Contador makes it count

It wasn't a question of whether Alberto Contador would get beat by Cadel Evans. That was pretty much a given going in, as Evans is a superior time triallist. But it wasn't clear how much time Contador would concede. He ended up losing time at every intermediate check, but managed to hold on to yellow by 23 seconds. Unless Evans can win both intermediate sprints and takes it at the line on the Champs Elyses, that clinches it. Alberto Contador wins the 2007 Tour de France. Wonder what the odds on that were three weeks ago?

It was Levi Leipheimer, however, who won the stage today. Sitting 59 seconds behind Evans before the start, he came within 8 seconds of 2nd place and even looked for a while like he might ride himself into the yellow jersey. But instead he has to settle for a stage win and the third step on the podium. He rode the 55.5 km course in 1.02.44, at an average speed of 53.068 km/h! Not bad.

The three podium spots of Contador, Evans, and Leipheimer are separated by only 31 seconds. The closest ever. Sweet. But of course the Tour is dead, so that doesn't matter.

Team Disco finished with 4 riders among the top 7. I hate it that I'm even thinking it, but I can't help be recall what happened just under a week ago after another team dominated the time trial like that.

With Leipheimer and Contador on her team, Rachel wins the stage. Now that the Chicken is gone, Matt has no time trial specialists left. Zero points for him. But he still holds on to yellow by the slimmest of margins heading into the final stage.

Stage 19 results:

1) Rachel - 212
2) Chris - 117
3) Charlene - 115
4) Jonny B - 84
5) Johnny S - 76
6) David L - 76
7) Vic - 50
8) Jonny G - 46
9) James - 41
10) Hal - 30
11) Cheryl - 2
12) Matt - 0
13) David S - 0

General Classification after stage 19:

1) Matt - 2097
2) Chris - 2063
3) Rachel - 1567
4) Jonny G - 1365
5) Charlene - 1277
6) David L - 1271
7) James - 1270
8) Hal - 1201
9) Vic - 1053
10) Cheryl - 1046
11) Jonny B - 948
12) Johnny S - 769
13) David S - 426

The 2007 Tour de France may be all but over, but in the FGBC TdF Pool we still have ourselves a race. Just so you know what's at stake:

There's still one stage to go. It almost always ends with a bunch sprint. So Matt looks to gain a bunch more points yet. But there are also final points to be awarded--lots of them for the overall standings for the yellow, green, and polka-dot jerseys.

The battle for polka-dot jersey is sewn up and the race for yellow is unlikely to change. The green jersey has been pretty much clinched by Boonen. But the top 15 could be reshuffled yet, depending on how it plays out at the finish tomorrow. Still, if things were to end today and those points were added on the basis of the current standings, this is how it would look:

1) Chris - 3053
2) Matt - 2697
3) Rachel - 2692
4) Jonny B - 2173
5) Charlene - 1987
6) David L - 1926
7) Jonny G - 1630
8) Hal - 1511
9) James - 1485
10) Vic - 1468
11) Cheryl - 1321
12) Johnny S - 1239
13) David S - 426

So there you have it. Except that this is not how the final numbers will look. There are still points for stage 20 to be awarded. And the top 15 in the green jersey race will change, so those points will likely be distributed differently. Whether that will be enough for Matt to hold onto the jersey he's worn for almost three weeks now will be determined tomorrow.

Over in the dirty pool, the standings look like this:

1) Matt - 2741
2) Chris - 1961
3) Jonny G - 1838
4) David L - 1662
5) Rachel - 1450
6) Jonny B - 1344
7) Johnny S - 1218
8) Hal - 1197
9) Charlene - 1169
10) James - 1158
11) Cheryl - 998
12) Vic - 983
13) David S - 742

OTT: The Flaming Lips, Drug Machine