Contador Tour win delivers golden hat-trick for Spanish - 30.07.2010

ALBERTO CONTADOR completed a notable hat-trick of sporting success for Spain this summer when he won the Tour de France last Sunday.

The cyclist’s achievement added to Spain’s football World Cup triumph in South Africa a fortnight earlier, and Raphael Nadal’s second Wimbledon tennis crown earlier in the month
It was a repeat of Spain’s treble success of two summers ago, when Nadal lifted his first Wimbledon title, their footballers won the European Championship for the first time, and Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France.
It was Contador’s third Tour victory in four years ‒ he missed the 2008 Tour because his new team were barred ‒  and such was his command on the final run into Paris that he was able to sip champagne during the leisurely ride into the Champs-Elysees.
But the race was not without controversy because on the 15^th stage, Contador’s great Luxembourg rival, Andy Schleck, had mounted an attack against the Spaniard on a Pyrenean climb.
Suddenly, Schleck’s chain came undone, and Contador sped past him, breaking the sport’s unwritten etiquette about not taking advantage of unlucky breaks that a rider can’t control.
It was made even worse on this occasion because Schleck was wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey. But by the stage finish, Contador had taken the overall lead with a 39-second lead on Schleck which, ultimately, was his margin of overall victory.
Some fans jeered Contador, and he later apologised on YouTube. An angry Schleck eventually patched things up with his pal and urged the crowd to as well.
It was always going to be a two-man race for victory, even before the halfway stage, and so it proved with Schleck, runner-up to Contador last year as well, vowing to topple him in 2011.
Curiously, Contador became only the second rider in 20 years ‒ behind seven-time winner Lance Armstrong ‒ to win the Tour without a single stage victory.
There was some success for Britain when Mark Cavendish claimed his fifth stage victory of the Tour, and the 15th of his career, in a sprint at the end of the 20th and final stage. That makes him one of the fastest road-racers of all time.