The top-10 stories of the second half of the 2011 Tour de France

2. A cleaner Tour

Many insiders declared this year’s edition a ‘cleaner’ Tour than in recent years, pointing to slower climbing times, the inability of any one rider or team to dominate and the fatigue of many riders at the finish as evidence of less doping in the peloton. Pierre Rolland’s Alpe d’Huez climb, at 41:57, was the slowest winning time on the big hill since 1989, more than four minutes slower than Marco Pantani’s 1997 record time. The phrase ‘level playing field’ was in common use among journalists covering the race.

So far, only one doping positive has come out of this Tour, that of Katusha’s Alexander Kolobnev. Remembering post-Tour revelations about Floyd Landis in 2007 and Contador last year, fans are protecting their emotions. But in prior years, we all saw extraterrestrial performances that our guts told us were too good to be true. In many cases we later learned that our instincts were correct. This year, for what it’s worth, most of our guts, most of the time, told us we were seeing the truth.

FILED UNDER: News / Road / Tour de France