Alpe d'Huez: The Decisive Moment of the 2008 Tour de France Arrives

What a stage!!! As usual, Alpe d'Huez provided another epic result at the Tour de France. CSC, the most complete team of this year's Tour, took total control of the stage, leading to a Carlos Sastre victory and another CSC team member in yellow. Sastre, in taking the overall lead, now has a lead of over 1 minute and twenty seconds to his teammate Schleck, Australian Cadel Evans, and Gerolsteiner's Bernard Kohl.

From the beginning of the stage, it was clear that CSC would take charge. And the first of Bjarne Riis's bunch to take control at the front was Stuey O'Grady. What an incredible cyclist! Riding tempo at the front on the way up the day's first climb, the CSC flat-land specialist kept his cadence high and his will strong as he paced his team leader Frank Schleck up the fabled Col de la Croix Fer climb. Fabian Cancellara and Kurt Asle-Arvesen did their work too, before the two Schleck brothers ran interference on behalf of Sastre.

Meanwhile, Cadel Evans was largely on his own as he desperately tried to keep Sastre at arm's length. He was able to keep the Spaniard under two minutes, and now must plan on taking at least 1:35 out of Sastre in order to take the overall win. Frank Schleck and Brenard Kohl, though ahead of Evans, don't have a chance to stay ahead of last year's 2nd place Tour de France finisher. And speaking of second place, Evans will finish either there at #2 or in 1st, the place he has been targeting since this time last year.

The final spot for the podium will be a battle too, as Schleck and Kohl hold about a minute lead to Denis Menchov. The Russian is probably the second or third best time trialist at the Tour, and should be able to close the gap on Schleck and Kohl, adding some extra drama to the penultimate time trial stage on Saturday. Also of note on the stage was that American Christian Vande Velde once again held his own in the high mountains. He should have excellent confidence heading into the final half of the year and into next season. He'll be a GC rider to watch in 2009 at the Tour.