Alberto Contador retains the yellow jersey during the 17th stage of the Tour

By the time that you see this on your computer screens, the Tour de France will be over and the dust should start to settle on this year’s race.

I haven’t watched a great deal of the Tour, but since we’ve had a plasma screen telly installed at the day job, I’m watching a lot more.

Today, 20th July, I watched yesterday’s mountain stage which had a mountain top finish at Verbier. This stage saw Astana rider, Alberto Contador leave the peloton with 6 kilometres to go, join and leave a breakaway group, and then ride away to victory.

In the second group behind him were team mates Andreas Kloden and Lance Armstrong, who did the team thing and controlled that group to help Contador’s escape.

I won’t predict who will win this year’s race, but here are a couple of quotes from two guys that I expect to see on the podium at the finish.

To put the quotes into perspective, both came after the mountain stage from Pontarlier to Verbier on Sunday 19th July. On that stage Contador time-trialled away to win by 43 seconds, team mate Armstrong finished 9th; 1 minute 35 seconds afterwards.

‘I’m obviously delighted to take the yellow jersey this afternoon. But it’s more important that I dropped the other riders, not Lance Armstrong in particular. I grew up with Armstrong as a model and it’s an honour to know that he will ride for me.’
Alberto Contador

‘I think he (Contador) took some power away from some guys and surprised some guys. There are still a lot of hard days but Alberto showed that he’s the best. I’m no fool, I’ve been in that position and when you show you’re the best the only thing that the others can do is respect that and honour that.’
Lance Armstrong

• Arthur Lamy is the manager of Boudins for Bikes, in Sand Street, and author of Jersey Cycles. He has spent 15 years as a tourist guide and writer, and is also a keen photographer. More information can be found on his website: www.arthurlamy.com