SECOND TITLE FOR CONTADOR!

Unlike many sporting events, the Tour De France is the hardest bicycle racing tour in the world. Many perceive it to be the pinnacle of achievements regardless of the fact that the best racers in the world regularly use doping tactics to give themselves an edge over their competitors. Lance Armstrong is arguably considered to be the premier rider the sport has ever seen. With 7 strait victories and having fought through numerous life theatning experiences, he is considered to be the Michael Jordan of cycling. 

Having dropped out of the tour for the past 3 years, he returned to the sport to attain his 8th Tour de France victory although a teammate of his, the spaniard Alberto Contador, seemed to be the strongest rider when he sealed his second title in todays final stage.  "It has been an especially difficult Tour for me, but I savor it and it is more special because of it," he said after the prize ceremony. 

Contador and Armstrong were both members of team Astana, a team based in Kazakstan, this year and it was a fight to the finish between the two of them. With more than a 4 minute lead coming out of the mountains, it was an easy finish for Alberto Contador to take home his second win.  "I'm realistic, I did everything I could," Armstrong said to a New York Times reporter before the final stage. "For me, and even more for my kids, it's probably a healthy thing for them to see, because they saw their dad that never lost, and the kids in their class (say) 'your dad never loses,' so it's good for them to see dad get third and still be cool with that and still be happy."

A bbc reporter states "Contador, the 26-year-old, proved to be the strongest rider in the mountains and in the time trials".  Being that this event is the largest of all cycling races, reporters from all over the world, writing for many different papers, have been covering these heart palpitating 21 stages and a total of 23 days. 

One of the major controversies of this years Tour De France has been close to epic as ironic as it sounds, Contador was on team Astana while the majority of the team were using drug doping enhancements to increase their probability of winning. Unfortunately for Contador, his team was banned from the '08 tour and had to sit out with the rest of his teammates. This year surprisingly enough, there weren't any cases of doping. 

Most of the major newspapers covered this story similarly although, some were more concentrated on the fact that Lance Armstrong will not be riding for team Astana in the next years Tour De France instead he will be leading his new team of riders for team RadioShack, a team based in the United States.

Abraham Dwek