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Contador wins Tour as Bennati takes finale
By Jason Sumner @ VeloNews.com

America’s lone ProTour team capped its best-ever Tour de France on Sunday, locking down the yellow jersey, the white jersey, two places on the final podium and the overall team classification. Discovery Channel’s impressive quartet of achievements - highlighted by Alberto Contador’s GC victory - exceeded any of the Lance Armstrong years, and gave the team formerly known as U.S. Postal Service eight Tour wins in nine years.

Contador is the first rider since Jan Ullrich in 1997 to win both the maillot jaune and the white best young rider’s jersey, and he’s the first Spaniard to triumph in the three-week grand tour since Miguel Indurain’s five-race run ended in 1995. Both are remarkable feats considering the 24-year-old needed emergency surgery following a gruesome crash in the Tour of Asturias in 2004, and ended up in the hospital, nearly losing his life to a brain hemorrhage.

“Lance was a role model for me. I read his book in the hospital when I was recovering,” said Contador about the seven-time winner and part owner of the Discovery squad who was in Paris to congratulate this year’s winner.

Teammate Levi Leipheimer added to the Discovery haul, placing third overall and winning Saturday’s stage 19 time trial.

“I’m very proud. It’s a dream come true,” said the 33-year-old, who is the fifth American to make the Tour’s final podium, and continued the country’s decade-long run of having a rider finish among the final top three. “I watched the Tour since I was a kid. I dreamed of riding it and winning a stage. Being on the podium really fulfills me.”

“Alberto was better than I was in the mountains. I did my best. I think it was clear that I wasn’t going to win, so for a teammate to win is great.”

Now the Tour’s dominant team, which also won two Tour stages this year, must hope success translates into a new title sponsor. Discovery Channel announced in the spring that it would not be back in 2008, and a replacement has yet to be found.

Sandwiched in between Contador and Leipheimer was Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), the first Australian to make the Tour’s final podium. The Land Down Under’s previous best was a pair of fifth-place efforts by Phil Anderson in the 1980s and Evans’ own top 5 in 2006.

Evans opted not to chase any of the bonus time available on this year’s final stage, thus maintaining the 23-second gap to Contador, which is the second smallest in the race’s 94 renditions, trailing only the eight-second differential between 1989 winner Greg LeMond and runner-up Laurent Fignon.

Boonen wins his first points jersey

“I think I have a pretty good idea how to ride this Tour now,” said Evans, who continued to lament the lack of fight shown by some teams on the 15th stage when he was unable to follow Contador and Michael Rasmussen and lost 56 seconds to the eventual winner. “I don’t know everything, but to me that’s where I lost the Tour de France.”
FULL STORY @ Velonews.com

Stage 20 Results
1 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
2 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole
3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram
4 Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld
5 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
6 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française Des Jeux
7 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC
8 David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval-Prodir
9 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
10 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Liquigas
Full Results and Live Text Coverage by Cyclingnews

Final General Classification
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 87.09.18
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 0.23
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.31
4 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 7.08
5 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 8.17
6 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 11.37
7 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team 12.18
8 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 12.30
9 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 14.14
10 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 14.25
11 Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld 16.41
12 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 21.05
13 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 21.49
14 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d’Epargne 24.05
15 Chris Horner (USA) Predictor - Lotto 25.09

FULL REPORT by Velonews
2007 Tour de France Recap by Versus
The Champagne Toast by Versus
Graham Watson Tour de France Photo’s

BENNATI TAKES THE FINAL SPRINT

The 2007 Tour de France Podium

For complete review and random thoughts check back over the next few days for updates.