The Tour de France has just finished. There were 2 English cyclist in the field. There was Mark Cavendish and Ben Swift.
Before this race Mark Cavendish was a 26 year old with 15 stage wins on the Tour de France over the last 3 years. Now he is a Tour de France sprint champion. He is the 1st English Green Jersey winner. He won the Green Jersey by 62 points. He had 334 points in the end but to make sure of a win he won the last stage. If Jose Joaquin Rojas had finish 1 then Cavendish would have to had been 2nd or 3rd. However it didn’t matter in the end because Rojas who was 2nd overall finish 21st on the last stage which meant that it didn’t matter where Cavendish came. It would have felt good though to win the last stage, the world famous, Champs-Elysees in Paris stage to win the Green Jersey. Cavendish won 5 stages this year to get his total stage wins up to 20. This puts him joint 6th in stages win ever. HTC- Highroad who Cavendish cycles for did not have a good tour and were 21st in the Team Standings with a top time of 3h 12m 07s behind winners Team Garmin Cervelo.
Ben swift was 102 in the points section with -10. Swift was also 30 out of 35 in the Youth category 3h 07m 24s behind Pierre Rolland of France the top youth cyclist. Ben Swift’s Team Sky Procycling were 6th overall 58m 54s behind Team Garmin.
Cavendish and Ben Swift did not do very well in the individual time’s. The Yellow Jersey was won by Cadel Evans in a time of 86h 12m 22s. Cavendish was 3h 15m 05s behind Evans. While Swift was 3h 18m 07s behind. So the 2 Englishman have got a lot of work to do to catch up the top of the pack. England has never a Tour de France winner.
Bradley Wiggins who was thought of having a good chance of being near the top of standings at the end of the tour had a nasty crash on the 7th stage and fracturing his collarbone in the mean time and had to abandon the rest of the tour. He was 10 seconds behind the current leader and 6th at the beginning of the stage. We wish him well in his recovery.
It was a huge success overall because we had a English Green Jersey winner for the 1st time. Cavendish is becoming a great English cyclist and looks to be good from strength to strength and is clearly a fantastic sprinter. I think there Cavendish could start to dominate the Green Jersey in the future years. In the race for the Yellow Jersey we were not so hot. If might have been different if Wiggins didn’t crash. I think that Wiggins will be our best chance of a winning the Yellow Jersey in the next few years. Ben Swift is still young and is looking good and hopefully will continue to get better and fastest.
So what did you think of the Tour de France this year? Did you find that you watched more of it than you normally do? I know I did. Did you see the TV car drive into the cyclists? If not check out the link below.
SweetEngland 
My husband and I watched it everyday! We never miss a stage. I was not really sure what would happen between the Schlecks and Contador, especially since Andy is not the best at time trials. The tour did surprise me though. A lot of crashes and a lot of great people going down and out. I was happy to see Cadel win and the bros in 2nd and 3rd. The crash above was absolutely horrible! I am glad they fired that person. You would think being in a bike race they would drive a good few meters ahead of the cyclist before switching over. Carelessness and stupidity! They could have killed them. Good tour though, as always! My hubs and I want to go one day and watch it for real. We won’t be chasing after the riders and touching them though, I think that is rude and dangerous! 😀
Hi Elizabeth. Its great to hear that you love the Tour de France. You should defiantly try and go its suppose to amazing when they all coming flying past you especially at the end. Your right you would think that the drivers are a bit more careful and give the cyclists a bit more space. I was a great tour for us with Cavendish winning the Green Jersey. The 1st Brit to do it. Im already looking forward to next years. Are there any more tour’s that you enjoy watching throughout the year.
Pingback: How did the English do in July | sweetengland