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Alberto Contador became the second Spaniard to win the tour more then once; his last victory came in 2007 and could not take part in the 2008 as his team Astana was banned from the tour due to a drug scandal. After the 20th stage it was quite clear that Contadore would take victory in Paris, as the last day is considered as a day of enjoying the stage, moving in to Paris and enjoy the grandeur of Champs-Elysées.

The stage also saw another display of the sprinting ability of the fastest sprinter in the world, Mark Cavendish. This was his 6th stage in the tour this year making a total of 10 stages including 4 from previous year. Cavendish gave another stage win to his Team Columbia-HTC.

The 21st and final stage of the tour was 164 kilometers from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris Champs-Élysées. The last stage had no climbs but two intermediate sprints, first at Haut des Champs-Elysées at 120 kilometer mark and the second on the fourth lap at Champs-Elysées at 133 kilometer mark.

Team Colombia-HTC took control of the pace making from the time the peloton entered the Champs-Elysées. All the nine riders of the team were committed to get their man, Cavendish a stage win. Colombia train worked in an excellent manner and the effort was lead by Renshaw and Gorge Hincapie, Renshaw took the second spot behind his teammate. Garmin – Slipstream rider Tyler Farrar took the third spot.

This year’s tour saw excellent results for the young Luxemburg rider Andy Schleck who came on the second place in the tour and also won the white jersey in the young rider classification. Another impressive result came from Lance Armstrong who came back to the tour after years of game, he finished third. The King of the Mountains crown went to Franco Pellizotti of team Liquigas. Thor Hushovd of Cervelo Test Team took the green jersey.

The second last day of a tour was full of surprises and some great riding. The two opportunists took away the glory of the final climb from the General Category riders. Team Rabobank got its first stage victory of the tour when Spanish rider Juan Manuel Garate crossed the line first at Mont Ventoux, he was closely followed by the German rider Tony Martin from Team Colombia-HTC. They both managed to cross the line 38 sec ahead of the tour leader.

Also there was great display of riding skills by the while jersey leader Andy Schleck. He is an amazing young rider and will be a great star in future tours. Though his work to get elder brother and teammate Frank went to vain as the old tour horse Lance Armstrong made sure that he is lined up for a podium finish tomorrow in Paris.

The 167 Kilometer stage from Montelimar to Mont Ventoux and was considered to set the tone for the final day. There were two intermediate sprints Les Pilles at 48 kilometers and Mormoiron at 138.5 kilometers. The stage also had five climbs. The cote de Citelle a category-3 at 14 kilometers, col d’Ey a catagory-3 at 65.5 kilometers, col de Fontaube a category-4 at 87 kilometers, col des Abeilles a catagory-3 at 121.5 kilometers and the most dreaded of all the the hors category at the finish at Mont Ventoux which is 1912 meters above sea level. Mont Ventoux has a 10% plus gradient on its ascent and riders had to face winds of upto 40 km/h.

It is now clear that Spanish rider Alberto Contador of Team Astana is sure to take this year tour victory and will carry his yellow jersey on the final day. Andy Schleck is most likely to take the second podium spot in Paris followed by Lance Armstrong. Team started the tour with the goal of finishing as the No.1 team and the have achieved it and are certain to carry it to Paris. Tho Hushovd has just won a single stage but he will continue to wear his green jersey on the last day of the tour.

Alberto Contador the dark horse of the race and the Astana strong man took the first climb of the Alps in style. He powered ahead on the base of the final climb and took away the yellow jersey. He is now ahead of his Astana teammate and seven times champion Lance Armstrong with a gap of one minute and thirty seven seconds. Andy Schleck of team Saxo Bank finished an impressive second behind Contador.

As the tour returned to the mountains the 15th stage after a rest day was from Pontarlier to Verbier. The 207.5 kilometers stage had 6 climbs and two intermediate sprints. There were four category-3 climbs the cote du Rafour at 8 kilometers, cote des Etroits at 18.5 kilometers, cote de la Carrière at 54 kilometers and the cote de Prévonloup at 74 kilometers, a category-2 climb: col des Mosses at 135.5 kilometers and a category-1 climb to the finish at Verbier. The two sprints were Thierrens at 56.5 kilometer mark and Martigny at 181 kilometer mark.

