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Stage 21 – By the numbers
Stage 21 stats
Stage 21, Étamps to Paris, 143km
WeatherHot and humid with partly cloudy skies and moderate wind, temperatures in the mid 80s Stage winner
Quick Step’s Gert Steegmans salvaged a disappointing Tour for his Belgian team by winning one of the most prestigious sprints in cycling along the Champs Elysees. Yellow jersey
Race leader Carlos Sastre held his overall lead, with no major change on classification.
Carlito’s Way: The Tour’s Improbable Winner
Carlos Sastre has a reputation of being a cool customer under pressure. After 11 seasons as a pro, nothing rankles the 33-year-old veteran too much. From doping scandals that nearly toppled his CSC team after captain Ivan Basso was implicated in the Operación Puerto doping scandal to the death of his brother-in-law, José María “El Chaba” Jiménez in 2003 at just 32, he’d seen it all.
How Garmin-Chipotle keeps its riders fresh for the Tour
Anyone can attest it’s hard to sleep when you’re hot. It's a fact that Garmin-Chipotle physiologist Allen Lim knows well. It’s why, among other things, regulating his riders’ temperatures on and off the bike is key to keeping them as fresh and fast as possible. This concept plays into both short-term and long-term performances; the former being a stage performance and the latter being the whole of the three-week race like the Tour de France.
Credit Agricole’s Dmitri Fofonov tests positive for banned stimulant
Kazakhstan's Dmitri Fofonov has tested positive for a banned stimulant, his Credit Agricole team said on the final day of the Tour de France. Fofonov finished the race in 19th overall, 28:31 behind race winner Carlos Sastre. Credit Agricole manager Roger Legeay said Fofonov told the team he bought a product over the Internet to fight cramps. He has been suspended and may be fired, Legeay said.
Sastre: the seventh Spanish Tour winner
Carlos Sastre became the seventh Spaniard to win the Tour de France yellow jersey when he wrapped up overall victory on Sunday, taking his country's total to 11 wins.
Live Coverage – Stage 21 Tour de France, 2008
- 01:31 PM: Good day and welcome
to VeloNews.com's Live Coverage of the 21st - and final - stage of the 95th Tour de France, a 143-kilometer ride from Etampes to the classic Tour finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
TransAlpe 2008: Stage 7 rider diary
Drew Geer and Mark Gouge are racing the Jeantex Bike Transalp 2008 powered by Nissan, an eight-stage epic mountain bike stage race, from Füssen, Germany, to Riva del Garda, Italy, passing through Austria and Switzerland. The two are racing for the Chipotle-Titus-VeloNews team.
Naturns to Andalo Italy
The Bulls team wins the final stage and defends their 2007 TransAlpe title
Defending champions Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm of Team Bulls won the final stage of the TransAlpe 2008 and wrapped up their second consecutive win of the 665-kilometer stage race. On the last stage from Andalo to Riva del Garda, Platt and Sahm underlined why they kept hold on their title with good reason. The team mastered the 61-kilometer stage in 2:30:03, putting their total riding time in the 8-stages at just under 30 hours at 29:59:25.
Sastre wraps up his first Tour victory as Steegmans wins the finale
Carlos Sastre (CSC-Saxo Bank) won the 95th Tour de France on Sunday as Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) took the 21st and final stage on the Champs-Élysées.[nid:80935] "I've dreamt of this since I was a child," said an emotional Sastre, who was surrounded by his wife and two children, Claudia and Yeday. "I'm beyond words — to be here with my family is really special." Steegmans, too, was delighted, having finally snapped his team's winless streak at this year's Tour.
Buhl, Alvarez take muddy Four cross
Just days ago Mont-Ste-Anne’s tricky four-cross course was reduced to an impassable mud bog after heavy mid-week thunderstorms dumped buckets of rain on the region. Organizers contemplated canceling the event outright, as the thick mud refused to dry in the wake of additional showers. [nid:80882] But eventually the track did dry out, and maintenance crews armed with shovels and earth moving equipment turned the tide. As the World Cup race kicked off under darkening skies on Saturday evening, only a handful of patches sported mud. [nid:80879]
Minnaar, Atherton win Mont-Ste-Anne Downhill
Drenched with sweat after riding at maximum effort for four and a half minutes, Greg Minnaar couldn’t contain his smile after winning the Mont-Ste-Anne round of the 2008 UCI World Cup. “Winner winner, chicken dinner,” Minnaar said.
Stage 20 — by the numbers
Stage 20: Cérilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond, 53km Weather: Hot and humid with partly cloudy skies and moderate wind, temperatures in the mid 80s. Stage winner: Gerolsteiner’s Stefan Schumacher proved he was the strongest time trialist at this Tour, winning both the 29km stage 4 TT and Saturday’s 53km effort. World time trial champion Fabian Cancellara finished second, 21 seconds back.