TdF Stage 19 : Cognac - Angouleme

Today we would finally find out who is going to win the tour. The battle would go between the two Discovery riders Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer and the Australian Cadel Evans, and it promised to be a thrilling trial.

Early in the day Leif Hoste set a great time and long time no one could reach it until another Discovery rider George Hincapie came, he beat the time with 15 seconds but that time was later crushed by Gutierrez, Popovych and Karpets. Then the three most important riders started. Levi Leipheimer rode the time trial of his life and took the victory home, but couldn't get over Evans and Contador in the rankings. Evans was making lots of seconds good on Contador but on the finish line Contador had 23 seconds left on Evans so he would probably become the winner of the Tour de France.

For Euskaltel Mikel Astarloza was able to get the 10th spot and jumped over in the general ranks. Haimar Zubeldia got the 20th place and stayed fifth in the rankings.

Stage Result
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel 1.02.44 (53.068 km/h)
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto +0.51
3 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne +1.56
...
10. Mikel Astarloza +2.50
20. Haimar Zubeldia +4.06
33. Ruben Perez +5.07
46. Amets Txurruka +5.48
55. Gorka Verdugo +6.22
81. Inigo Landaluze +7.42
92. Inaki Isasi +8.08
111. Jorge Azanza +8.54

General Rank
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery 87.09.18
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto +0.23
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel +0.31
...
5. Haimar Zubeldia +8.17
9. Mikel Astarloza +14.14
23. Amets Txurruka +49.24
41. Inigo Landaluze +1:36:40
48. Gorka Verdugo +1:53:22
50. Ruben Perez +1:56:20
82. Jorge Azanza +2:50:20
90. Inaki Isasi +2:59:42