Steegmans wins Tour de France finale; Sastre is overall winner

See 2008 Tour de France At-a-Glace recap

Gert Steegmans won the final sprint on the Champs Élysées in Paris on Sunday, giving his QuickStep team its first win in the 2008 Tour de France.

In a picturesque, sunny finish on the streets of Paris, Steegmans was launched by his team and beat Gerald Ciolek of Team Columbia and green jersey Oscar Freire, neither of whom could catch up.

As expected Carlos Sastre of Team CSC finished the race in the yellow jersey, becoming the 7th Spanish cyclist ever, and the second in two years, to win the Tour de France. At 33, Sastre was riding in his 8th Tour.

[Actually, Sastre is the third Spaniard in three years to win the Tour if you count Oscar Pereiro in 2006, which of couse we should.]

For me, the final stage is a little anticlimatic. The battle for the yellow jersey is over, and the only fireworks are the eight laps that occur on the streets of Paris.

Several riders tried attacks during the final laps, the last one by France's Sylvain Chavanel of Cofidis, judged the most aggressive rider of the Tour. It seemed like he made a big for a breakaway win on half the stages this year, and actually succeeded on Friday in Stage 19. He was swept up by the peloton on Sunday though.

As the peloton headed toward the finish, US-based Garmin-Chipotle took a turn at the front, with David Millar turning hard for their sprinter Julian Dean. But QuickStep took control after that and propelled Steegmans across the finish line with Ciolek and Freire trailing, but not closing.

The final Top 10:

1 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC – Saxo Bank
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence – Lotto, 1.05
3 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner, 1.20
4 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank, 2.00
5 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle, 3.12
6 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC – Saxo Bank, 4.28
7 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi, 6.32
8 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia, 7.02
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne, 7.26
10 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale, 9.12

Where the US riders finished:

5 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle, 3.05

35 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia, 1.08.15

95 Danny Pate (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle, 2.36.29

133 William Frischkorn (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle, 3.30.47