The final day of racing before Paris. Fiorilli(BDB) is the first man off the ramp, he like many has suffered throughout the Tour and will be pleased when this stage is over.

25 riders into the race and a real stage favourite enters the equation, Canadian champion Tuft(QMS). At the first checkpoint he sets a time of 31'15 beating the next best time by 1'53.......

Then the stage favourite comes off the ramp, green jersey Phinney(IKO). At the first checkpoint.......he is '5 down on Tuft...at the second checkpoint he is '22 down.

Tuft sets the early fastest time of 1:18:58 across the course, Phinney finishes '28 down. With riders who can handle the fatigue onset by a three week tour still to come it remains to be seen if Tuft's time will be victorius.

85 riders to go. Belgian champ Vandewalle(BSE) is looking good and is so far emerges as the closest challenger to Tuft. He is '3 down then '8 down at the first checkpoints but at the finish he eats into Tuft's time.........but not enough finishing just 2 seconds down in the end at 1:19:00.

Ukraine champ Grivko(AFL) has had a good aggressive tour, but one wonders if he targeted one or two stages if he would have been more successful. Riders such as van Rensburg(KLU) and Kwiatkowski(SCD) were now getting to closer to Tuft...

Thomas(PDA) then comes into the equation. Setting the fastest time at the first checkpoint by '9 seconds at 31:06 but would he continue on at this pace......yes he would finishing fastest at 1:18:31, teammate Durbridge comes close but loses time in the latter half of the course.

Then Castroviejo(QMS) emerges....., he goes fastest at the first checkpoint by '4, with a time of 31:02..

Castroviejo looks to be on a good day. He goes faster than Thomas by '7, at the second checkpoint with a time of 56'21.....but at the finish..... he loses time and ends up behind Thomas by '4, with a time of1:18:35.

Plaza(TNA), winner of the Grenoble TT sets off the ramp, but never gets into his rhythm, when there is news of an epic time....

At the first checkpoint US champ Zabriskie(BZQ) is really eating up the road. He sets a time of 30'33, a good '28 faster than nearest challenger Castroviejo.

Zabriskie just kept on pulling out time, he was '37 faster at the second checkpoint and at the finish he sets a time of 1:17:42, a good '48 faster than Thomas. The GC men will have to do something special to beat this..

Verdugo(BSE) sets off the ramp signalling the top 10, he would move up in the GC despite not producing vintage GC performance.

Siutsou(ALS) sets off the ramp knowing a good performance will see him move up atleast one spot on the podium.

Spilak(NEL) is off, so all the GC men are out on course..... the recent mountains must have really taken usurped their energy levels as they are all well down. After the checkpoint: Zabriskie: 30'33......Siutsou @1'35.........Spilak@1'39.....Lofkist @1'46....Brambilla(HEY) was even further down....

At the second checkpoint, it didn't read much better. Zabriskie: 59'43......Spilak @2'49....Siutsou @2'51....Lofkvist @3'16....All this was good news for Brambilla, for him it looked like second place was lost but a podium place was still realistic..

Into the last few kilometres. Spilak could see Brambilla out ahead of him, he surely knew that the GC was in the bag.....

Spilak is the last to cross the line. He would win the yellow jersey.

But the day belonged to Zabriskie, no one even came close.

The same riders are in the top 10 but they have been shuffled around.

Meyer(KAR) did an amazing ride and an amazing second half to finish fourth. He manages to pull back over 3 minutes to Dombrowski and regains the white jersey. Quilmes lead the team classification by over 15 minutes.

Stage GC:

ULTRA CLASSIFICATION STAGE:

GENERAL OVERALL:

ULTRA CLASSIFICATION OVERALL:

That last stage underway. This stage was very much a procession, although the bad weather meant celebrations had to be toned down a bit. Spilak(NEL) only had to stay upright and the yellow jersey would be his.

Navarro(SSL) and Rujano(PVE) have really animated this race. Despite the weather mountains jersey winner Rujano shows his fun side sporting a strange mask either that or he has picked up some kind of infection!

Green jersey winner Phinney(IKO) was caught riding a really large bike early on. Also note the Telcel rider (bottom left) stuffing his face!

Namibian champ Lotto(TNA) has done well to finish this race. Early on he could be seen with some novelty headwear!

11 riders did form a break 30 kilometres in, they were: Denifl(RBL) Fiorilli(BDB), Gabrovski(SSL), Gruzdev(AFL), Ludvigsson(KLO), Macias(TCL), Navardauskus(QMS), Perez(PVE), Puccio(BZQ) VandeWalle(BSE) and Velits(STM).

88 kilometres to go the break have 5:15. Then within a kilometre 2 Nokia Ekspla riders fall....first Blanco the Peterson, followed by a range of crashes on the wet roads...

This is enough for sprinters teams, Standard Chartered, Kulalu and Iran Khodro to take up the chase.

53 kilometres to go and the break pass the river Seine. Puccio will lead the break onto the Champs Elysees with 4 minutes over the peloton.

Kennaugh(SCD) leads the peloton onto the Champs Elysees, despite the weather great numbers of spectators are present. This looks destined to be a bunch sprint.

With 30 kilometres to go the break have barely 2 minutes.

20 kilometres to go. The break have less than 1:00 over the marauding peloton. Gabrovski attacks but is followed by the break....Then Durbridge(PDA) and O'Grady(TNA) attack out of peloton and join the leaders....

But they will get caught. Only VandeWalle is out ahead as there is less than 12 kilometres to go....when.....Castroviejo(QMS) and De Maar(TNA) attack...

De Maar....the Curacao champion continue on......GOOD MOVE....but is caught with 2 kilometres to go....we are going to have a mass sprint.. Kulalu look the most organised when.....

LODEWYCK Lodewyck(NEL) is the first to get his sprint underway...but has he gone to early.....

he went to early.After being lead out by Brown(KLU), South African champ Hunter looks to be heading for a win, but there is still stiff opposition from Phinney and Hinault......

HUNTER WINS. WIN FOR KULALU. What a great victory, really well deserved, with Kulalu riding on the front for every flat stage they are finally rewarded....Meier(HEY) fell a few kilometres from the end of the whole race and sustained a significant injury which prevented him from finishing, 153 riders finished the race.

STAGE GC:

SPILAK WINS YELLOW. With his all round ability, to time trial, go uphill and stay upright it is not a surprise. Siutsou and Brambilla round off the podium.

FINAL GC:

Phinney wins the green jersey with a huge margin of 97 points.

STAGE POINTS:

OVERALL POINTS FINAL:

Rujano had this jersey long tied up since his epic stage win.

OVERALL MOUNTAIN:

Meyer wins the white jersey after a close battle in which the jersey frequently change hands more than any other.

Quilmes take home the team classification title, with a huge lead.

ULTRA CLASSIFICATION STAGE:

ULTRA CLASSIFICATION OVERALL (BEFORE OVERALL JERSEY POINTS HAVE BEEN ADDED):