Tour de France Stage 19 Mark Cavendish Wins Sprint

The Tour de France stage 19 saw Mark Cavendish(Columbia) win the sprint in a battle with Thor Hushovd(Cervelo) who came in second.  Gerald Cholek(Milram) took third place.  Thor Hushovd will keep the green jersey for now, but Mark Cavendish is now placed to challenge that.  With two days left in the Tour and a mountain finish tomorrow, it looks like it will come down to a sprint on the cobblestones of Paris.

The race was fast paced which split the peloton on the final climb.  All the Tour leaders finished in the first part of the peloton.  In an astute move at the last second, Lance Armstrong(Astana) opened a time gap on the other Tour leaders and gained back four seconds.  The overall standings remain the same as yesterday.

Tour Standings:

1.  Alberto Contador(Astana)

2.  Andy Schleck(Saxo Bank)

3.  Lance Armstrong(Astana)

4.  Bradley Wiggins(Garmin)

5.  Andreas Kloden(Astana)

George Hincapie(Columbia) rode hard for the team in spite of injuries.  This is his 14 Tour.

Talk is swirling around plans for next year's Tour.  Lance Armstrong has expressed interest in returning, but not to an Astana team. In an interview he mentioned a team sponsored by RadioShack with other sponsors possibly being Trek and Nike.  Word has it the Johan Bruyneel will not be with Astana after the Tour.

Stage 20 of the Tour is a much discussed route from Montelimar to Mont Ventoux.  It is a 167 km stage ending on top of Mont Ventoux.