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.
This year, a breakaway formed immediately after the peloton reached the finishing circuit. Six ambitious riders took of and Liquigas-Cannondale's Kristjan Koren was in the mix. They quickly gained 30 seconds. On the third lap, the break came to the intermediate sprint, which Koren won, and the six soldiered on.
Coming into the final lap, the HTC-Highroad team was amping up the chase and the breakaway was about to be absorbed. But Koren wasn't ready to give up just yet, so he attacked the break, got a small gap, and then he was jumped by Ben Swift of Sky and Lars Bak of HTC, who got away from Koren, and he relented, fading back into the pack.
Coming around the final corner of the race, the HTC lead out train was in full flight, and Liquigas-Cannondale's Daniel Oss was perfectly situated on Sky rider Edvald Boasson Hagen's wheel, who himself was just behind HTC's Mark Cavendish. With 150 meters to go, Cav' jumped and nobody was his match. Oss fought to stay with Boasson Hagen but faded a bike length or two, which put him in sixth place, his second sixth of the race and third top-ten result. Boasson Hagen was second; Omega Pharma-Lotto's Andre Greipel was third.
The final standings didn't change at all from yesterday, as everyone finished on the same time. Team BMC's Cadel Evans won the Tour de France, with Andy Schleck of Leopard-Trek in second, and his brother Frank in third. Liquigas-Cannondale's Ivan Basso was eighth. They rode 3,430.5km or 2,237 miles. The winner completed the distance in 86:12:22 for an average speed of 39.8kph or 24.7mph.
Racing a bicycle for three weeks has its ups and downs. One of the great things is you have plenty of time to reflect, and can acknowledge that the race does what it purports to do, find the best overall bike racer on the planet. Basso started this Tour with the intention to be that person. After 21 races in 23 days, he has had a chance to consider his, and the team's collective effort.
"We started with a dream of the yellow jersey, and an objective of the podium. Unfortunately I wasn't able to show ourselves at the level that I wanted for all three weeks. I have to take not, accept the result and give credit to those who were stronger, especially to Cadel: a great guy and a great champion. To finish in the top ten of a race like this Tour de France is certainly nothing to discount: my experience in the Grande Boucle certainly doesn't finish today and from this result, I want to start again. In my mind, I can't blame myself because in the end I squeezed everything out of myself to honor this race."
As the leader of a team, his success wasn't his alone, but made possible by the sweat and sacrifice of others. "I have to thank above all else my teammates because they worked hard and supported me to their utmost in this long adventure. Next to the fans, that with their warmth, never left my side. Finally, a big thanks to my family that always comforted me, even from so far away. For them I will work in the future, to give them new satisfactions."
Writing of Tour tradition, there is a long-established practice that the person who finishes in last place receives a prize. The prize is the Lantern Rouge, or red lantern, signifying the back of the caboose, the last car in the train. Rare is the year that racers actually compete for this award, though it has happened.
In terms of general classification, few racers are competing for their placing outside of the top twenty on overall standings, as they're usually at the race to work for others, so if they finish 21st or 167th is of no consequence. That written, this year's Lanterne Rouge was "won" by Liquigas-Cannondale's Fabio Sabatini, who finished in 167th place, almost four hours behind winner Cadel Evans.