The final stage is one normally only contested for by the sprinters as they look to cross the finish line first. It is possible that a crash could see the yellow jersey leader lose his shirt, but that is about it.

Cadel Evans made it to Paris without incident on the final day of the tour and now goes down in history as the first Australian to win the great tour. It is a huge achievement.

In a vote on the SMH.com.au website this feat was put up alongside the America’s Cup win by Australia II and Cathy Freeman winning Olympic gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics as readers were asked which sporting achievement is the greatest? Evans came out way in from after more than 26,000 votes were cast. The result shows 74 percent  in favour of Evan’s Tour de France win.

That shows just how big this really is.

Well done to Cadel Evans, the 2011 tour de France champion.

The two Schleck brothers held the top two spots before the 20th stage with Andy in yellow holding a 57sec advantage over Cadel Evans who was in third.

It was well known that both Andy and Frank Schleck were not strong in time trials while on the other hand Evans is one of the best.

Andy Schleck was talking up his chances saying he would be inspired by yellow and pull out a big effort to stay in the lead. Did it turn out that way?

Evans was not going to let the two second place finnishes in past tours effect him as he took second place in the stage behind German Tony Martin of HTC-Highroad and in doing so erased the lead that Andy Schleck once held.

It means Evans will go into Sunday’s final stage, a 95 km run from Creteil to Paris with a 1 min 34 second lead over Andy Schleck and 2 min 30 on Frank.

It was an inspired ride by Evans who looked strong throughout the time trial and ended the stage just seven seconds behind Martin who covered the 42.5 km in 55 min 33 seconds.

Tradition is that on the final day of the Tour de France the riders do not compete for the race lead, it is more a victory ride for whoever is in yellow at the start of the stage. Assuming this does not change Cadel Evans has made history as the first Australian to win the famous tour.

Cadel Evans photo from 2010 tour de France

Defending Tour de France champion Alberto Contador did what he could do to try to get back into contention for the yellow jersey but it looks like the race is now between the Schleck brothers from Luxembourg and Australia’s Cadel Evans.

It was almost a disastrous day for the Australian as he was troubled by mechanical problems and was forced into a change of bike. In the end he fought magnifiently to setup a showdown in the time trial which is stage 20 of the tour.

Stage 19, which ended at the famous Alpe d’Huez was won by Europcar’s Pierre Rolland who has spent the past 10 days helping support his teammate and yellow jersey leader Thomas Voeckler. Once it became clear Voeckler could not hold onto yellow, Rolland went for it.

In the race for yellow we saw Andy Schleck move into top spot after he and Evans battled hard to keep near the front of the field. They reached the summit of Alpe d’Huez 57 seconds behind the stage winner, Contado was 34 seconds ahead of a group of six riders that included Frank, Andy and Cadel.

Evans now has the chance to grab the yellow jersey when the 42.5km time trial takes place around the streets of Grenoble. He is chasing history as he will become the first Australian to win the tour. Evans is a two-time runner-up.

We have seen Evans in this position before where many thought he would power through a time trial to get a win but he did not have the legs to win. With fresh legs he is the best time trialler in the top ten.

“I don’t know if I’ll win the Tour, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out,” said Evans.

“The Tour’s been quite good for me so far, I’ve had one bad day, my legs are good and I’m confident I can actually keep this till Paris,” said Schleck,

The Spaniard stretched his lead to 39 seconds over Andy Schleck after going into the stage with an eight-second lead. The 52km time trial was won by Fabian Cancellara.

As the final stage is normally not contested by they yellow jersey rivals it is likely that Contador will claim his third race title. Schleck is set to come in second as he did in 2009. Last year he was 4 minutes 11  seconds behind the race winner so this year he has improved.

Maybe next year is the one for Schleck.

The big news was of course Spain winning the World Cup soccer, or was it LeBron James deciding to leave the Cavs and signup with the Miami Heat?

Spain defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in extra-time. I managed to watch some of the match on the ship and was glad to see Spain win. The Netherlands came so close to scoring when a shot by Arjen Robben was just deflected wide by the boot of the Spanish keeper Iker Casillas. As the teams battled it out in extra-time it was Andres Iniesta’s 116th-minute strike that saw Spain get the one goal that gave them the World Cup victory.

The big news in the NBA was of course the LeBron James decision to join Miami Heat and create the dream team of himself, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He said the reason was that he wants to win championships. You can see the reasons why for yourself in the video below.

Mark Webber winning the Brittish Formula One grand prix was another big item. Webber was a bit annoyed with his team after they gave exclusive use of an updated front wing to Sebastian Vettel. Vettel took pole ahead of Webber however the Australian got the jump on his teammate at the start of the race and was never headed. The win moved Webber to third on the driver’s championship.

“I’ve always loved Silverstone,” said Mark. “I won at the track in Formula Ford, Formula 3000 and in Sportscars and to win there in F1 is the icing on the cake. The British Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious races on the calendar; every driver wants to win it and I’ve now got the trophy sitting on my mantelpiece.”

