The battle on the Tourmalet. Tour 2010. Photo lightasmagic

Well it's almost the end of 2010 and its been an interesting year to say the least. The full fallout of 2010 has yet to be seen. We get the feeling that the whole Contador saga and its effects on the Spanish meat industry are going to roll on for a long time. However, the red carpet is out, the gold envelopes are sealed with winners names inside, Yes its the 2010 Corza Awards.

Our first award is 'Grand Tour' of 2010. To say there is an obviously limited selection would only take away from what has been a great year for the three week tours. This year's Giro was a super watch with an exciting finish. The Vuelta was one of the best for years, we even became a bit oblivious to the sandy landscape and lack of spectators. 

However for intrigue and sheer drama on and off the bike we've got to give the Corza prize for 'Best Grand Tour of 2010' to 'The Tour'.

Chaingate provided a fantastic environment for a Star Wars esque good vs evil showdown (we'll leave the decision of who is Darth and who is Luke to yourselves) that went all the way to the final mountain. The green jersey battle was again a competition that provided as much interest as the overall prize. It looked as though king Cav' was coming the end of his reign. Yeah right, a couple of off days in the first week maybe. Even when Mark Reshaw's Zidane on wheels headbut had seen him being sent home Cavendish still fought. The green jersey was ultimately Pettachi's, and it's the rider with the most points who' takes the prize after all.

The only fly in the ointment of this year's Tour was to appear not in July but two months later in September. Chances are it's still going to be with us next September. Come on UCI, the Landis debacle wasn't fun, lets not have another.

It was a sad day at Corza when we heard about the passing of Laurent Fignon. It doesn't seem all that long ago we were watching Fignon winning his final Tour stage in 1992. Its a sign of a great career when we look back at a stage win with a sense of melancholy.

Like Stephen Roche's stage win at La Bourboule the same year it was always going to be measured against earlier achievements. The pressure and attention of filling a post Hinault vacuum and being known as the man who came second in the 1989 Tour meant that Fignon finished his career with the Italian Gatorade/Chateau D'ax outfit that was better known for being the home of Gianni Bugno. How many other French men would have gone and ridden for an Italian team? There was a great logic to it though. Like Robert Millar, Fignon was his own man showing an intelligence and intellect that helped him gain his 'Professeur' nickname.

Fignon's best days of the mid 1980s were riding with Cyrille Guimard's Renault superteam. Two tour wins in '83 and '84 set him up as the next big French star. The 1984 Tour was probably the crowning moment. Hinault was back from injury, an American by the name of Greg Lemond was riding his first tour - finishing third, and Sean Kelly was at the peak of his powers.  It was during this time the classic Fignon images of the blue Gitane bike, (with yellow decals and handlebar tape of course) and French national champions jersey emerged. We'd still love a steel frame in that lovely deep blue colour with some classic campag equipment.

Remember the 1987 Tour? Remember what happened on La Plagne? The Delgado, Roche battle that ended with Roche crossing the finish line and being administered Oxygen. That incident will be remembered as one of the defining moments of that years Tour, rightly so. Who won the stage that day? Fignon. How many people remember that though? Lets not go down 1982 Blois-Chaville route...

Fignon was so much more than those 8 seconds in July in 1989, a winner of Milan - San Remos, Giros, Tours, and a contender from March to October.

Photo Velodenz

Gianni Bugno. A late summer worlds winner in 1991 and 1992. Photo Velodenz

If you've been following Corza Clothing's Twitter this week (www.twitter.com/corzaclothing) you'll have noticed we have been enjoying the first few days of the ENECO tour. There has been some good racing over some interesting terrain and its certainly different seeing climbs like the Oude Kwaremont in late summer when the fields are almost ready to harvest rather than having the usual barren late winter/early spring northern European feel.

August is a bit odd when it comes to professional bike racing. Spring and Summer will have given us the big classics and the tours of Italy and France and then all of sudden in August we get, well, not much really. Classica San Sebastian can sometimes be a good race (twice over the Jazekibel, as this year, is a good thing we reckon) but it comes a week after the Tour and these days we have the ENECO tour.

