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Stage 21 - Corbeil-Essonnes to Paris (Champs-Elysées) >144.5km

But his countryman was the guy getting all the attention when it was over

Stage 21 - Corbeil-Essonnes to Paris (Champs-Elysées) >144.5km

Two longtime rivals share a moment

Armstrong's last visit as a pro road racer to the Champs-Elysees

That's a Lotto guys all wearing the same kit (oh, give us a break; you know how many of these things we've written this year?)

Vino' pads the old racing résumé in Paris

Au revoir - until next year

A final farewell

Kabush heads to his second win in as many days

A final anthem in Paris

Dara Mark-Marino leads Shonny Vanlandingham in Sunday's STXC

Vino' attacks, and attacks, and then attacks some more - today, he said, it worked

Snowmass NORBA: Kabush, Marks-Marino grab STXC wins

Vive Le Tour!

Snowmass NORBA: Kabush, Marks-Marino grab STXC wins

Sen. John Kerry thinks Lance Armstrong would make a terrific politician -- but fears he'd be running for the other party. Watching Armstrong during his warmup for Saturday's time trial, the Democrat from Massachusetts listed the Texan's winning qualities. “What's made him so special at the Tour de France, and as an athlete, is the level of focus, discipline, intelligence, strategic ability, and obviously, his endurance - his ability to just take it on and go,” Kerry said. Those qualities would serve Armstrong well in politics, Kerry said. But Armstrong is also friendly

Hincapie finished eighth

Hello!I made the final podium in Paris! Well, assuming nothing happens on the final ride to the finish. For me, today’s time trial went pretty much as I had hoped and expected. What happened to Mickael Rasmussen was absolutely awful for him. I regret not winning the stage, but I have to admit that Lance was, once again, the best one out there. For T-Mobile, we earned two very beautiful stage wins – the two won by Vino’ and Guero’- but again, we come away without the one prize we had our eyes on: the yellow jersey. The fact that we failed in that effort yet again is disappointing to us as a

Horner finished 25th

Stage 20 - St.-Etienne to St.-Etienne >55.5km

Basso started fast, but faded

Stage 20 - St.-Etienne to St.-Etienne >55.5km

Commentator Jean-Rene Godart has some fans, it seems

Armstrong gets his stage win and clinches victory in Paris

You think the French are tired of not winning their national tour?

Rasmussen started six minutes before Armstrong, so this was not a good sign.

Beloki, the invisible man

Local and international cyclists created a memorial to Gillett at the site of this week's tragedy.

And Horner, who - incredibly - is having fun in a 55.5km time trial after 19 stages of high-speed racing through France

Course: Time-trial courses don’t come much tougher than this one. From downtown St.-Etienne, the course heads north toward a 7km climb through the village of St. Héand and into the Lyonnais hills. The first time check (17km) is close to the day’s high point at 2769 feet elevation (more than 1000 feet above the start) along a twisting ridge road. Around half-distance, a tortuousdescent drops to the village of St.-Romain-en-Jarez at 1598 feet before a 5km Cat.3 climb lifts the riders back up to 2454 feet at the Col de la Gachet (40km) for the second time split. The final 15km heads down a

McEwen may not get the jersey again, but he wants another win on the Champs Élysées

Julich rolls it to a solid fourth

Lance Armstrong roared to victory in Saturday's 55.5km time trial in the last real race of his remarkable 14-year career. And he did it with trademark panache, something that some journalists suggested he was lacking this year as he methodically picked apart the competition en route to an unprecedented seventh Tour crown. "Someone asked if you don't win a stage, they say you don't have panache," Armstrong said after beating Jan Ullrich by 23 seconds in the stage 20 time trial. "I came with the intention of doing one thing; that was to win the overall." Barring disaster, Armstrong

Did this cost Robbie the jersey? Well, do the math....

Leipheimer did less well, but looks set for that top-five finish he's been dreaming of

This is it: the final time trial of Lance Armstrong’s career. A time trial that offers him the chance to take his only stage win of this Tour, and his first victory of any sort in the 2005 season. If that is not motivation enough for the Discovery Channel team leader and six-time defending champion then there is the desire to impress some of the special guests, such as politician John Kerry and movie star Tom Hanks, who have already arrived at the Tour for Armstrong’s gala celebration banquet Sunday night in Paris. Armstrong goes into his last truly competitive event — Sunday’s road race

Karpets set the early top time

Future racers, or just today's young fans?

