Tour De France 2007 Highlights

Curious about Tour de France 2007 highlights? Running from Saturday, July 7, 2007, through Sunday, July 29, 2007, the 94th Tour de France commenced for the first time in London. Passing through Belgium and Spain along the way, the Tour ended with the traditional finish in Paris and covered a total distance of 3,550 kilometers. For those of you who missed out on the 2007 Tour de France, or who are looking for a quick recap of 2007’s Tour, check out our list of highlights.

1. Stages. The 2007 Tour de France consisted of twenty stages, including eleven flat stages, six mountain stages, one medium mountain stage and two individual time-trial stages. Two stages of the Tour de France commemorated the victims of the 2005 London bombings when London mayor Ken Livingstone announced, “Having the Grand Depart on the seventh of July will broadcast to the world that terrorism does not shake our city.”
2. Teams. With the retirement of Lance Armstrong and absence of favorites Ivan Basso and Floyd Landis, 2007’s Tour de France made room for plenty of new riders to steal the spotlight. Twenty-one teams, with nine members each, took part in the race, including riders from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
3. Blunders. Unfortunately, three riders and two teams marred the race when they were withdrawn due to positive drug tests. These included pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team, who held first-place before the incident. The Rabobank team also fired their teammate, Michael Rasmussen, when they accused him of lying about his reasons for missing several drug tests earlier in the year (Rasmussen stated that he was in Mexico with his wife in June, but was later sighted training in Italy).
4. Victory. Spanish rider Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel took the general classification victory for the Tour de France in 2007, while simultaneously winning the young rider classification for best young rider under age 25. Cadel Evans came in second to Contador, followed by Levi Leipheimer. The points classification was won by Tom Boonen, while Mauricio Soler stole the mountains classification. The 2007 Tour de France ended with the smallest-to-date spread of just 31 seconds among the top three riders.