This is a big mountain stage. No doubt about it.

Team Plan: I doubt Nico can break for points at this point, so we are all in for JCP

Evans pushed early with Gilbert pacing on the first climb.

Roche sensed an opportunity. Sure, he was pretty far out of the mountains competition, and the peloton chased whenever he went, but he still accelerated with Dupont. However, all he would get was a 2nd pace before going back into the pack.

The first breakaway was Ruijgh and Gusev.

BOTD consisted of Gusev, Ruijgh, Casar, Lemoine, Taaramae, Voeckler, and Van den Broeck.

We decided to go all in with our domestiques for Roche in the KOM, and put Cherel and Kadri on the front to try and reel in the breakaway,

Lemoine was gone. Then Casar and Gusev. Not long after, Rob Ruijgh was gone too, leaving only the trio of Taaramae, Voeckler, and Van den Broeck.

Now, throughout the day, Jurgen had been collecting a lot of mountain points. He attacked to gain a few more here. Nobody either would or could follow.

And of course, after all that pacing, Leotard and Skyborgs block Roche in.

Voeckler bombed the descent and squared up with Van den Broeck, but Taaramae was long gone as they started the final climb up front.

The first favorite to attack was Robert Gesink, 7th overall, at the base.

But he wasn't the only one. Frank Schleck burst from the group only a km later. That's Chavanel behind him.

Riblon paced hard on the front until he was burned.

Menchov, Scarponi, Vinokourov, and Casar scampered ahead. More favorites continued to attack. We stayed in the peloton. JCP and Roche stayed in the group with Wiggins and Evans.

Eventually we had to get back up, so when Evans and Wiggins bridged, we tagged on with Peraud. Roche was cracking, so he stayed behind to save himself.

Cadel Evans wasn't content with that though. He wasn't happy with his amount of stage wins.

Peraud attacks for us on the descent. It's not easy to get away from Nibali on a descent, but up front Evans had caught VDB and Tommy Voeckler, and he wanted to make the move.

He made it up, but the pace slowed in the group, and the chase group was coming hard.

The breaks swept up and everyone grabs for a wheel. Unfortunately Peraud ends up on BOTD rider VDB's and you can imagine how that ended.

Meanwhile, Schleck has a dig on the left, Wiggins on the right. Evans has no momentum from being caught.

....................

But Honeybadger don't give a s**t, and neither does Cadel Evans. No one can stop him on anything!

Evans, with Schleck and Wiggins on the podium. JCP finished 13th out of 14 in the front group. Rochie and the rest came back @2:21 back.

What else is new?

Cavendish is gonna do some work to stop Evans here.

Rein Taaramae takes over for Coppel. Van den Broeck in 3rd. Then Evans, Moncoutie. And despite his work today, Roche actually moves down today.

Kruiswijk wakes over the white jersey. TVG is in 2nd and EBH slips.

Radioshack - Nissan - Trek keeps the team.

The 2nd and last MTF of the race this year. Should be massive selection.

Team Plan: All in for Jean Christophe Peraud.

Once again Evans pushes early, with Van Garderen blowing the race apart early.

We sent Riblon into the breakaway. If not for the stage, he might come in handy later.

Other notables in the break were Taaramae again, Voeckler, and Verdugo.

The attacking started off again with the Rabobank leader Gesink.

Voeckler was the last to be caught as Scarponi, Wiggins, and Nibali surge ahead. Evans, Schleck, and JCP are still in the thinned out group. Roche had fallen back.

Gesink is caught, as well as Nibali and Scarponi. Evans accelerates right off their wheels and they scamper to follow with Frank Schleck. Peraud can't match it, so he paces himself.

Evans.

Peraud finishes @1:17 behind in 6th, but more importantly doesn't lose any time to Nibali for the top 5.

Cadel Evans won't stop. I've literally lost count of his amount of wins, but it might be in double digits by now.

We stay in reach of a top 5 with a good TT.

It's out of reach now.

Taaramae still leads here.

Kruiswijk and Van Garderen are both domestiques, but TVG's early crash bites him in the end. He's a good time trialist, but that kind of a gap is hard to pull back.

Hasn't been much action here lately.

A bumpy stage. Could be a sprint but Evans is just too good at everything.

Team Plan: If Evans goes, we go. Just like stage 17.

We sent Blel Kadri ahead for the breakaway today.

The break consisted of Kadri, Hoogerland, Albasini, and Curvers.

But Kadri was spent from all his work, and fell back half way through the stage. the rest of the break was caught soon after.

(I lost a couple of screenshots here, so there is a little gap)

Evans attacked over the final climb, at the same time Peraud did. Peraud tried to grab Evans's wheel, but an old PCM bug prevented it. instead of switching wheels Peraud sat up, and by then his gap was gone, while Evans rode away into the sunset.

Evans takes another stage. I've run out of lines to say when this happens.

Behind Roche sprinted into 7th, but more importantly, Vincenzo Nibali gained 24 seconds on Peraud and the bunch from the descent. If the bug hadn't stopped Peraud, he could have finished ahead. instead, it's looking harder and harder for Peraud to get a top 5.

Nibali is now almost a minute and a half ahead of use going into the final TT. With that kind of a cushion, it's going to be hard to overtake him.

I'm going to skip the other podiums because they haven't changed at all. I'll do them on the Champs Elysees

The last decider. A flat time trial before Paris.

Team Plan: Go all out.

Fabian Cancellara set the early best time and held it for over half of the race.

That was until world champion Tony Martin beat the time by just 2 seconds. But could the time hold up for the GC guys?

Jean Christophe Peraud sets off. He knew he had to make up a lot of ground to get a top 5. But his performance was not his best, as the past few days had really tired him out. He would finish 11th @2:47 beind. Would it be enough?

Bradley Wiggins sets the new best time at the finish with 35 seconds on Tony Martin! Could he reconcile his GC with a stage win in the final time trial?

Cadel Evans sets off. He has the yellow in hand, and tons of stages to boot. What would he do in the final time trial. He trailed Bradley Wiggins by 7 seconds at the first time check and 8 seconds at the second time check.

Peraud gains on everybody, and the race really tightens up for 3rd. Would be exciting if the racing wasn't over. But on the Champs Elysees , it might not be for Peraud. ;)

No other classifications changed, so it's a waste of time to put them.