles | 187 km (116 mi) | 
|
Flat stage |  Mark Cavendish (GBR)
|
| 3 | 6 July | Marseille to La Grande-Motte | 196.5 km (122 mi) |
|
Flat stage | Mark Cavendish (GBR)
|
| 4 | 7 July | Montpellier | 39 km (24 mi) |
|
Team time trial | Astana |
| 5 | 8 July | Cap d'Agde to Perpignan | 196.5 km (122 mi) |
|
Flat stage |  Thomas Voeckler (FRA)
|
| 6 | 9 July | Girona (Spain) to Barcelona (Spain) | 181.5 km (113 mi) |
|
Flat stage |  Thor Hushovd (NOR)
|
| 7 | 10 July | Barcelona to Andorra-Arcalis (Andorra) | 224 km (139 mi) | 
|
Mountain stage | Brice Feillu (FRA)
|
| 8 | 11 July | Andorra la Vella to Saint-Girons | 176.5 km (110 mi) |
|
Mountain stage |  Luis León Sánchez (ESP)
|
| 9 | 12 July | Saint-Gaudens to Tarbes | 160.5 km (100 mi) |
|
Mountain stage | Pierrick Fédrigo (FRA)
|
| 13 July | Limoges | Rest day | ||||
| 10 | 14 July | Limoges to Issoudun | 194.5 km (121 mi) |
|
Flat stage | Mark Cavendish (GBR)
|
| 11 | 15 July | Vatan to Saint-Fargeau | 192 km (119 mi) |
|
Flat stage | Mark Cavendish (GBR)
|
| 12 | 16 July | Tonnerre to Vittel | 211.5 km (131 mi) |
|
Flat stage |  Nicki Sørensen (DEN)
|
| 13 | 17 July | Vittel to Colmar | 200 km (124 mi) | 
|
Medium mountain stage |  Heinrich Haussler (GER)
|
| 14 | 18 July | Colmar to Besançon | 199 km (124 mi) |
|
Flat stage |  Sergei Ivanov (RUS)
|
| 15 | 19 July | Pontarlier to Verbier (Switzerland) | 207.5 km (129 mi) |
|
Mountain Stage | Alberto Contador (ESP)
|
| 20 July | Verbier (Switzerland) | Rest day | ||||
| 16 | 21 July | Martigny (Switzerland) to Bourg-Saint-Maurice | 159 km (99 mi) |
|
Mountain Stage | Sandy Casar (FRA)
|
| 17 | 22 July | Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand | 169.5 km (105 mi) |
|
Mountain Stage |  Fränk Schleck (LUX)
|
| 18 | 23 July | Annecy | 40.5 km (25 mi) |
|
Individual time trial | Alberto Contador (ESP)
|
| 19 | 24 July | Bourgoin-Jallieu to Aubenas | 178 km (111 mi) |
|
Flat stage | Mark Cavendish (GBR)
|
| 20 | 25 July | Montélimar to Mont Ventoux | 167 km (104 mi) |
|
Mountain stage | Juan Manuel Gárate (ESP)
|
| 21 | 26 July | Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris (Champs-Élysées) | 164 km (102 mi) |
|
Flat stage | Mark Cavendish (GBR)
|
| Total | 3,459.5 km (2,150 mi)[11] | |||||
Race overview[edit]
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The race started in Monaco with a 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) individual time trial, won by Olympic time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, who retained the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification throughout the first week, which was dominated by stages suited primarily to sprinters, with Mark Cavendish establishing himself as the strongest finisher. The significant action of the first week in relation to the overall classification was restricted to a split in the field on stage 3, and a team time trial the following day.
The second weekend saw the Tour in the Pyrenees, and the first attack on the field by eventual winner Alberto Contador, while the leadership was taken over by Rinaldo Nocentini. Thor Hushovd showed an ability to take points in stages that did not include flat sprint finishes that would be key to the contest for the points classification, and the main contenders for the mountains classification emerged. The journey towards the Alps the following week had a second pair of successive stage wins for Cavendish and a series of wins from riders in breakaways that held no threat to the general classification. An infringement in the sprint finish to stage 14 saw Cavendish relegated in finishing position, and Hushovd gaining the upper hand in the points classification.
The first alpine stage was the occasion of Contador's assumption of the race leadership, and the emergence of Andy Schleck as the only rider likely to challenge him in the mountains, and as the top young rider, giving Schleck the right to wear the white jersey. Franco Pellizotti focussed on collecting points on the climbs early in stages to overhaul Egoi Martínez in the race for the mountains classification, without threatening the race leaders. By the end of the three stages in the Alps, and after Contador's victory in the final time trial, it was only the minor placings that were realistically under question in the last mountain stage, held for the first time on the penultimate day of the tour on Mont Ventoux.
The UCI introduced a ban on radio communication between team management and riders on stage 10, but the riders responded with a conservative style of racing for most of the stage and the intended repetition of the experiment on stage 13 was abandoned.[12]
At the victory ceremony, the national anthem of Denmark was mistakenly played instead of that of Spain.[13] Contador described the incident as an "enormous blunder" at a post-Tour press conference in Madrid. At the victory ceremony for teams, the anthem of Spain was yet played, because Contador was part of the winning team, Astana.
