Fothen took the leader's jersey by two seconds, and with no bonus seconds available, he will just have to roll to Paris without crashing. With the Eiffel Tower in sight, Fothen's definitely close to the victory.
As always on the Paris stage, many riders tried to get away. Eventually, a group of 8 settled: Gautier, Kreuziger, Sijmens, Fernandez, Bono, Sokolov, Van Winden and Klostergaard. Moinard and Martin were trying to bridge the gap to the front.
Martin and Moinard managed to join the other 8 with 84 km to go, and at this point, the peloton had given them a gap of 3 minutes and 50 seconds. For Rabobank, this was a perfect situation as the breakaway took care of the two first points sprints.
With 55 km to go, the group reached Paris with a gap of 5'30 to the peloton.
In the peloton, they were realizing that they'd have to work hard to reel in this 10-man-group, and soon, Eurosport, Warner Brothers and Festina united at the front to do the work. But either way, Moinard was the first to enter the Champs-Élysées.
With 40 km to go, the gap is down to 3'40 - but in this pace, the group has a realistic chance of staying away. The gap's decreasing fast, though.
As they reach the finish line for the 2nd time, the gap was already down to 2'20, and nervousity had reached the group. Moinard attacked with 20 km to go and was followed by Sokolov, Gautier, Martin and Klostergaard. Eventually, the rest also attacked, except for Bono and Fernandez who didn't have more to give.
... and then, what simply wasn't allowed to happen happened. Major crash in the peloton took a lot of riders down with 11 km to go.
And included in this race? 3rd placed Ruben Plaza from Virgin Media! Karpets, 8th in the GC, also went down. In the sprint, Steegmans can't defend his green jersey, as he, Davis, Cooke and Haedo were also involved.
In front, Van Winden and Kreuziger had managed to breakaway from the rest and still held a reasonable gap of 35 seconds to the peloton with less than 8 km to go. And with the crash, the peloton may go slower.
With Steegmans out of this sprint, Hushovd has a huge chance of taking the Green Jersey. In front of him are Dumoulin, Pozzato, Vanderbiest, Cavendish, Boonen and Bakelants.
And it's Cavendish who takes the win on Champs-Élysées! But more importantly, there's a fight for the Green Jersey going on between Boonen and Hushovd. Boonen's 2nd. and if Hushovd takes 4th, he'll take the Green Jersey with 1 point.
... but it's very, very close for fourth.
Several minutes later, Steegmans, Plaza and co. crosses the line, disappointed after having lost important points on the very last stage of the Tour.
Stage Result
1
Mark Cavendish
Eurosport
2h50'15
2
Tom Boonen
Warner Brothers
s.t.
3
Romain Vanderbiest
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
4
Filippo Pozzato
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
5
Thor Hushovd
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
6
Fabian Wegmann
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
7
Aleksandr Serebriakov
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
8
Steven Caethoven
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
9
Tom Veelers
Team B&O
s.t.
10
Matthieu Ladagnous
American Suzuki
s.t.
11
Samuel Dumoulin
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
12
Jukka Vastaranta
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
13
Aleksandr Pluchkin
Team B&O
s.t.
14
Blaise Sonnery
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
15
Jan Bakelants
Rabobank
s.t.
16
Thomas Dekker
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
17
Anthony José Brea
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
18
Markus Fothen
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
19
Juri Krivtsov
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
20
Michiel Elijzen
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
21
Constantino Zaballa
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
22
William Walker
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
23
Fabio Borghesi
American Suzuki
s.t.
24
Theo Eltink
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
25
Eric Berthou
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
26
Dimitri Champion
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
27
Laurens Ten Dam
Rabobank
s.t.
28
Benoît Sinner
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
29
Graeme Brown
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
30
Beñat Intxausti
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
31
Peter Velits
Eurosport
s.t.
32
Andreas Klier
American Suzuki
s.t.
33
Nick Nuyens
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
34
Cyril Gautier
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
35
Matti Breschel
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
36
Anthony Lavoine
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
37
Andrei Grivko
Team B&O
s.t.
38
Domenik Klemme
Team B&O
s.t.
39
Nico Sijmens
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
40
Ricardo Mestre
Team B&O
s.t.
41
Maxime Bouet
Team B&O
s.t.
42
Anthony Geslin
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
43
Roman Kreuziger
Team B&O
s.t.
44
José Antonio Redondo
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
45
Paolo Tiralongo
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
46
Jacob Fiedler
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
47
Christian Knees
Eurosport
s.t.
48
José Antonio Pecharroman
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
49
Alexandre Vinokourov
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
50
Thomas De Gendt
Team B&O
s.t.
51
Bauke Mollema
Rabobank
s.t.
52
Koldo Fernandez
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
53
Santiago Perez Fernandez
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
54
Bernhard Kohl
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
55
João Cabreira
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
56
John-Lee Augustyn
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
57
Rémy Di Gregorio
Rabobank
s.t.
58
Johan Coenen
Warner Brothers
s.t.
59
Evgeni Sokolov
American Suzuki
s.t.
60
Francesco Bellotti
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
61
Matea Kvasina
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
62
Alexandre Aulas
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
63
Gatis Smukulis
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
64
Danny Summerhill
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
65
Jérôme Pineau
Wikipedia
s.t.
