‘In the (Time) Zone'
David Olle, France, +33 66 16 909 87

Tour de France, July 3 - 25, 2010, Report Stage 20
Stage 20    Sunday, July 25    105 km     Longjumeau → Champs-Elysées

Results:
1      Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC - Columbia      2:42:21      
2     Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini           
3     Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin - Transitions

Final general classification    
1      Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana      91:58:48      
2     Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank     0:00:39     
3     Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank     0:02:01     

General report
170 riders finished this year's Tour de France yesterday, while a few very unlucky riders did crash in the first week, and it did affect the overall results, this is a good finish rate.  Unfortunately an important three of the injured were Frank Schelck, Lance Armstrong and Cadel Evans, all worthy GC contenders, not to mention Simon Gerrans, Tyler Farrar et al.  It's worth noting that a large amount of quality talent was removed with the few ‘unlucky'.   With the mountain climber's competition lacking spark, and only two young riders fighting for the overall, I found most of my enjoyment for the 2010 Tour amongst the sprinters.  With Petacchi's blazing return to the tour after a 6 year absence, Thor and Robbie McEwen talking big, and our Mark Renshaw removed midway through, not to mention Julian Dean's aggressive efforts, although Cavendish dominated in the end, each sprint was enthralling to watch.  Love the sprinters!

Skippy report:  final results for all the skips here:  
26     Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team     0:50:27     
37     Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia     1:10:11
47     Matthew Lloyd (Aus) Omega Pharma-Lotto     1:30:02
103     Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram     3:04:07
149     Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank     3:42:39
152     Wesley Sulzberger (Aus) Française des Jeux     3:46:59
159     Brett Lancaster (Aus) Cervelo Test Team     3:57:00
165     Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha     4:08:28

Tomorrow:   We're out of here, we've had baguettes up to Pussy's bow, duck, duck,and more duck, and chartreuse to boot, we're off to Madrid for a wedding next Saturday, then home for August, au revoir until La Vuelta Espana (Tour of Spain) in September.