TDF: Standings after Stage 18

The 2012 Tour de France has been won by Bradley Wiggins who becomes the first British rider to have won the overall classification. The ceremonial jaunt into Paris will be a celebration of Sky’s achievement in 2012. The team has won five stages, which could become six on the Champs-Élysées and has proven itself as the strongest team in the peloton. Sky haven’t won the team classification but proved on the roads this year that they controlled proceedings and wore down any GC rivals to Wiggins. Chris Froome is the only rider who finished within five minutes of Wiggins which is an amazing achievement for Sky. Vincenzo Nibali and Cadel Evans were touted as potential winners or at least podium finishers but both finished off the pace. Nibali will finish in third and make it a Grand Tour podium treble after his Vuelta de España GC win as well as two podium finishes at the Giro d’Italia. However this has been a British tour de force and Sky have shown that there is a new approach to winning Grand Tours which is sport science. 2012 may go down as one of the most boring Tour de France’s but it will be a watermark for how teams approach the GC and follow and approve the Sky model.

Thomas Voeckler has wrapped up the mountains classification as has Peter Sagan in the points classification. The classifications have all been finalised before Paris and the jersey wearers can enjoy Paris with no worry about losing the classification on the last day. Sagan will be looking to open his account of Champs-Élysées wins but he will know that regardless of his finishing position in the sprint, he’ll walk away from his debut tour with the maillot vert. Somewhat coincidently 2012 will be a year in which all the classifications have been won by riders who are experience their first success in their respective classifications. Wiggins has won his first maillot, jaune, Peter Sagan his first maillot vert, Thomas Voeckler his first maillot pois and Tejay van Garderen his first maillot blanc. Chapeau to all the riders of the 2012 Tour, in particular to Wiggins and Sky who have finally won a Tour de France for Great Britain.

There have been numerous sub-plots to the Tour this year that have been somewhat overlooked in the face of Sky’s dominance. Inaugural stage wins to Chris Froome and the two ITT stage wins to Wiggins, Cavendish’s two stage wins, Thibaut Pinot’s stage win and top ten finish in his debut Tour, Voeckler winning the maillot pois, Fränk Schleck ‘s positive doping test, two Frenchmen in the top ten of the GC and numerous more achievements and stories. Once again the Tour has reached Paris and the post-mortem has begun. The route for the 100th Tour will be announced in October and from then the focus will be turned upon next year’s edition and whether Wiggins can go back to back up against the return of Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck.

Overall Classification 

1st Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) 84:26:31
2nd Chris Froome (Team Sky) +3:21”
3rd Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) +6:19”
4th Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) +10:15”
5th Tejay van Garderen (BMC) 11:04”
6th Haimar Zubeldia (RadioShack-Nissan) +15:43”
7th Cadel Evans (BMC) +15:51”
8th Pierre Rolland (Europcar) +16:31”
9th Janez Brajkovic (Astana) +16:38”
10th Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) +17:17”

Points Classification 

1st Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) 386 points
2nd André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) 264 points
3rd Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) 238 points
4th Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) 175 points
5th Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) 146 points
6th Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) 144 points
7th Chris Froome (Sky) 125 points
 8th Luis León Sanchez (Rabobank) 104 points
9th Cadel Evans (BMC) 100 points
10th Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) 98 points

Mountains Classification 

1st Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) 134 points
2nd Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) 123 points
3rd Chris Anker Sørenson 77 points
4th Pierre Rolland (Europcar) 63 points
5th Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 51 points
6th Chris Froome (Team Sky) 48 points
7th Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 43 points
8th Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) 40 points
9th Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun) 38 points
10th Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) 34 points

Young Riders Classification 

1st Tejay van Garderen (BMC) 84:37:35”
2nd Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) +6:13”
3rd Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) +1:05:48”
4th Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) +1:16:32”
5th Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) +1:20:40”
6th Rafael Valls (Vacansoleil-DCM) +1:26:37”
7th Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) +1:27:42”
8th Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale) +1:31:08”
9th Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) +1:41:39”
10th David Malacarne (Europcar) +1:46:06”

Team Classification 

1st RadioShack-Nissan 253:47:28
2nd Team Sky +6:02”
3rd BMC +36:36”
4th Astana +43:39”
5th Liquigas-Cannondale +1:05:02”
6th Movistar +1:08:19”
7th Europcar +1:08:59”
8th Katusha +1:12:53”
9th FDJ-BigMat +1:19:28”
10th Ag2r-La Mondiale + 1:41:22”

Combativity Award 

Stage One: Nicolas Edet (Cofidis)
Stage Two: Anthony Roux (FDJ-BigMat)
Stage Three: Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank)
Stage Four: Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar)
Stage Five: Mathieu Ladagnous (FDJ-BigMat)
Stage Six: David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp)
Stage Seven: Luis León Sanchez (Rabobank)
Stage Eight: Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana)
Stage Nine: Not Awarded
Stage Ten: Thomas Voeckler (Europcar)
Stage 11: Pierre Rolland (Europcar)
Stage 12: Robert Kiserlovski (Astana)
Stage 13: Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank)
Stage 14: Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale)
Stage 15: Nicki Sørenson (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank)
Stage 16: Thomas Voeckler (Europcar)
Stage 17: Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)
Stage 18: Alexander Vinokourov (Astana)
Stage 19: Not Awarded
Stage 20: Not Awarded