Another big event taking place right now is le Tour de France. I saw that Australia’s Cadel Evans had taken the leader’s yellow jersey only to see him drop off the pace in a later stage. It was revealed later that he had broken a bone in his elbow after a fall. Following stage 11 Evans was in 18th position 7 minutes 47 seconds behind race leader Andy Schleck.

The big news out of stage 11 was the disqualification of Mark Renshaw for headbutting Kiwi Julian Dean during a sprint finish.

The ride was just 5.5 miles through the rain-dampened streets.

Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara who the world and Olympic time trial champion grabbed the yellow jersey with a time of 10 minutes flat.  Tony Martin was ten seconds behind, then David Millar at 20 seconds off the pace and Lance Armstrong was 22 seconds slower to hold down fourth spot.

The 2010 Tour de France is held over 20 stages and ends in Paris on Sunday July 25th.

The above comment came after stage 17 of the Tour de France. It is about Alberto Contador who made a move that split his Astana team and allowed the Schleck brothers to move to second and third on the classification.

Frank Schleck won the 17th stage ahead of Contador and Andy Schleck.

Bruyneel had made it clear that Contador had gone against team orders when he made his break which only the Schleck brothers could match.

Instead of a possible 1-2-3 for Astana the Schleck brothers have moved up in the classification. The Astana team know that the individual time trial comes tomorrow and that Armstrong and Contador are far superior than the Luxembourg brothers. Astana’s main concern was Bradley Wiggins and they had done the job of dropping him.

It will be interesting to see how team Astana handle the singlemindedness displayed from Contador.

Stage 18 is a 40.5 time trial held in Annecy.

It is not until you dig into his history that you become aware that he was actually born in Australia and spent the first 14 years of his life in Inverell and inland town in New South Wales, Australia. He was born to a German father and an Australian mother. He decided it was best for his cycling career to go to Germany when he was 15.

Haussler is now someone you can put down as a Tour de France stage winner. On a wet miserable day in the east of France and not far from his base in Germany Haussler took advantage of some steep climbs to break away from the field. It was a 200km stage from Vittel to Colmar.

It was after going over the summit of the category one-rated Col du Platzerwasel along with Sylvain Chavanel that the Cervelo team rider attacked on the descent to quickly open up a gap on the Frenchman.

Haussler, who said he loved the wet and cold conditions was now out on his own with the stage to be won. He had around a seven minute advantage as he headed towards the finish line in Colma . In the end he crossed 6min 43sec ahead of the peloton. The look on his face said it all as he crossed the line. He was overcome with emotion and thanks to his huge advantage he could enjoy the moment.

Chavanel really bombed and could only just manage to cross the finish line seconds ahead of the peloton. Spaniard Amets Txurruka of the Euskaltel team was second, at just over four minutes behind, while Frenchman Brice Feillu of Agritubel was third at 6:13.

In an interview after the stage it was clear that Heinrich Haussler had spent time in Australia as he still had more of an aussie accent than a German one. There is also talk of him now wanting to get and Australian cycling license which will see him compete for Australia in the future.

In the overall classification things did not change up front. Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are still poised to snatch the yellow jersey from Rinaldo Nocentini who is just six seconds ahead of the Spaniard and eight ahead of Armstrong.

Not much is expected to change in stage 14, it is Sunday’s 207.5km 15th stage from Pontarlier to Verbier in Switzerland that is likely to see the yellow jersey hopefuls put up their hand.

In the second day Armstrong just went along with the bunch and maintained 10th position. Stage three is where things have become interesting. With around 30km left in the stage the Columbia team decided to chase down a small breakaway. Much to everyone’s surprise when they did this the peloton was left behind.

A group of 29 riders ended up ahead of the rest with a nice gap back to the peleton. The group consisted of the entire Columbia team and more importantly, Lance Armstrong. As the stage unfolded it was Stage 2 winner Mark Cavendish who took the stage victory. He has to be the hottest sprinter around at the moment.

With Armstrong part of the winning group he now finds himself in third spot overall. He is still 40 seconds behind Cancellara who holds the Yellow jersey.

Many of the big names were caught out in the windy conditions that meant working together to chase down the breakaway. It has been said that 2007 winner Alberto Contador allowed the break to happen. According to French rider Christophe Le Mevel it was Contador who failed to stick with the wheel ahead of him and that created the gap.

Now with Armstrong sitting in third position the question has to be asked, Can Armstrong Win? The man himself is not ruling himself out. He won the tour seven times in the past and despite having a disrupted return to cycling he has experience on his side.

The tour continues with stage 4 on Tuesday. This stage is a team time trial and is to be held in Montpellier. The team time trial was dropped from the race after 2005 but obviously makes a return in 2009.

It did not turn out this way as Sastre rode the time trial of his life to keep a lead of just over one minute going into the final stage. Evans was seventh in the stage and this was not good enough to grab the yellow jersey.

Unless there is some accident that claims Sastre on the final day it appears that the tour victory is his. There is an unwritten rule that prevents riders from challenging the yellow jersey on the 143km ride into Paris.

In stage 20 it was Stefan Schumacher who won the time trial as he powered home in 1 hour 3 minutes and 50 seconds.