CYCLING: Tour de France fans dream of seeing suspense reign until the final sprint on the Champs Elysees. This was one of those cliff-hanging Tours, but Lance Armstrong was not the man on the edge. William Fotheringham reports

Armstrong was untouchable from the moment he won the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees, to his victory in Saturday's time trial among the Beaujolais hills. In the final week, the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey always looked destined for Laurent Jalabert of France in his final Tour.

The great doubt was over the green jersey, which is awarded to the most consistent daily finisher on points. This year's winner was Robbie McEwen, who scored a mini grand slam yesterday: he won the stage, and prevented Germany's Erik Zabel from winning for the seventh year.

Their private battle was nip and tuck from the first week; their final shoot-out after 10 laps of the Champs Elysees yesterday was almost anti-climactic in comparison. Zabel was baulked, and instead the rider who pushed McEwen all the way to the line was his fellow Australian Baden Cooke.

Traditionally, the final leg from the outskirts of Paris to the Champs Elysees is a procession, ended by a bunch sprint, in which none of the overall contenders makes any attempt to alter the status quo.

For the first time in at least two generations, the unwritten law was broken by the man in third place overall, the Lithuanian Raimondas Rumsas.

Yesterday he sneaked away from Beloki on the Rue de Rivoli and joined a large group led by Jalabert.

That was enough for Beloki's ONCE team to get in a panic and they massed at the front of the bunch to ensure that Rumsas's last-ditch attempt to snatch second came unstuck.

Guardian Service