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2009 Tour de France
July 4 - July 26, 2009

Pictures from Fotoreporter Sirotti for Stage 18, Thursday, July 23: Annecy 40.5 km Individual Time Trial.


Armstrong rode himself back onto the podium with a 34-second advantage over his biggest threat to a top-three finish, Frank Schleck. Saturday's Mt. Ventoux stage will sort that out.

Andy Schleck preserved his second place with a pretty good ride.

Almost anyone in the world would be happy with a 12th place ride, but Evans is better than that. I don't know why he had such a meltdown this Tour. I do think that usually a rider can either go deep at the Dauphine or contend for the Tour. It's a rare racer who can recover from an attempt to win the Dauphine in time for the Tour. Armstrong's trainer Chris Carmichael regretted Armstrong's fighting Iban Mayo for 2003 Dauphine.

Nice job, Klodi! Andreas Kloden's 9th place today has him 5th in GC, 2 seconds behind Wiggins.

Sastre was almost 4 minutes slower than winner Contador. Was he sandbagging the time trial, knowing he can't get a high GC placing this year in order to hammer Saturday's Mt. Ventoux stage?

For a guy who busted his back in the Giro, Vande Velde is just plain fantastic. He's in 8th place in GC now.

Wiggins, the man of the future. He'll have to gird his loins for Staurday. He's 11 seconds behind Armstrong and 2 seconds ahead of Frank Schleck in the GC. Saxo is going to come after him hammer and tongs and Garmin is probably going to try to get Wiggo on the podium. Everyone's goin' deep Saturday, for sure.

Contador has every reason to smile. His Tour victory is now in the "barring misfortune" category.