Black Monday: The Day After I was going to start a new thread for this, but probably unnecessary.
Closing thoughts? Final perspective?
The intervention of Mother Nature in the closing stages turned out to be a huge disappointment for what was shaping up to be a truly legendary Tour. We are left with one that I feel is certainly
memorable—for multiple reasons—but perhaps not
legendary.
Besides the obvious breakout performance of Egan Bernal, and the solidifying performance of Caleb Ewan, I'm left with a lot of questions and a sense of vacancy on a few fronts.
Peter Sagan 
Great accomplishment, on paper, but I find myself unmoved by this. He won only one stage, in the first week. He didn't do much to capture my attention otherwise. (And Erik Zabel, apparently, was not too happy about his record being broken.)
Alejandro Valverde 
He lost some magical weight before the Tour, but was he even at the race? I barely noticed.
However, Bruyneel pointed to a statistic I was unaware of: Apparently Valverde set a record by finishing in the Top Ten of 18 Grand Tours. Speaks for itself, I suppose.
Movistar Team OK, so they won the Team Classification...again. But does anyone care? With all the fire power they brought the Tour, I expected far more than just a mostly-solo win by Quintana. Confusion and dissent within the ranks did not seem to serve them well.
Geraint Thomas 
He came into the race with less-than-ideal perparation; crashed during the race; and all I really remember him doing was one significant burst on La Planche des Belles Filles. Granted, he was second in the iTT, but how did end up in 2nd in Paris as well? I would like to think that such an accomplishment would be accompanied by a bit more excitement or drama out on the road. Did I miss something?
The four U.S. riders at the race:
Tejay van Garderen
DNF
Ben King
62nd
Joseph Rosskopf
73rd
Chad Haga
134th
I'm guessing that if they had all stayed home, few would have noticed.
That's my Monday morning grumpy assessment and short-take on a race that seemed epic at times, but that left me wanting more. Had the last few days been raced as originally planned, I'd likely feel a bit different about all of it.
Plenty of riders deserve praise and applause, not the least of which is most certainly Julian Alaphilippe
. But I suspect the that 2019 rendition of the Tour de France will be looked back upon more for what
could've been, than for what actually transpired.
I thoroughly enjoyed most of it though!
