I’ll be honest, I didn’t particularly follow this race and this neglect has been somewhat compounded by the fact that it was won by a rider I don’t know particularly well.
Who won?
Rui Costa. He won last year as well.
Will he do well in the Tour de France?
Dunno. He finished 18th last year, but he’s a relatively young rider (26) so it’s reasonable to expect him to have improved since then.
Did anyone else do well?
The wonderfully named Tanel Kangert came second, but he’s still fit from the Giro rather than fit in anticipation of the Tour, so we can probably ignore him.
Bauke Mollema came third. Like Rui Costa, he’s a young rider of promise rather than an established name, which is how you’d classify several of the top ten.
The Schlecks
The Schlecks (Andy) finished 40th, a neither-here-nor-there performance which represents considerable improvement. He’s undeniably on an upward curve and there’s talk he might be a contender for the Vuelta – a race which is also likely to feature The Schlecks (Frank) as he’ll have served his ban by then. The return of The Schlecks (Frank) is a great relief as it’ll mean I no longer have to distinguish between the two brothers using parentheses and can once again refer to them as a gestalt entity.
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