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Stage 19 of the Tour de France today saw the riders competing with themselves as they each travelled alone along the almost completely flat 52 km route from Bordeaux to Pauillac. This stage was the only proper time individual time trial of this year’s Tour, although there was a time trial the day before the race started, in the Prologue. At 10:15 am, the trial began in cool, sunny conditions, and with the riders competing in reverse order as they appeared in the General Classification.

So it was Grabsch (THR) who kicked things off, and there was virtually no wind in the early part of the day’s racing. His team mate, Martin had his turn later on, and easily beat the opposition to that point, with an average speed over the trial of over 50 km/h. When the 39th rider started, conditions were still favorable, and this was Cancellara, an ace time trialler who won the Prologue at the very beginning of the Tour. He completed the 52 km in just over 60 minutes. This put him well and truly in the lead, with the nearby Atlantic Ocean beginning to drive strong winds at the following participants. The task became gradually harder and harder as the day progressed with strong headwinds and side gusts slowing the riders down and breaking their rhythm.

As the time trial continued it became obvious the high winds were playing havoc, with superb TT competitors reduced to appallingly bad times, and some of them were finishing only in the top hundred, when ordinarily they would have been top 25 contenders or better! Armstrong came in over 7 minutes behind Cancellara’s time – and Armstrong has won 9 individual time trials in past Tours. Others did not fare any better. However, the story of the worsening weather and it effect on the relative timings of the field was not the main event today.

(Photo of Alberto Contador, by Josh Hallett. Reproduced under Creative Commons licence.)

The last two riders out were Andy Schleck, who started 8 seconds down on the last man out Alberto Contador. There had been something about Schleck over the last week; he exuded confidence and didn’t seem at all fazed by the prospect of the time trial, even though the smart money was on Contador to make gains of several minutes. Perhaps none of the usual cycling commentators gave Schleck much of a chance, but he had a shock up his sleeve. Evidently, he has worked very hard on trialling in his training, and at the first time check today, Schleck led Contador by 2 seconds. The deficit was now 6 seconds overall, and people were starting to pay attention! By the 30 km stage, the young Luxembourger had gained 5 seconds on his rival, desperate to pick up another 4 seconds to gain him the Yellow Jersey. Meanwhile, Contador struggled to get into any kind of rhythm as all the last riders fought against the headwinds.

Unfortunately for Schleck, the 5 second advantage on the road, quickly began to dissipate in the breeze, as the smaller and more experienced Spaniard folded himself into a perfectly aerodynamic shape and finally found a good metronomic rhythm, beating out over a hundred cycles per minute on the pedals. However, it wasn’t until 7 km to go that it became clear Contador had gained the upper hand and was making steady progress against Schleck, extending his time advantage in a fiercely strong drive in the latter half of the Stage. Full credit must go to Schleck though; this was indeed his best ever performance in a time trial, and he should be glowing with pride and confidence after that effort today.

In the event, Contador amassed a total of 39 seconds lead over Schleck, with only the final steady ride Paris left, which is normally not much of a contest – except for the sprinters. And for those people in the conspiracy theory camp, yes, 39 seconds is exactly what Contador managed to steal quite controversially from Schleck to gain the Yellow Jersey in the mountains, when Schleck’s chain came off. If the unwritten protocol had been conserved back then, the two riders could still be locked on exactly the same time after today! As it turned out, 39 seconds still represents the fifth closest first and second placings in Tour history. All in all an amazing day today on the tour. The expected slugging match between Sanchez and Menchov fizzled out quickly and was a non-event with Menchov easily overcoming the Spaniard.

Here’s the results of the time trial in Stage 19 and how the General Classification looks tonight, which will probably be the final Standings at the end of the Tour:

So the final showdown did end up as most people expected today, with Contador keeping the Yellow Jersey and almost certainly keeping it unless he crashes out tomorrow in the final stage to Paris. Schleck put on a great show, and came so close, but had to settle for a third White Jersey in the Tour, this being the last year he will be allowed to contest it, as he will be too old next year to qualify.

Tomorrow sees the grand finale, the final stage of the Tour de France 2010, from Longjumeau to Paris Champs-Élysées. This will be a stage for the sprinters and the end of the road for the Green Jersey competition. In the running are the current holder Petacchi, chased by Hushovd, who blames losing the Maillot Vert on the sprint that never was in Stage 2, and the dark horse, Cavendish. It remains to be seen whether the rider from the Isle of Man will throw caution to the wind tomorrow and go for some points in one of the intermediate sprints before running for the finish and a fifth stage win for the year.