Doping[edit]
In the 2009 Tour, Doping controls were conducted by the UCI, with the French body AFLD shadowing the process. Officials targeted top riders like Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador with an unprecedented amount of tests.[14] While the Armstrong-Contador conflict ruled the headlines, reporting on doping rather took a back seat during the race. The news that Giro runner-up Danilo Di Luca had a positive A probe in the Giro did not change that.[15] Five days after the race finished the UCI announced that the initial Stage 16 winner Mikel Astarloza tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test on 26 June, eight days before the race started.[16] Later, Astarloza was removed from the results, and the stage win transferred to Sandy Casar.[17]
Just days before the 2010 Giro d'Italia, 2009 Giro podium finisher and King of the Mountains winner in this Tour Franco Pellizotti was announced by the UCI as a rider of interest in their biological passport program. He was sidelined by his team, and did not race again in 2010. The case was not fully resolved until March 2011, at which time the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordered Pellizotti banned for two years, to pay a fine and court costs, and have all his 2009 results vacated.[1]
In October 2012, Lance Armstrong had all his results post 1998, including the 2009 Tour, voided by the UCI following the USADA investigation into systematic doping.[18]
On 10 July 2014, a UCI press release detailing various athlete sanctions specified that Menchov had been banned (for a period of two years) until 9 April 2015 due to adverse biological passport findings. Due to this, he has been disqualified from the 2009, 2010 and 2012 Tours de France.[19]
Classification leadership[edit]
- After stage 1, Fabian Cancellara was leading both the general and the points classifications. In stage 2, he wore the yellow jersey. Alberto Contador was placed second at the time in the green jersey points classification, but was the leader in the king of the mountains classification, and so forfeited the right to wear the green jersey. As a result, the third placed rider in the opening time trial, Bradley Wiggins wore the green jersey on stage 2.[20]
- Stage 16 was originally won by Mikel Astarloza, who was found after the Tour to have tested positive for EPO before the race had started.[21] The organisers have stripped him of the stage win, and former number two Sandy Casar became the official winner.[17]
Final standings[edit]
| Legend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Denotes the winner of the general classification[22] | 
|
Denotes the winner of the points classification[22] |
|
Denotes the winner of the young rider classification[22] | 
|
Denotes the winner of the team classification[22] |
|
Denotes the winner of the super-combativity award[22] | ||
General classification[edit]
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alberto Contador (ESP)  |
Astana | 85h 48' 35" |
| 2 | Andy Schleck (LUX)  |
Team Saxo Bank | + 4' 11" |
| DSQ |  Lance Armstrong (USA) |
||
| 3 | Bradley Wiggins (GBR) |
Garmin–Slipstream | + 6' 01" |
| 4 | Fränk Schleck (LUX) |
Team Saxo Bank | + 6' 04" |
| 5 | Andreas Klöden (GER) |
Astana | + 6' 42" |
| 6 |  Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) |
Liquigas | + 7' 35" |
| 7 | Christian Vande Velde (USA) |
Garmin–Slipstream | + 12' 04" |
| 8 |  Roman Kreuziger (CZE) |
Liquigas | + 14' 16" |
| 9 | Christophe Le Mével (FRA) |
Française des Jeux | + 14' 25" |
| 10 | Sandy Casar (FRA) |
Française des Jeux | + 17' 19" |
Points classification[edit]
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thor Hushovd (NOR) 
|
Cervélo TestTeam | 280 |
| 2 | Mark Cavendish (GBR)
|
Team Columbia–HTC | 270 |
| 3 | Gerald Ciolek (GER)
|
Team Milram | 148 |
| 4 | José Joaquín Rojas (ESP)
|
Caisse d'Epargne | 126 |
| 5 |  Nicolas Roche (IRL)
|
Ag2r–La Mondiale | 122 |
| 6 | Óscar Freire (ESP)
|
Rabobank | 119 |
| 7 | Tyler Farrar (USA)
|
Garmin–Slipstream | 110 |
| DSQ | Franco Pellizotti (ITA) |
||
| 9 | Alberto Contador (ESP) 
|
Astana | 101 |
| 10 | Andreas Klöden (GER)
|
Astana | 89 |
Mountains classification[edit]
| Rank | Rider | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| DSQ | Franco Pellizotti (ITA) |
||
| 2 | Egoi Martínez (ESP)
|
Euskaltel–Euskadi | 135 |
| 3 | Alberto Contador (ESP)
|
Astana | 126 |
| 4 | Andy Schleck (LUX)
|
Team Saxo Bank | 111 |
| 5 | Pierrick Fédrigo (FRA)
|
Bbox Bouygues Telecom | 99 |
| 6 | Christophe Kern (FRA)
|
Cofidis | 89 |
| 7 | Fränk Schleck (LUX)
|
Team Saxo Bank | 88 |
| DSQ | Mikel Astarloza (ESP) |
||
| 9 | Juan Manuel Gárate (ESP)
|
Rabobank | 86 |
| 10 | Sandy Casar (FRA)
|
Française des Jeux | 84 |
Young rider classification[edit]
| Rank | Rider | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andy Schleck (LUX)
|
Team Saxo Bank | 85h 52′ 46″ |
| 2 | Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
|
Liquigas | + 3′ 24″ |
| 3 | Roman Kreuziger (CZE)
|
Liquigas | + 10′ 05″ |
| 4 | Pierre Rolland (FRA)
|
Bbox Bouygues Telecom | + 33′ 33″ |
| 5 | Nicolas Roche (IRL)
|
Ag2r–La Mondiale | + 34′ 09″ |
| 6 | Brice Feillu (FRA)
|
