Well there is still a stage to go but with that kind of a ride against the clock, Carlos Sastre has comfortably done enough to ensure his place as the Tour de France 2008 Champion. I honestly didn’t believe the Tour would come down to a time-trial to decide things this year — there just wasn’t many TT kilometres in the Tour compared to other years — but that is exactly what happened as Evans looked to overturn a minute and a half deficit to win his and Australia’s first tour. MORE »

Yesterday, for a big mountain stage was very tame, the big names didn’t attack each other but today, being the final mountain stage of the ‘08 Tour, was the last chance for the big climbers to make their mark before Saturday’s time-trial. Get enough time on the TT specialists today and you could well be in with a shout of winning the Tour. Today, however only Carlos Sastre had it in him to properly attack and get the job done. The only question that remains now, is did he get enough time on a time trialing expert like Cadel Evans before Saturday? MORE »

Well what about that? On today’s first of the Alpine mountain stages we had two races on the go. One involving the four men at the head of the race, so far up the road that long before the final climb we knew they would hang on for the win. None of them were overall threats and so were allowed to fight it out between themselves. Remember this was a stage the sprinters teams were never going to even attempt to close down. But while that was going on, minutes down the road and onto the final climb the Tour de France was taking shape, or in many ways, losing shape. MORE »

Today’s stage didn’t really make much different to the overall standings, though when Oscar Periero attacked midway through the stage it looked for a moment he was going to do a 2006 all over again and claw back the minutes he was down on GC. It wasn’t to be though and a break of 12 men stayed away with Kurt-Alse Arvesen taking the victory.

The last few days however have seen things shake up in dramatic fashion. MORE »