Although the pace of peloton was dictated by Milram, Liquigas and Saxo Bank but just 6 kilometers from the finish and the final ascent Contador surprised everyone and took the lead. He quickly crossed all the escaped riders and finished the race with a 43 second gap.

Yellow jersey holder Nocentini was dropped at 5 kilometers and could just watch the yellow jersey going away from his hand. Thor Hushovd keeps the green jersey and is ahead of Cavindish by 18 points. In a post match interview Contador said that he was a different rider as compared to team mate Lance Armstrong and was looking for a tour victory this time and was not here to make records like Armstrong’s seven tour victories. Team Astana also had a good outing as it came back to the number one spot in the team standings and taking the place away from AG2R La Mondiale.

Rain gods were not in favor of the tour as it poured on the riders for most of the race. But German Heinrich Haussler was determined to fight and he did winning the stage in style. He attacked the peloton at the three kilometer mark and took all the climbs and descents with aggression. As he crossed the line at Colmar, he had tears in his eyes, quite an emotional first stage victory for him at the tour. Other gainers in the race were Hushovd who took the green jersey away from Cavendish and the other gainer was Franco Pellizotti’s who gets to wear the polka-dot jersey on Saturday.

The Friday stage between Vittel and Colmar had a total distance of 200 kilometers. There were in all five climbs in the stage including category 3 at cote de Xertigny, category 2 at col de la Schlucht, category 1 at col du Platzerwasel, category 3 at col du Bannstein and category 3 at col du Firstplan. The stage also had three sprints including Xertigny at 43.5 kilometers, Gerardmer at 88.5 kilometers and Luttenbach at 24 kilometers.

There was one major disappointment especially for team Astana as one of their most experienced climber Levi Leipheimer had to leave the tour due to a fractured wrist. Leipheimer was thought as a great helper to Contador, Armstrong and Kloden as the tour enters the Alps.

Nicki Sorenson of Team Saxo Bank won the 12th satage of Tour de France with an impressive ride. Danish rider has been a veteran of the tour and showed his skills when he attacked the breakaway and caught then at the 60 kilometers mark. Just 23 kilometers to the finish, Sorensen went into top gear and finished a race much and finished the race on a winning note.

The 12th stage of Tour de France was from Tonnere to the city of miniral water, Vittel. The stage was 211.5 km long and had 169 ridders at the start. Missing was Faria Da Costa after a ligament tear in his shoulder suffered during a crash the previous day. The stage was the second longest stage in this year’s tour. The stage had five category four climbs and one category five climb. On grab were point for polka dot jersey and awarded at cote de Baon at 19 kilometers, cote de Gye-de-Seine at 55 kilometers, cote d’Essoyes at 64.5 kilometers, cote des Grands-Bois at 150 kilometers, cote de Morlaix at 156.5 kilometers and cote de Bourmont at 170.5 kilometers. Also on offer were points for the green jersey with three intermediate sprints Channes at 32 kilometers, Longchamp-su-Aujon at 90 kilometers and St-Thiebault at 169 kilometers.

Cavendish although has been saying thought the tour that he was not interested in the intermediate sprints but he surprised everyone including Hushovd  when he crossed the like in Channes and increased his lead in the green jersey standings.

There was one successful break away which happened at the 64 kilometers mark and the peloton was never able to catch-up. Nick Sorenson crossed the line first giving his tem Saxo Bank a second stage victory. Cavendish led the peloton in the sprint and finished 5 minutes and 58 second behind Sorenson. In the final 3 kilometers there was a crash and Evans was part of it but managed to finish the race along with the peloton. There was no change in the yellow jersey standings and Iralian Nocentini will wear the yellow jersey on Saturday. He is followed by the Astana duo of Contador and Armstrong.

It’s been an amazing tour this year, out of the 11 stages 5 have had excellent sprints and what’s most amazing is that 4 have been won by the phenomena Mark Cavendish. The sprint king took away the green jersey from Norwegian Thor Hushovd and also equaled Barry Hoban’s British record of eight stage wins. There were doubts if this would be an ideal stage for Cavendish to charge, but he timed it to the perfection. Till now Cavendish has been the one who started the sprint but in this stage he waited for the right moment and showed the world his caliber as a class sprinter, not to forget he won four stages in last years tour and also has an Olympic gold to his name. It was a disappointment for the green jersey holder as he could manage only a fifth place finish and also lost the jersey to Cavendish.

