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96th Tour de France
Stage 21: Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris Champs Elysees, 164km/102mi
By Cathy Mehl
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 In the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe Team Astana's Alberto Contador held up two fingers on each hand to signify his second Tour de France win in what played out to be a near-perfect ride for the young Spanish champion. Contador took both a mountain stage and time trial win, along with the victory for the team time trial, making for a well-rounded Tour from the world's current best stage racer. After almost 85-hours of racing, Contador's gap to second place was a dominant four minutes, satisfying even nay-sayers that his repeat performance at the top of the podium in Paris is not a fluke. Coming in 4:11 behind Contador was Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) and rounding out the podium was seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong in his return to the sport after a four year retirement. Team Astana also took the win in the Teams classification, a testament to the hard work put in by 6th place finisher Andreas Kloden, Sergio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popovych, Haimar Zubeldia, Gregory Rast, Dmitriy Muravyev and Levi Leipheimer to put two men on the podium.
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Champagne, pats on the back and plenty of animated chatter among the riders was the scene in the early part of today's stage. After a casual ride from the countryside into the city of Paris on a beautiful summer's day, Team Astana rode first on to the Champs Elysees, led by hard-working Rast at the front of the group, the boys in blue lined up behind him with Contador in yellow safely tucked behind Armstrong. Then the peloton went into over-drive with several groups going off the front, including a strong seven-man break that included Thomas Voeckler (Bbox-Bouygues-Telecom) and Fumy Beppu (Skil-Shimano). Columbia-HTC made sure they rode hard at the front to keep the break from staying away and methodically shut it down by the last lap.
During the bell lap as the peloton approached the half-way point on the lap, Garmin tried to outfox the Columbia-HTC team by going to the front early, but they arrived one man short and had a little too far to go to make it stick. Under the 1km to go red kite George Hincapie held court at the front of the peloton with Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish lined up just behind. Coming into the final corner onto the Champs Elysees Renshaw and Cavendish hit it first with everyone else having to slow to get back on the line. That was all the two in front needed to get Cavendish ramped up and speeding for the finish line, horizoning all other sprinters, far enough ahead that his lead-out man Renshaw captured second on the stage. Third went to Tyler Farrar of Garmin.
This win makes nine Tour wins for General Manager Johan Bruyneel...that's nine in 11 years for the master strategist who relishes the challenge of winning the Tour...again and again and again. Not to be over-looked are the other Tour sports directors: Alain Gallopin, Viatcheslav Ekimov and Dirk Demol. And of course congratulations to all the hard-working staff as well. Well done!
In other classifications Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) won the green jersey for the Sprinter’s classification, Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) took polka dots for Mountains, and Andy Schleck took the white jersey as the Best Young rider for the second time in a row.
Beyond the Finish Line: Paris is also known as the "City of Lights", and is the capital of France and the country's largest city with a population estimated at over 2 million people. Some of the sights to see are Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower which was built in 1889 for the World's Fair and was meant to be temporary but stands today as the world's most recognizable structure.
Writer's Note: It isn't easy to cover the Tour. Whether working from home or rolling on the road, it's a month-long commitment from everyone involved to bring news and extras from inside Team Astana. I want to thank Jared Melzer for his dedication to the website and especially for working through our issues with the huge spike in viewers during the Tour. To Philippe Maertens I say thanks for all the great quotes and press releases along the way. To Graham Watson thank you so much for sharing your insights and beautiful images throughout the Tour. To Chris Brewer thanks for all the advise and for your great videos. To Amy Bush thank you for providing the research for the "Beyond the Finish Line" pieces. And to Johan and all the wonderful staff at Team Astana-the guys would not be able to do it without all of you and it's a pleasure to be part of such a professional group.
**And about the Saint Bernard Alberto shared the podium with a few stages back...we don't think he was a gift, we think he was just meant to look good for the photos...and he did!
You can celebrate Alberto's win with a special team t-shirt available to order now.
Top Ten Results
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC 4:02:18
2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - HTC
3 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
4 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram
5 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française des Jeux
6 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
7 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
8 Marco Bandiera (Ita) Lampre - NGC
9 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas
10 William Bonnet (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom
Team Astana on Stage 21
26 Andreas Kloden (Ger)
61 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
62 Lance Armstrong (USA)
93 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa)
97 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)
98 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por)
107 Gregory Rast (Swi)
126 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) 0:00:22
Final General Classification
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 85:48:35
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:04:11
3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:05:24
4 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:06:01
5 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:06:04
6 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana 0:06:42
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:07:35
8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:12:04
9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:14:16
10 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:14:25
Team Astana on Final General Classification
27 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) 0:43:34
35 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) 0:54:00
41 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) 1:01:08
138 Gregory Rast (Swi) 3:30:07
148 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) 3:43:15
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