Months of speculation preceded the Tour de France about who would lead the Astana team when Lance Armstrong announced that he would be coming out of retirement and joining Astana. Contador, the team's leader for the past two years, and the winner of three Grand Tours, has a strong claim to the leadership role. But as Armstrong said in a recent interview, "the race will sort [who the team leader is] out."

Contador threw down the gauntlet by leading all GC contenders in the opening time trial, coming in second, only 18 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara. Armstrong was still cagey in interviews after the time trial, refusing to declare Contador the team leader.

Stage 2 ended in a field sprint, with no change in GC standings.

Stage 3 blew up the peleton, with a crosswind breaking the riders into two groups. Contador missed the split, and fell back into the chasing group. He ended up losing a little over 30 seconds to some of his top rivals. Lance Armstrong, Fabian Cancellara, Michael Rogers and others were among those Contador lost time to. Contador slipped back in the standings from second to fourth place.

Stage 4 was a clash of the titans. Contador's Astana squad beat out the rest of the 20 teams by a solid 22 seconds, and most importantly, they beat Saxobank by exactly 40 seconds, exactly the time gap between Lance Armstrong and Cancellara for yellow. Unfortunately for Lance, Cancellara beat him out in the standings by mere hundredths of a second, so Cancellara maintains the jersey. Contador moved up to third place in the standings, 19 seconds out of the yellow jersey.

Stage 5 was fairly uneventful for Contador and the other GC leaders. Although there was a slight problem with a crosswind, most of the leaders learned their lesson from stage 3 and were able to hold onto the lead group of riders. The GC situation did not change at the top, with Lance Armstrong still behind Cancellara by 22 hundredths of a second.

Stage 6 was expected to be much of the same. There were a few rolling hills, but it was still expected to be a sprint at the end. The only sticking point is the last 2km of the stage. The road up to the finish like was a slight uphill, so the pure sprinters were expected to have trouble with that. Additionally, there was speculation that Armstrong may try to make a dash up towards the finish line to get that .22 seconds back from Cancellara and take over the yellow jersey. However, none of this happened, and the GC standings still remained the same.

Stage 7 had the potential to be a defining stage for Contador. This was the first real mountain stage of the Tour, with many more to go. After skipping the Giro d'Italia we have not seen him climb much in the later parts of this season. If he had trouble in this stage it would portend very badly for him the rest of the way. On the other hand, if he did well in the mountains without much difficulty, it would show everybody that he still has his form from last year and two years ago, when he won all three Grand Tours once. He left no doubt that he's still one of the best climbers in the world today. After riding over 220km, he still had a powerful acceleration up an uncategorized climb, leaving all the other climbers behind. He picked up a number of seconds on his main challengers, and finished the stage in second place, only six seconds out of the yellow jersey.

Stage 8 was quite a hilly one, but at the same time, there was a lot of distance between the final mountaintop summit and the finish line. What usually happens in stages such as this one is that the top leaders are reluctant to put in an attack on the climb, because they will usually get reeled in by their competitors on the descent and the flats. And this is in fact what we saw. Contador and his main GC competitors stayed together up the final climb and to the finish line, and because the pace was not very fast, a breakaway succeeded. Contador stayed in second place, six seconds down on the yellow jersey.

Stage 9 was very similar to stage 8. There were two historic climbs on the stage, the Col d'Aspin and the Col de Tourmalet. Tour fanatics will often go to one of these mountains to watch the Tour, simply because the mountains are so famous in the race. Unfortunately, the Tour organizers completely negated any effect the mountains would have on the race, because the final mountain (the Tourmalet) finished about 70 km before the finish. This much descent and flats would dissuade any GC contender from attacking up either of the mountains. And in fact, that's exactly what happened. Top GC men did not attack, a breakaway succeeded, and nobody lost any time. Contador stayed in second, only six seconds out of yellow.

Stage 10 followed a rest day, and it was a pretty calm stage itself. There were three category 4 climbs, but they happened very close to the beginning of the race, so they would not have an effect on the finish. A breakaway left very shortly into the stage, and remained away until the last 2 km or so before the finish. This created a bunch sprint situation, and Mark Cavendish succeeded once again, earning his third stage victory of the 2009 Tour.

Stage 11 was another transitional stage between the Pyrenees and the Alps. It was a generally flat stage, with the whole peloton staying together until the end. The stage ended in a bunch sprint, with Contador staying safe behind the sprint. No GC standings changed.

Stage 12 was mostly flat, with just a few fourth category climbs spread out over the stage, and a very flat finish. Prior to the stage, Lance Armstrong said that he believed that a breakaway could succeed. And in fact, Nicki Sorenson of the Saxo Bank team won the stage out of the break. All the GC men kept the same time as they had before the stage.

Stage 13 started badly for Contador and the Astana team. Levi Leipheimer, one of the top riders on the team had to abandon the tour due to a broken wrist he sustained in what looked like a minor crash at the end of stage 12. So Astana was not able to have his help for this stage, with five climbs between first and third category. A breakaway spoiled the fun for the leaders though, as Heinrich Haussler from the Cervelo Test Team won the stage. None of the GC standings changed.