The 192 kilometers stage 11 was between Vatan to Saint-Fargeau and had 170 riders with one casualty on stage 10 as Kurt Asle Arvesen was forced out of the tour due to a fractured collarbone. The stage consisted of two category four climbs at cote d’Allogny at 40.5 kilometers and cote de Perreuse at 150 kilometers. There were three intermediate sprints in the race Quincy at 26.5 kilometers, St-Geols at 73.5 kilometers and Suilly-la-Tour at 114.5 kilometers. The stage saw an early accident when at the 14th kilometers mark Vande Velde and Rosseler crashed. At the 15 kilometer mark the race came to a halt due to a road block caused by a collapsed structure. This helped the two accident riders to join the main peloton. There was another crash involving Rojas and Righi at the 24 kilometer mark.

Tour leader Nocentini finished the stage at 34th place and will wear the yellow jersey on Thursday in stage 12. He his followed closely by Astana riders Contador and Armstrong.

There was an escape in the early minutes of the 10th stage and for most of the race they stayed ahead by 150 seconds but were finely caught by the sprinters as the wonder by Mark Cavendish crossed the line in Issoudun. Thor Hushovd tried his best but the Colombia boys were as usually on the top and made sure there sprinter took the victory. Even though Hushovd lost but he still leads the green jersey points table at 147 points with Cavendish following him at second with 141 points.

Benoit Vaugrenard, Samuel Dumoulin, Thierry Hupond and Mikhail Ignatiev were part of the breakaway and could only hold with 1400 meters to the end. The train formed by Colombia caught the three Russians just 1900 to the finish and Mikhail Ignatiev was caught in the end with just 1400 meters to finish. For a change team Astana did not do any hard work and did not take part in the chase, maybe this was a way to show the tour officials a sign of protest against the banning of the radio contact.

The stage was a 194.5 kilometers from Limoges to Issoudun and was slow as it was just after a rest day and also one with banned radio contact between riders and the team cars. The stage had there category four climbs cote de Salvanet at 12.5 kilometers, cote de Saint-Laurent-les-Eglise at 27.5 kilometers and the cote de Benevent-L’Abbaye at 58.5 kilometers. The stage also had three sprints which were dispersed evenly. The three sprints were at Lauriere at 44 kilometers, Aigurande at 122.5 kilometers and Saint-Aout at 167.5kilometers.

It was like visiting history, Armstrong has done it in the past and almost did it in the time trial stage again. US Postal and Discovery were lead by Lance to achieve the amazing team time trial results and he did it again with Astana. I guess but the gods were with Fabian Cancellara as he retained the yellow with just two tenth of a second separating him and Armstrong. The stage also witnessed an excellent finish by Garmin – Slipstream who lost the four riders in the first half of the race. But its was the relentless pace that Garmin – Slipstream delivered and increased the tempo for the day, the remaining five riders – Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, David Zabriskie, Christian Vande Velde and Ryder Hesjedal delivered an excellent time taking them to a second place in the stage.

The Schleck brothers lead team Saxo Bank finished third and are now places second in the race behind Astana. The stage also witnessed Team a not so good performance by Team Colombia-HTC which was pushed to a fifth place by Team Liquigas. The stage was a big disappointment for Cadel Evans of Team Silence – Lotto and RABOBANK rider Denis Menchov as the poor result in the team time trial pushed them down in the overall ranking. Team Silence – Lotto finished a below par at the 13th sport, 6 minutes and 51 seconds behind the leader and Rabobank took the 11th position. Another disappoint of the day was defending champion Carlos Sastre who after a poor at stage 1 time trial slipped further down as his team finished sixth.

The day truly belonged to the excellent time trial by Astana with excellent riding has place five of there rider in the top ten. Armstrong, Contadorm, Kloden, Leipheimer and Zubeldia are in the top ten which is a clear sign how this team has eclipsed the race results so far.

There were no changes in the green, white and polka dot jersey standings. Stage five has two category 4 climbs and one might see some aggression and also a change in few positions.