One day before the final epic rendezvous of this year's Tour one of France's favourite sons, Sylvain Chavanel, finally got the stage victory he had desired for almost a decade. After breaking away with compatriot Jeremy Roy halfway through the stage from Roanne to Montluçon, Chavanel had too much strength and experience in the sprint, ensuring France's third stage win of this years Tour. Roy was brave finishing second while German Gerarld Ciolek filled the podium leading the main bunch home in third.
In another stereotypical third week tour stage the main field were basically happy to let the break go, and finished as a group around 1 minute behind with none of the overall contenders losing time. After crashing yesterday Damiano Cunego's horror Tour ended after he failed to take to the start overnight. Cunego's 2008 performance has once again proved that the Tour is not the Giro, and the Italian prince seems to be much better suited to the climbs of the Dolomites rather than the Alps or the Pyrenees. The stage was run at a hectic pace and heartbreakingly close to Paris Romain Feillu, Juan Antonio Flecha, and German national champion Fabian Wegmann missed the time cut off after being dropped by the peleton on the first climb of the day.
Going into tonight's penultimate stage, a 53 km time trial, Carlos Sastre maintains his 1 minute 24 second lead over teammate Frank Schleck, with hot favourite Cadel Evans a further 10 seconds back. Experts tip the jersey to change hands overnight with most expecting Evans to take around 2 minutes off Sastre by stage end. Andy Schleck leads the white jersey competition by just under 2 minutes from Roman Kreuziger and this competition too may go down to the wire given Kreuziger's dominant display in the time trial that helped him win the Tour de Suisse. With an early breakaway taking all the mountains points there was no change to the race for the polka dot jersey which will be won by Bernhard Kohl so long as he can cross the finish line in Paris. Oscar Freire's lead in the points competition was reduced slightly with both Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd beating him home in the final sprint but with a 42 point lead over Zabel he should hold the green jersey in Paris barring an absolute catastrophe.
But after 20 days and over 80 hours of racing it has come down to this: D-Day. Tonight's time trial will decided the winner of the 2008 Tour de France. Who are you on? Evans to use his time trial expertise to power away to victory? Sastre to heroically hold on to his yellow jersey just as countrymen Alberto Contador did last year? Or Denis Menchov to blow the field away with a penultimate day victory that would be talked about for years to come? Whatever happens, cycling fans all around the globe will be watching the climax to what must arguably be the closest Tour de France in living memory.
Yellow Jersey - Carlos Sastre
Green Jersey - Oscar Freire
Polka Dot Jersey - Bernhard Kohl
White Jersey - Andy Schleck
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