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CSC-Saxo Bank's Carlos Sastre withstood the challenge from Silence-Lotto's Cadel Evans on Saturday, defending his yellow jersey going into the final stage of the 2008 Tour de France. A surprising Sastre ceded just 29 seconds to Evans over Saturday's 53km time trial and will enter the Tour's finale Sunday with a 1:05 lead over the Aussie, who is on track for his second consecutive runner-up finish in the Tour.

Saturday dawned cool and cloudy in Cérilly, central France, where the podium of the 95th Tour de France is being decided in a 53km time trial. Favorite to come out on top is Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), who rode the course a few months ago. He says the hills on the zigzagging course are power climbs suited to a strong time trialist like himself rather than the more lightly built Carlos Sastre, the race leader, who starts the day with a 1:34 advantage on the Australian.

The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame sits just off main street in Crested Butte, Colorado. It’s tucked into the back corner of the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum and packed with a broad cross-section of mountain biking history.

On the eve of this race’s final test, the 53-kilometer time trial from Cérilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond, CSC-Saxo Bank’s Carlos Sastre leads Frank Schleck by 1:24, with another 9 seconds to Bernard Kohl and — perhaps most ominously — 1:34 to Cadel Evans, who sits fourth. In this Tour's first time trial, a super-flat 29.5-kilometer race circumventing Cholet, Sastre finished 1:16 behind Evans and four seconds in front of Kohl.

Astana has sacked Russian rider Vladimir Gusev for reportedly showing “abnormal values” during the team’s internal doping checks. "Vladimir Gusev has been officially informed that he is no longer part of the team Astana," said general manager Johan Bruyneel in a news release. The three-time Russian time-trial champion showed "abnormal values" during an internal doping check, according to the release.

The former Saunier Duval-Scott team will continue as Scott-American Beef after the squad’s title sponsor announced Wednesday that it would leave professional cycling in the wake of a drug scandal at the Tour de France. Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive for a new version of the banned blood booster EPO after the stage-four time trial, prompting the team to pull out of the race last week. Both Riccò and his compatriot Leonardo Piepoli, who had won the prestigious Bastille Day stage but had not failed a dope test, were sacked last Friday.

When I said yesterday that you could tell which directors weren't pleased with their teams' races, today you could tell who was f-ing pissed. If it weren't for the fact that they made the day one of the most painful I've ever raced I'd actually feel bad for the guys on Liquigas, and a couple of others to a lesser degree. As is the only sympathy is the fact that there were a lot of really, really hurting guys out there today and we all shared in it together. [nid:80807]

Another July, another US National Championships coinciding with with the best race ever. That being Mount Snow, Vermont.

Nineteen-year-old Autumn Grohowski was on her cell phone with her dad, just letting him know she would be home soon. It was June, a summer night in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and Autumn was approaching the trail she would take home. She was on her bike, and mindful of her safety, so she kept the call short — she told her dad “I don’t want to be killed by a car, so I don’t want to talk on the phone on the way home.” Those were her last words.

The headline says it all. After a seven-day flogging at the BC Bike Race, it’s been R&R time here in the land of the coached. I took a week off after the race and am just now starting to crank it up again.

Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen said Friday he will appeal the decision of a Utrecht court that awarded him 665,000 euros ($1 million) against his former Rabobank team for the way he was kicked off their 2007 Tour de France squad. The 34-year-old, who instituted proceedings for unlawful dismissal demanding damages of 5.5 million euros, was thrown out of the race while wearing the leader's yellow jersey for lying about his whereabouts when he was being sought out for doping tests.

Double world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland on Friday extended his contract with CSC-Saxo Bank until 2011. Cancellara, who will begin as the favorite for the penultimate-stage time trial of the Tour de France Saturday, has won some of cycling's biggest one-day races with the Danish team run by former Tour winner Bjarne Riis. "It means a lot to me that my future is secure with Team CSC-Saxo Bank," said Cancellara.

Australian Scott Sunderland has spent three weeks trying to make sure compatriot Cadel Evans loses the Tour de France. Now Sunderland, a co-team manager with CSC-Saxo Bank, is preparing for the distinct possibility that Evans will upset his race leader, Carlos Sastre, in Saturday's penultimate stage time trial. Sastre goes into the 53km race against the clock with a lead of one minute and 34 seconds on Silence-Lotto’s Evans, and with the yellow jersey on his back.

Cofidis' Sylvain Chavanel, one of the most aggressive riders in this year's Tour, got the stage win he's been looking for on Friday, outsprinting Jeremy Roy (Francaise des Jeux), his breakaway companion of nearly 85 kilometers to take the win in Montluçon. Race leader Carlos Sastre (CSC) finished in the lead pack to retain his overall lead heading into Saturday's critical final time trial.

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“You got a choice, Dishwasher. Either you get out of town, or tonight you be out on that street alone.”—Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”

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