Tour de France - Legends Come, Legends Go

Contador and Schleck

It has been a summer of disappointing sporting finals: the European Cup, World Cup Finals in South Africa, Wimbledon singles, British Open Golf and there have been no significant athletics events. But I watched the best of all sporting contests this afternoon: the Tour de France with the ascent to the top of the Col de Tourmalet in the Pyrenees. The absence of Lance Armstrong, whose dominating and cheating presence had prevented competitive racing, had been exorcised and his status as a legend had been wiped out. The Tour was restored as the ultimate sporting endurance event.

The Tour is undoubtedly the toughest of all sporting events and two outstanding riders fought a wheel to wheel battle over the final 18km of muscle sapping and lung bursting climbing. It was a 10% incline over a series of hairpins through low cloud and with thousands of spectators from all over the world cheering on the lycra clad gladiators. They took almost 2 minutes out of all the other best riders in the world over the last 10km. It was wheel to wheel with the young pretender from Luxembourg, Andy Schleck, unable to dislodge the winner of the tour for the last two years, Alberto Contador. How did they find the extra oxygen to wipe out their competitors, is it all about determination to win?

Shleck had been launched up the hill at a staggering speed by three of his team each of whom collapsed after their stints at the front. The support of the leader from the team in cycling is unqualified and the tactics are ever changing with radio instructions from team managers added to the mix. The final shoot out was closer than Nadal v Federer in 2008 or Argentina v Holland in 1978. The riding styles were in such contrast, the tall Schleck pedalling smoothly and the smaller Contador dancing on his pedals. Schleck won it by a head but remains 8 seconds behind and is unlikely to pull this back over the last 3 days; Contador is the king of the time trial which will take place on Saturday.

But this was sport at its very best, assuming the cycling drug scandals of the last ten years are not in play.  Here were the two fittest, hardest both physically and mentally, sportsmen in the world. Thankyou for showing us what real competitive sport is all about, legends are not made in a day but one or both of these could become a legend over the next few years.

On the same day a guaranteed cricket legend made his final Test appearance. Muttiah Muralitharan, a man as modest as his name is easily forgettable, took his 800th test wicket with his last ever ball. He had mesmerised batsman for almost twenty years with guile and a body twisting action that could make a ball talk. He had put Sri Lanka on the cricket map and as a Tamil he had helped unite his country, worked to help villages recover from the tsunami and engendered a respect for Sri Lanka throughout the world. Legends are a force for good when they have the humanity of Murali.

800 Test wickets