Exciting Stage 18 Narrows The Field

The extremely difficult stage 18, with its three unrated climbs, was expected to be crucial in determining this year's winner of the Tour de France. Although no one put themselves so far ahead as to be unreachable, the stage did narrow the field a bit -- with one rider putting himself back into contention and two riders dropping out of contention.

The rider who had the best day, and put himself back into contention for the overall win, is Luxembourg's Andy Schleck (Leopard-Trek). He started the day more than two and a half minutes out of the lead, and needed to make up some serious time -- and that's just what he did. He took off very early on the second climb and built a significant lead over the other contenders. For a while it looked like he might make up enough time to take the yellow jersey, but in the last couple of kilometers the other contenders made up enough time on him to keep that from happening. Schleck did make up enough time to put himself in second place though and only 15 seconds behind Frenchman Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), who keeps the yellow jersey for another day.

But while Schleck was having a great ride, two contenders (including the defending champion) were not able to stay with the leaders. Spain's Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) and his fellow countryman Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) had difficulty with the final climb and lost enough time to the leaders to end their hopes of winning this year's Tour.

Today's stage was won by Luxembourg's Andy Schleck (Leopard-Trek). His brother Frank Schleck (Leopard-Trek) finished the stage in second place, and Australian Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) crossed the finish line in third place. It now looks like this year's Tour will be won by one of those three riders, unless Voeckler can hold on for two more days (which he might since he has already held the yellow jersey far longer than expected). There are now just two more opportunities for someone to claim this year's Tour -- tomorrow's mountain stage and Saturday's 42 kilometer individual time trial.

Stage 19 is the last mountain stage of the Tour de France this year. It is a 109.5 kilometer ride from Modane to Alpe-D'Huez. It has a category 1 climb followed by an unrated climb, and then finishes at the top of another unrated climb.

Here are the current standings:

YELLOW JERSEY (INDIVIDUAL LEADER)
1. Thomas Voeckler, France (Europcar)
2. Andy Schleck, Luxembourg (Leopard-Trek)..........15"
3. Frank Schleck, Luxembourg (Leopard-Trek)..........1' 08"
4. Cadel Evans, Australia (BMC Racing)..........1' 12"
5. Damiano Cunego, Italy (Lampre)..........3' 46"
6. Ivan Basso, Italy (Liquigas)..........3' 46"
7. Alberto Contador, Spain (Saxo Bank)..........4' 44"
8. Samuel Sanchez, Spain (Euskaltel-Euskadi)..........5' 20"
9. Tom Danielson, USA (Garmin-Cervelo)..........7' 08"
10. Jean-Christophe Peraud, France (AG2R)..........9' 27"


GREEN JERSEY (SPRINTERS)
1. Mark Cavendish, Great Britain (HTC-Highroad)....300 pts
2. Jose Joaquin Rojas, Spain (Movistar)....285 pts
3. Philippe Gilbert, Belgium (Omega-Lotto)....230 pts
4. Thor Hushovd, Norway (Garmin-Cervelo)....215 pts
5. Cadel Evans, Australia (BMC Racing)....180 pts


POLKA DOT JERSEY (CLIMBERS)
1. Jelle Vanendert, Belgium (Omega-Lotto)..........74 pts
2. Samuel Sanchez, Spain (Euskaltel-Euskadi)..........72 pts
3. Andy Schleck, Luxembourg (Leopard-Trek)..........70 pts
4. Frank Schleck, Luxembourg (Leopard-trek)..........56 pts
5. Cadel Evans, Australia (BMC Racing)..........50 pts


TEAM STANDINGS
1. Garmin-Cervelo (USA)
2. AG2R (France)..........10' 30"
3. Leopard-Trek (Luxembourg)..........11' 06"
4. Katusha (Russia)..........28' 42"
5. Europcar (France)..........29' 21"


NOTE -- You may have noticed that several of the leaders for the sprinter's green jersey have less points today than they did yesterday. That's because they finished outside of the time allowed for stage 18. They could have been dropped from the race, but the Tour officials decided to just deduct 20 points from each of their totals.