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After spending almost all of the day on the attack, Team Columbia’s Marcus Burghardt won the 18th stage of the Tour de France, beating Quick Step’s Carlos Barredo in a final kilometer chess match that bore more resemblance to a match-sprint on the velodrome than the end of a 196.5 mile road race. The two joined forces early in the day and cooperated until the final ten kilometers. At that point the two could afford to risk the benefits of cooperation as they enjoyed a healthy 4:50 lead over a group of three chasers and nearly 10 minutes on the peloton.

Retail Price: $24.95 Web site: www.velogear.com Blazing Saddles: The Cruel and Unusual History of the Tour de France is a new book by sports writer Matt Rendell. The book examines the Tour's inspiring and sometimes astonishing history, its whimsical mishaps and astounding feats. Blazing Saddles is available now in bookstores, bike shops, and online.

From virtually every aspect, Carlos Sastre has ridden a perfect Tour de France. As soon as the route for this year’s Tour was announced last October, he said that the race would be decided in the final week, and probably at L’Alpe d’Huez. That’s why he focused his whole season on being at his very best right now, using races as training all season long, and trying to remain anonymous through the first two weeks of the race itself.

Retail price: $20.00 for 3-ounce jar Web site: www.nubutte.com Nubütte chamois butter is shea butter-based (not water-based), and contains other high quality all-natural ingredients formulated to soothe, heal and prevent saddle sores, including Witch hazel, Comfrey leaf, St. Johns Wort, Tea Tree, Calendula and grape seed oil. Nubütte is Paraben free and not tested on animals.

CSC-Saxo Bank’s Carlos Sastre took both the stage win atop L’Alpe d’Huez and the race lead following Wednesday’s massive 210km queen stage of this year’s Tour — but who was the day’s biggest winner? Following this Tour’s final mountain stage, one minute and 34 seconds separate stage 17 winner Carlos Sastre and pre-race favorite Cadel Evans of Silence-Lotto with just four stages remaining. Of greatest interest, of course, is Saturday’s rolling 53km time trial, where the final classification will certainly be determined.

Bike manufacturer Scott, the second sponsor of the Saunier Duval team, announced on Wednesday that it would step in and rescue the Spanish outfit. Saunier Duval announced earlier on Wednesday that it had pulled out of cycling immediately in the wake of the drug scandal that engulfed its team at the Tour de France. Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive for a new version of the banned blood booster EPO after the fourth-stage time trial, prompting the team to pull out of the race last week.

That was a day; long, hard and completely covered by some amazing fans. The Alpe was what it is built up to be: crazy. As far as the climb itself goes, it's hard, but was the easiest of the day by far. The fans however ... well, that's a whole other story. The drunk Dutch corner; the unruly Basque section; the crazy Germans; the Frenchies that always yell "ce n'est pas loin" no matter how long you have to go, and seemingly always cheer for the French rider who happens to be the most annoying at the time.

CSC's Carlos Sastre rolled away from the favorites on L'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday, winning the classic Tour de France stage and taking the yellow jersey from teammate Frank Schleck.

Fighting for the yellow jersey puts as much pressure on the head as on the legs, as Cadel Evans is learning at the Tour de France. After the second of two days in the Alps on Tuesday, the Silence-Lotto rider boosted his bid to win the final yellow jersey by surviving the CSC-Saxo Bank team's efforts to shake him off on the difficult Cime de la Bonette-Restefond climb.

I’m writing these words on the road to L’Alpe d’Huez where, at the end of this glorious Wednesday in the French Alps, the 95th Tour de France could be decided. The infamous 21-turn mountain climb concludes a gigantic stage 17 after the riders have already crossed the mighty Col du Galibier and Col de la Croix de Fer climbs.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday Italian rider Riccardo Riccò tested positive at the Tour de France after a secret molecule was planted in the blood booster EPO during its manufacture. Riccò, 24, upset the big names of the sport to win two stages of this year's Tour before he was kicked off after testing positive for EPO (erythropoietin). Revealing the now high-tech nature of the fight against drugs in sport, WADA chief John Fahey said his organization worked with drugs giant Roche on the newest version of EPO (erythropoietin).

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 and are providing daily journals and photos. The following report from Geer is about stage 4, from Scuol, Switzerland, to Livigno, Italy: 77 km with an elevation gain of 2621m (8600 feet) "I will just never be able to pronounce 'Chipotle' it is just too hard," the finish announcer at Tranalps said.

The valley point-to-point course is one of the local’s favorites in the Winter Park Mountain Bike Series, but no one liked it as much as Dellys Starr (Dales Pale Ale/Spot Brand) who blasted the competition with a winning time of 1:25:19 on the 19-mile track in the third race of the series. Her time was just two seconds off the fastest time set by a female rider on the course, but she had the fastest pace as organizers had to re-route the course.

The Tour de France yellow jersey is set to be decided on the final alpine stage of the race on Wednesday after a dramatic 16th stage which left CSC still in control of the race. Luxembourg's Frank Schleck finished the 157km stage from Cueno in Italy to here with his 7-second lead on Austrian Bernhard Kohl intact, with Australian Cadel Evans in third at 08. Spaniard Carlos Sastre, Schleck's teammate at the CSC team, is fourth at 49 while Denis Menchov, one of the day's biggest losers, is now at 1:13behind Schleck after losing time on the day's final descent.

Hilton Clarke brought the Toyota-United Pro squad its second victory in the 2008 USA CRITS Series on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho. Daniel Ramsey (Time Pro Cycling) led the the race for 11 laps until Clark bridged up with teammate Dominique Rollin and the trio lapped the field. Toyota took no chances, dominating the final 30 minutes of racing and setting up a successful lead-out train for their Australian sprinter, who collected his 12th win of the season.

The Saunier Duval cycling team look set to be excluded from the Tour of Germany because of doping, race organisers revealed on Tuesday. The elite team withdrew from the Tour de France last week after Italian rider Riccardo Ricco failed a dope test - they subsequently sacked both him and compatriot Leonardo Piepoli, who had won the prestigious stage on July 14. However that move has failed to placate the Tour of Germany chiefs, whose race runs from August 29 to September 6.