In just five days, Team Liquigas-Cannondale has been on an impressive tear to close out the month of August in incredible fashion...

Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan entered Saturday’s final stage of the Tour of Poland trailing overall leader Tony Martin by just three seconds. With an intermediate sprint awarding time bonuses of three, two and one second, and further finish line bonuses of ten, six and four seconds, Sagan knew his chances were high to take the overall. 

Liquigas-Cannondale's Peter Sagan wasted no time in confirming his excellent form, taking his second consecutive win at the Tour of Poland today. Sagan relied on strong teamwork to control late breaks, and a strong kick to catch an early sprint to distance the field. Sagan now holds a fifteen second lead going into Friday's queen stage.

With a powerful attack on the final climb, Liquigas-Cannondale’s young champion-in-the-making Peter Sagan put enough space between himself and the remaining chasers to arrive alone at the finish of the Tour of Poland’s fourth stage. The stage from Oswiecim to Cieszyn seemed tailor made for the young Slovak, and he didn’t disappoint in taking the stage win and the overall leader’s yellow jersey in this ProTour event.

Paris! The final stage of the 98th Tour de France does what it has been doing since 1975, racing up and down Le Avenue des Champs-Elysees. Tradition has been that the race is more of a parade from the start until the avenue is reached, and then a hard nine-lap circuit race around Paris. A field sprint is expected, but that doesn't mean it is guaranteed. The day's stage measured 95km in all, and took the riders from Creteil to Paris.

Ivan Basso, the Liquigas-Cannondale leader, started the day in eighth place. When he's on good form, he's an excellent time trialist, one who can win or contend when there's a solo effort against a clock. On a good day, he'd be expected to ride into sixth place overall, and with his Cannondale Slice underneath him, he had the right tool for the day. He also had his teammate Kristjan Koren ride the course full-gas ahead of him, so the team would have kilometer-by-kilometer splits to base Basso's efforts off of.

This was it, the last mountain stage of the Tour, stage 19, 109.5km from Modane to L'Alpe d'Huez. Everyone, tired from yesterday, would have to prove themselves again today. Three more mountains; first the Col du Telegraphe, then another ride up the interminable Col du Galibier, and, after a long descent, the mythic climb of L'Alpe, 13km up, the most famous stadium of cycling.

With the stages ticking off and the mountain roads getting ever-steeper, Stage 18, the 200.5-km trek from Pinerolo to Galibier Serre-Chevalier, was sure to be the day when the race hit the boiling point. Every race favorite would have to prove themselves worthy of their position. Andy Schleck of Leopard-Trek, emphatically proved himself worthy today. He attacked the race favorites halfway up the steep Col d'Izoard, the second of three hors category climbs, with over 60km left to race. And they never saw him again.

With five categorized climbs on the day's parcours, you'd be right to assume that the mountains would make a difference. But today, you'd be wrong to assume the difference would be made climbing. Today, it was the final descent, the drop from Côte de Pra Martino to Pinerolo that shook up the 191.5km 17th stage.

Something got into the peloton on the road from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Gap. The 162.5km Stage 16 started off furiously, with 55km (almost 34 miles!) covered in the first hour. A feat all the more impressive as the terrain, as with almost the entire stage, was uphill. More impressive still was that the peloton would not allow a breakaway to establish despite what seemed like almost incessant attacks.