Stage Results1. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, 1:11:462. Jan Ullrich (G), T-Mobile, 00:233. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, 01:164. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, 01:335. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 01:546. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 02:027. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 02:068. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel, 02:259. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears, 02:5110. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Illes Balears, 03:05 11. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, 03:0912. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 03:1013. Christophe Moreau (F), Credit Agricole, 03:1114. Levi Leipheimer (USA),

A raging Ullrich bumped teammate Vino' down a notch

A fan cannot survive the Tour on mineral water, you know

Lance Armstrong knows exactly where he will be next July - sitting in front of his television watching his soon-to-be ex-rivals Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso battle it out for the yellow jersey. Armstrong, who won the 20th and penultimate stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, will retire after the end of Sunday’s 144km 21st stage when he will have guaranteed a seventh consecutive victory on the race. Last year, when he broke the record of the four other riders who, before him, had won the race five times, there had been a reason for sticking around. This year, he said, it was all about

Julich had a solid ride

It was a little humid in Snowmass

Australian Robbie McEwen will become one of the Tour de France's all-timegreats if he wins a fourth stage in Paris on Sunday. If McEwen wins the 144.5km 21st and final stage of the 3607km Tour onthe Champs Élysées, he will be only the 14th rider – andseventh sprinter – in the post-war era to win four or more stages on theone Tour. “He would be a hero,” said McEwen's Davitamon-Lotto team manager, HendrikRedant. “To win four stages in one Tour is amazing. There are not a lotof guys except those like Eddy Merckx. It will be really, really special.” Merckx, who won the Tour de France

Vino' showed his strength

The men blaze the start

Geek-bikes and skinsuits, bars shaped like wings . . . these are a few of our favorite things. And Casey Gibson was there at the stage-20 time trial to snag a few more shots for our virtual scrapbook. Here they are.

Dad goes out as a champ

Vanlandingham is in another league right now . . .

Kerry chums it up with Discovery crewSen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) was hanging out at the Discovery Channel bus before the start of the 20th stage of the Tour de France. Dressed in a button-down sports shirt, chinos and penny-loafers, the cyclist and former presidential candidate looked on as Lance Armstrong warmed up for the race on his stationary bike. With hundreds of fans looking on, and scores of photographers snapping pictures of the scene, Kerry chatted with George Hincapie, Chris Carmichael and Sheryl Crow. “I wished him well and congratulated him on an extraordinary accomplishment,

Rasmussen had an appalling ride

. . . as teammate Alison Dunlap rolls toward retirement

With his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory locked up, Lance Armstrong is ready to ride the final stage of his final Tour and the very last competitive event of his professional cycling career. He did say Saturday night that after retirement he might show up to race a local cyclo-cross or mountain-bike race, or even a 10K run or triathlon. But this is it for Lance the pro cyclist. Stage 21 of the 92nd Tour de France finishes on the Champs-Élysées for the 30th year. It previously finished in the velodromes at Vincennes (1968-74) and the Parc des Princes (1904-67). The first Tour, in

Landis crossed sixth

This is not the time for Lance Armstrong to take chances, push harder, let it all hang out. Unless, that is, he wants to check off the one accomplishment he's lacked on his final Tour de France: a stage win to call his own. The Discovery Channel captain has taken and held a commanding overall lead without winning a single stage, and Saturday's final time trial gives him an excellent chance to change that. The rolling 55.5km route at Saint-Etienne in central France should suit a fast roller and climber like Armstrong. But it will also severely test legs worn out by the thousands of

Guerini tears it up on the descent

Stage 19 - Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay >153.5km

The leaders fly along

Stage 19 - Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay >153.5km

The obligatory ruins shot

Guerini collects a second career Tour stage win

Sometimes a shooter gets desperate for images as the race winds down

The cross-country course

Casar took the sprint for second, not the prize he was after.

The downhill track

Guerini gets the green light from T-Mobile

The Super-D route

Illes Balears works to keep the gap reasonable.

Pelizzotti joins in to add some horsepower

Course: At 153.5km, this is the 2005 Tour’s second shortest road stage, but certainly not the easiest. The climbs aren’t particularly difficult, but the roads are often narrow and twisting, the perfect ingredients for another breakaway. There’s a fast downhill toward Le Puy before a final short, up-and-down loop into the backside of town. History: Only two Tour stages have finished at Le Puy. The last time, in 1996, the stage went to the Swiss Pascal Richard, who went on to take the following month’s Olympic title in Atlanta. Favorites: Teams yet to win a stage will be going for the

Is this contest already settled?

This time Giuseppe Guerini saw the people who wanted to take his photo. En route to winning Friday's stage 19, a hilly 153km from Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay, Guerini enjoyed a clean run to the finish line. That’s something he didn’t get on his way to winning at L'Alpe d'Huez in 1999. Back then, a fan - the now infamous "Erik the Photographer" - capturing Guerini’s victorious pedal strokes about a kilometer from the line forced the Italian to fall before finishing. “Yes, L’Alpe d'Huez is more dangerous,” said a smiling Guerini, 35, when reminded at his post-stage press

Nicely timed, Giuseppe,

Stage Results1. Giuseppe Guerini (I), T-Mobile, 3:33:04, 43.225kmp for 153.5km2. Sandy Casar (F), Francaise des Jeux, 00:103. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:104. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Phonak, 00:125. Salvatore Commesso (I), Lampre, 02:436. Arvesen Kurt-Asle (Nor), CSC, 02:487. Nicolas Portal (F), Ag2r Prevoyance, 02:488. Bert Grabsch (G), Phonak, 02:489. Sylvain Chavanel (F), Cofidis, 02:4810. Pieter Weening (Nl), Rabobank, 03:50 11. Jose Azevedo(P), Discovery Channel, 04:2112. Carlos Da Cruz (F), Francaise des Jeux, 04:2113. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 04:2114.

Guerini was almost denied his 1999 stage win.