Stage 14 was yet another mostly flat stage. There were two category 3 climbs in the middle of the stage, but the rest of the stage was nearly all flat. A breakaway took off early, with George Hincapie the best placed rider in the group. At the end of the stage, Hincapie was able to get into second place, which pushed all the other GC men, including Contador, down one place. None of the main GC riders' times changed.

Stage 15 ended the transitional stages. With four category 3 climbs, a category 2 and most importantly, the finish line atop a category 1 climb, it was clear this stage would decide some placings. Contador attacked at the end of the race in controversial fashion, creating a gap between Andy Schleck and Armstrong. Contador ended up winning the stage and taking the yellow jersey, but hurt his teammate's chances of getting podium positions in the race.

Stage 16 was a big welcome to the mountains for the riders. The stage began with a monstrous beyond category climb and continued on another massive first category climb. The Schleck brothers attacked repeatedly. Even with attack after attack, Contador was able to hold on, and none of the main GC standings changed.

Stage 17 was called the Queen Stage of the Tour, considered to be the most difficult of the year. The stage had four category 1 climbs and a category 2. Contador and the GC leaders stayed together for most of the day, until the final category 1 mountain, where the Schlecks were attacking repeatedly. But Contador attacked decisively on the final slope, dropping his own teammates and allowing Frank and Andy Schleck to kick Armstrong out of second place and into fourth, off the podium. Contador remained in the lead.

Stage 18 was an individual time trial, which had the potential to be decisive. Contador has always been a strong time trialist, so if he played to his strength, he could increase his gap over the Schlecks, who are historically poor at the time trials. Andy put in an amazing time trial but Frank's was subpar. Contador did in fact increase his lead in GC to over four minutes.

Stage 19 was not expected to be explosive for the top GC men. And in fact just about everybody, including the sprinters were able to stay together over the biggest mountain, just a category 2. At the end of the day, it was a bunch sprint and none of the GC standings changed.

Stage 20 was the last chance for anybody to change the top of the standings. This stage contained the historic Mont Ventoux, which is considered by many to be the most difficult mountain that the Tour organizers can include in the Tour. Andy Schleck essentially conceded first place overall to Contador, knowing that it would be extremely difficult to pull back well over four minutes. In fact, he announced that his main goal was to move his brother Frank into third place, displacing Lance. And at the end of the stage, he was not able to hurt Contador at all, who finished with Andy, cementing his position as the winner of the Tour.

Stage 21 is mainly a ceremonial stage for the GC contenders. Nobody was going to attack any of the top 10 for placement. The final stage into Paris is always a huge ride for the sprinters, but not the GC contenders. So Contador, Andy Schleck and Lance remained in their place in first, second and third of the 2009 Tour.

• Mahalo's Guide to the Tour de France
• The Paceline : Profile
  • Height: 5-9
  • Weight: 137
  • Turned Pro: 2003

2003 – ONCE-Eroski Tour de Pologne 1st, Stage 8 (ITT) 2004 – Liberty Seguros Vuelta a Aragón Winner, mountains classification 2005 – Liberty Seguros-Würth Vuelta al País Vasco 3rd, Overall classification Winner, points classification 1st, Stage 6 (ITT) Tour Down Under 1st, Stage 5 Setmana Catalana Winner, overall classification Winner, combination classification 1st, Stage 3 Tour de Romandie 4th, Overall classification 1st, Stage 4 2006 – Astana-Würth Tour de Suisse 1st, Stage 8 Tour de Romandie 2nd, Overall classification 1st, Stage 3

2007 – Discovery Channel Vuelta a Castilla y León Winner, overall classification Winner, combination classification Winner, Spanish rider classification 1st, Stage 4 Paris-Nice Winner, overall classification Winner, young rider classification 1st, Stage 4 1st, Stage 7 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 1st, Stage 4 Tour de France Winner, overall classification Winner, youth classification 1st, Stage 14 2008 – Astana Vuelta a Castilla y León Winner, overall classification 1st, Stage 1 (ITT) 1st, Stage 4 Vuelta a País Vasco Winner, overall classification 1st, Stage 1 1st, Stage 6 (ITT)

2008 Continued... Giro d'Italia Winner, overall classification Beijing Olympics 4th, Individual Time Trial Vuelta a España Winner, overall classification Winner, combination classification 1st, Stage 13 1st, Stage 14 2009 – Astana Volta ao Algarve Winner, overall classification 1st, Stage 4 (ITT) Paris-Nice 4th, overall classification 1st, Stage 1 (ITT) 1st, Stage 6 Dauphiné Libéré 3rd, overall classification Vuelta al País Vasco Winner, overall classification 1st, Stage 3 1st, Stage 6 (ITT) Spanish National Time Trial Championships 1st, Overall Tour de France Winner, overall classification 1st, Stage 15 1st, Stage 18