There is a certain logic in having a stage race in cycling's heartlands that use some of the sport's iconic roads and climbs. The terrain is familiar and knowledgeable fans can be assured. Even though it does give commentators plenty of opportunity to come out with phrases like 'mini Tour of Flanders' and 'mini Amstel Gold race' the race seems to be hard fought and interesting. All of the above don't always apply to the Tour of Poland.

Wouldn't it be good though if there was a big race, that really meant something in the cycling world, that could come after the Tour and attract the biggest names in a kind of grudge match? A one day race would be fine by us, we kind of prefer the winner takes all spontaneity of a hard fought one day race anyway.

What's that we hear you say? "There used to be one". There certainly did. The World Championships. The fight for the Arc-en-Ciel. A grudge match of all proportions to attract the post Tour riders who still had form, one day men with an eye on a lucrative year in the rainbow jersey, and all mixed up in national team politics and traditionally held in August. If you had something to prove post Tour, this is where you did it.

As much as we've enjoyed the ENECO tour this week we'd swap it for an August World's anytime. Now, if we were in charge of the UCI...

A good battle!
Whilst not approaching 1989 levels of drama (what could really?) it was great to see two riders battling out the overall up until the last few stages. Bring on next year we say.

Cobbles in the Tour.
Possibly contentious, if Mark Cavendish had fallen and broken a collarbone we'd probably be putting this in the '5 things we weren't so keen on about the Tour De France' section. As it turned out though, lots of drama and it all looked great on the TV. Not sure Franck Schleck would agree though!

Cavendish Stage wins.
5 cracking sprint wins after we had him down as leaving by the first Saturday. Surely Cav's on the road to achieving a 'best sprinter of all time' label?

Jeremy Hunt riding the Tour.
Occasionally seen on the front working for Hushovd, after the Banesto debut you wouldn't have thought that it would be 2010 before Jeremy's Tour debut would you?

The green jersey battle.
The Maillot Vert is consistently proving to be the hard fought competition of the Tour. After last years Cavendish vs Hushovd head to head it was great to watch this year's three way battle including Pettachi. You have to love Hushovd's gritty fighting style that contrasts brilliantly with Cavendish's 'If you can't win, it ain't worth it' philosophy and Pettachi's classic sprinter style. Long may that continue.

Photo courtesy dailym

That Andy Schleck losing his chain incident.
Not only did 'chaingate' lead to one of the most contentious issues of this year's tour but it also robbed everyone watching of a potentially classic battle between Contador and Andy Schleck. Still, better than a positive dope test for one of the big names.

Aleander Vinokourov's stage 13 win in Revel.
If only Vino showed a little bit of remorse. Apparently the boos and whistles at the stage finish drowned out any of the cheers when Vinokourov won in Revel. Unsurprising and certainly goes to show that cycling is a more than just a win or lose sport.

The King of the Mountains podium girls' dresses.
Half umbrella, half dress, totally shocking.

The second stage 'go slow'.
Waiting for Franck Schleck on the descent of the Stockeu was one thing and given the carnage on the wet roads a fair decision. We have to ask though, what was wrong with having a bunch gallop in Spa? OK, the roads were wet but this is bike racing not golf, it was in the final 3k and from the looks of Hushovd et el they were up for it. Not only were we robbed of a sprint for second but you have to feel for the fans by the roadside who just got to see a glorified club run, in the rain. They probably weren't as annoyed as Hushovd not being able to gain green jersey points though.

Cadel Evans's cracked elbow.
The chances of Cadel Evans winning the Tour are looking ever slimmer but this isn't the main reason we were upset about Cadel's cracked elbow. What really disappointed us was that we felt robbed of one of the finest World Champions of recent times showing off his jersey in the Tour. After Evans's fantastic win in Montalcino in the Giro it would have been great to see rides like that from Cadel in the Tour. Let's see what happens in Australia in October.

Photo Courtesy zahikel