Agritubel | + 37′ 03″ |
| 7 |  Peter Velits (SVK)
|
Team Milram | + 42′ 24″ |
| 8 | Chris Anker Sørensen (DEN)
|
Team Saxo Bank | + 45′ 36″ |
| 9 | Tony Martin (GER)
|
Team Columbia–HTC | + 50′ 53″ |
| 10 | Yury Trofimov (RUS)
|
Bbox Bouygues Telecom | + 1h 04′ 50″ |
Team classification[edit]
| Rank | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Astana
|
243h 56′ 04″ |
| 2 | Garmin–Slipstream | + 22′ 35″ |
| 3 | Team Saxo Bank | + 28′ 34″ |
| 4 | Ag2r–La Mondiale | + 31′ 47″ |
| 5 | Liquigas | + 43′ 31″ |
| 6 | Euskaltel–Euskadi | + 58′ 05″ |
| 7 | Française des Jeux | + 1h 01′ 48″ |
| 8 | Cofidis | + 1h 05′ 34″ |
| 9 | Team Katusha | + 1h 13′ 57″ |
| 10 | Agritubel | + 1h 20′ 38″ |
World rankings[edit]
The following points were earned in the Tour towards the 2009 UCI World Ranking.
Notes and references[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k In March 2011, Franco Pellizotti's results were removed after the Court of Arbitration for Sport found his biological passport indicated irregular values. The classification standings were not altered.[1]
- ^ On 24 August 2012, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced that they had disqualified Armstrong from all his results since 1998, including his results in the 2009 Tour de France.[23] The Union Cycliste Internationale, responsible for the international cycling, confirmed this verdict on 22 October 2012.[24]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Italian cyclist Franco Pellizotti found guilty of doping by Court of Arbitration for Sport". ESPN.com. 9 March 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- ^ "The Tour 2009". LeTour.fr. Archived from the original on 25 October 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
- ^ "Contador seals 2009 Tour victory". BBC Sport. 26 July 2009. Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
- ^ "Wiggins 3e en 2009" (in French). L'Equipe. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
- ^ "Wiggins handed 3rd place on 2009 Tour". Wide World of Sports. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
- ^ "How the 2009 Tour was won". BBC Sport. 26 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- ^ "The 20 teams selected" (PDF). LeTour.fr. 17 March 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
- ^ Daniel Benson. "The Tour de France Ladder". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2013-07-09.
- ^ a b "96ème Tour de France 2009" (in French). Mémoire du cyclisme. Archived from the original on 31 August 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- ^ Zwegers, Arian. "Tour de France GC Top Ten". CVCCBike.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
- ^ "The history of the Tour de France – 2009". Tour de France. Amaury Sport Organisation. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- ^ "Cycling-UCI lift earpieces ban for Tour 13th stage". yahoo.com. 18 June 2009. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
- ^ "Danish anthem played for Spanish winner Contador". Reuters. 26 July 2009. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
- ^ "Armstrong on doping: 'I think I've answered the question'". CNN. Retrieved 27 July 2009.
- ^ "Italian Di Luca fails doping test". BBC. 22 July 2009. Archived from the original on 23 July 2009. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
- ^ "Astarloza tests positive for EPO, UCI says". Velo News. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2009.
- ^ a b Augendre 2016, p. 100.
- ^ "Lance Armstrong: Governing body strips American of Tour wins". BBC News. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
- ^ "Athlete sanctions press release". UCI. 10 July 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ "Tour de France 2009 Regulations" (PDF). LeTour.fr. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2009. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
- ^ "Astarloza tests positive for EPO, UCI says". Velo News. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
- ^ a b c d e Race regulations 2009, pp. 35–36.
- ^ "Lance Armstrong Receives Lifetime Ban And Disqualification Of Competitive Results For Doping Violations Stemming From His Involvement In The United States Postal Service Pro-Cycling Team Doping Conspiracy". United States Anti-Doping Agency. 24 August 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- ^ "Lance Armstrong stripped of all seven Tour de France wins by UCI". BBC News. BBC. 22 October 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- ^ a b "Tour de France – 2009". Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2009.
Sources[edit]
- Augendre, Jacques (2016). Guide historique [Historical guide] (PDF). Tour de France (in French). Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
- Race regulations (PDF). Tour de France. Paris: Amaury Sport Organisation. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
External links[edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2009 Tour de France. |
 |
Wikinews has related news: Contador wins 2009 Tour de France; Cavendish wins six stages |
- Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2 August 2009)
- 2009 Tour de France at Cyclingnews.com
