I think you are on to something here. It did not seem like there was much of a battle. It was just a clump of contenders following each other around. Even when Menchov faltered on the Alpe, no one was willing to stick a knife in him so he clawed his way back. The high points, as far as the conteders go, turned out to be Kohl and Sastre on Prato Nevoso and Sastre on the Alpe.
I am not even all that happy about Sastre. His win on the Alpe was great, but he seemed to be mostly anonomous before that. It is like F. Schleck was used to fake out Evans, so Sastre could slide into home plate at the last moment. Great teactics by CSC, but it did not leave me with a lot of enjoyment for the overall race.
To extend that last point, and this is probably just my distorted impression, everyone was riding against Evans. It was usually left to him, even though he had no team, to set pace on climbs. Menchov did sometimes help in the Pyranees. All Vande Velde could manage was a few weak ass attacks before fading back into the group as soon as they were covered. After Vande Velde crashed and lost a chunk of time, it looked like it would come down to Evans and Menchov. Then out of the blue, Sastre wins it.
Giving Sastre's win an even worse taste in my mouth is the belief that the whole CSC team is doped. Not just doped a little but really doped. So it's not like Evans had to ride with a **** team against a good team, but he had to ride with a **** team against a team of supermen who never get tired.