Casar takes the 2nd place and 35 points on the first mountain sprint. He was 73 points behind Fédrigo who is on the low paced peloton. With 138 km to go the gap is over 17 minutes as only Rabobank works up front.



Again Casar takes 2nd place and he is now just 3 points behind from the KOM jersey. And there's another mountain sprint in 20 km while the peloton is still over 18 minutes behind.



The rhythm was so high at the top of the Col de la Croix-de-Fer that the peloton was reduced to 40 men. Voigt is trying to bring Schleck back to Basso as he's the only CSC man there. Still more than 17 minutes to the leading group.



And for the third time Calzati beats Casar who still is the new KOM with 12 more points than Fédrigo. 16'44 is the gap and it seems they will fight for the stage.



Menchov and Boogerd set an high pace on the penultimate climb of the day. The peloton will now start the last descent before the final climb. 35 km to go for them.



There are only 40 men on the peloton at the start of the final 18 km climb. Voigt and Schleck are with Basso.



As CSC men are together with Rabobank at the front, Landis is the first to jump out of the peloton. Gutierrez Cataluña, his team mate, is Phonal best placed man on GC, in 7th just 38 seconds behind Basso.



The attacks continue, now it's Valverde and Samuel Sanchez.



With the attacks continuing with Sanchez, Landis, Evans and Vinokourov, Menchov is the one who is closing the gaps. What is Rasmussen doing at the back of the group? Is he in trouble or preparing an attack? 11.5 km to go for them and Basso has no team mates with him.



With 7 km to go Vinokourov flies away out of the peloton. What an attack!



Rasmussen finally shows up trying to follow Valverde and Garzelli attacks!



But Basso increases the pace and closes the gap. Vino is till a bit ahead.



Up front, the british Wegelius makes a superb finish passing through Calzati and securing Liquigas the win!



After Landis try to reach Vinokourov now it's Basso who try to leave Rasmussen behind.



Vinokourov reacts and attacks again and his opponents seem empty...



Basso still has the strength to close it! But all of the favorites are behind him...



Rasmussen is the first among the favorites group and Basso wins time to everyone ahead of him except the yellow jersey and he will move up 2 places!

On the KOM competition today it's Fédrigo who is escaped. He takes 2nd place and 26 poits in Col des Saisies. He was 34 points behind so he only needs 9 more points to get the KOM jersey back. The BOD has already 13 minutes to the peloton.



Only now Casar gets out of the peloton but Pinotti also did it and the french only collected 1 point. Gadret (37th, 20'48), has also jumped out of the peloton and these 3 might form another break group.



More riders are trying to leave the peloton and Discovery puts his 2 best classified riders away, Popovych and Azevedo.



Fédrigo is now 3rd on Col de Arans and gets 12 more points becoming the virtual KOM. The 5 men group where Casar comes is 10'43 behind the leading group and has created a 4'24 gap to a slow paced peloton.



With 70 km to go and with a gap of 17'28 to the leading group and 9'32 to the second group CSC and Phonak are now working with Rabobank.



And the yellow jersey comes to the front! His change of pace was enough to create a gap with 3.5 km to the end of this climb and 65 km to the end.



And Rasmussen reaches the top of the climb with 50 seconds on the peloton. Now there will be a long descent. Can he increase that gap with all the other favorites teams working together?



With 36 km to go Rasmussen managed to create 1'04 advantage despite all the work against him.



Voigt is giving everything to reduce the gap to the yellow jersey that still is of 43 seconds. We're in the HC final climb.



Now it's Schleck who gave everything but Rasmussen's pace doesn't slow down and the gap is 54 seconds.



After setting himself the pace, Basso decides to attack with 5 km to the end of the climb.



Basso attack lead him to Rasmussen and to a dying Casar. But the other back there are not gonna stand still.



With 2.8 km to the end go the climb Vinokourov, Landis and Kloden join the duo. They are 4'26 from the leading group.



After Kloden didn't hold the end of the climb the 4 favorites are now with some guys from the BOD. 10 km to go and Vasseur is alone in front, with two other groups between him and the yellow jersey.



Vasseur almost got caught celebrating! Basso arrives with Rasmussen, Vinokourov and Landis in 6th place.

With 9 km to go the BOD is almost caught.



With just 2.5 km to go QuickStep and Davitamon bring their leaders to the front. O'Grady is on McEwen's wheel.



Last km and Davitamon's train was stronger. O'Grady still on McEwen's wheel.



McEwen wins! O'Grady is third!



Basso wins Tour de France 2006!