66
David Moncoutié
Rabobank
s.t.
67
Yannick Talabardon
Warner Brothers
s.t.
68
Marco Pinotti
Eurosport
s.t.
69
Alberto Ongarato
Warner Brothers
s.t.
70
Jerome Coppel
Wikipedia
s.t.
71
Matteo Bono
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
72
Remmert Wielinga
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
73
Dimitri Claeys
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
74
Patrik Sinkewitz
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
75
Fabio Duarte
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
76
Mauro Santambrogio
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
77
David Deroo
Wikipedia
s.t.
78
Carl Naibo
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
79
László Bodrogi
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
80
Andrei Amador
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
81
Rick Flens
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
82
Christophe Brandt
Unicef RT
s.t.
83
Alberto Loddo
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
84
Pavel Brutt
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
85
Francisco Mancebo
Eurosport
s.t.
86
Dennis Van Winden
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
87
Patxi Vila
Unicef RT
s.t.
88
Kasper Klostergaard
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
89
Matthieu Sprick
Wikipedia
s.t.
90
Clément Lhotellerie
Unicef RT
s.t.
91
David Zabriskie
Wikipedia
s.t.
92
Jaroslav Popovych
Unicef RT
s.t.
93
Cyril Dessel
Eurosport
s.t.
94
Philip Deignan
Eurosport
s.t.
95
Marcus Burghardt
Wikipedia
s.t.
96
Simon Gerrans
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
97
Roman Kilun
Wikipedia
s.t.
98
Sébastien Ivars
Wikipedia
s.t.
99
Jason Donald
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
100
Simon Spilak
Wikipedia
s.t.
101
John Gadret
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
102
Andreas Klöden
Eurosport
s.t.
103
Sylvain Calzati
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
104
Carlos Sastre
Warner Brothers
s.t.
105
Thomas Peterson
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
106
Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
107
Arnaud Coyot
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
108
Andrei Kashechkin
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
109
Ryan Eastman
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
110
Iker Camaño
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
111
Sylvain Chavanel
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
112
Vitor Rodrigues
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
113
Brian Vandborg
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
114
Alberto Contador
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
115
Carlos Barredo
Warner Brothers
s.t.
116
David Millar
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
117
Marco Fertonani
Warner Brothers
s.t.
118
Stijn Devolder
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
119
Yeison Delgado
American Suzuki
s.t.
120
Peter Williams
THE CONTROL TEAM
s.t.
121
Igor Antón
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
122
Ignas Konovalovas
Crédit Lyonnais
s.t.
123
Peter Stetina
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
124
Kristian House
THE CONTROL TEAM
s.t.
125
Jay Thomson
Unicef RT
s.t.
126
Marco Guillén
White Bear - Wild Horse
+ 2'30
127
Óscar Avelino
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
128
Janek Tombak
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
129
Ismaël Kip
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
130
Sergio Ortega
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
131
Tony Martin
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
132
Sébastien Joly
Eurosport
s.t.
133
Tyler Brandt
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
134
Franklin Chacon
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
135
Laurent Lefèvre
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
136
Mads Kaggestad
Warner Brothers
+ 3'30
137
Ramunas Navardauskas
Festina - Seiko
s.t.
138
Mikayil Krasnoperov
Rabobank
s.t.
139
Ananias Ananias
THE CONTROL TEAM
s.t.
140
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
THE CONTROL TEAM
s.t.
141
Rubén Plaza
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
142
Andrea Moletta
American Suzuki
s.t.
143
Baden Cooke
Unicef RT
s.t.
144
Vladimir Karpets
American Suzuki
s.t.
145
Danilo Wyss
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
146
Fabian Cancellara
Unicef RT
s.t.
147
Juan José Haedo
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
148
Aleksandr Khatuntsev
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
149
Sergio Marinangeli
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
150
Sandy Casar
Rabobank
s.t.
151
Gert Steegmans
Rabobank
s.t.
152
Ivan Kovalev
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
153
Lars Croket
White Bear - Wild Horse
s.t.
154
Óscar Solis
Unicef RT
s.t.
155
Allan Davis
American Suzuki
s.t.
156
Dietmar Mehr-Wenige
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
157
William Ford
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
158
Michael Rasmussen
Philips - Hummel
s.t.
159
Mwangi Samwel
Accumalux-Huez
s.t.
160
Amaël Moinard
Rabobank
s.t.
161
Sébastien Chavanel
SIC Radical - Timberland
s.t.
162
Michael Ford
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
163
Vadim Ratiy
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
164
Moris Possoni
La Gazzetta dello Sport
s.t.
165
Khayabkhyrvaa Uugunbayar
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
166
Alex Dowsett
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
167
Jaime Suaza
Unicef RT
s.t.
168
Lars Tommersen
British Airways - Martini
s.t.
169
Sid Taberlay
Domina Vacanze
s.t.
170
Remy Bourdouxhe
Lipton Ice Tea
s.t.
171
Ahmed Ahmed
Warner Brothers
s.t.
172
Brad Armstrong
American Suzuki
+ 5'28
The final results will be posted in a new threadEdited by Roman on 17-10-2016 03:24