Carlos Sastre made the best effort he could to win the 2008 Tour de France. My prognostication? Cadel will easily get a minute back in the TT on Saturday, but he’ll lose the Tour by four seconds. Not only will we witness that happen on Saturday, but just maybe Greg LeMond’s last remaining record, that of the closest Tour finish ever, might also be history.

Hey, look who just came into the booth – it’s my former Team Director, Jim Ochowicz. “Och” was the man at 7-Eleven and Motorola and I have to say that he is partially responsible for any rider today having a contract that he can believe in. Back in the day Jim was known to stand by the deal he made, whereas is Europe at the time a contract was always open to endless negotiation. Jim would make a deal and stick by it which made it easier for us to ride and do well because we didn’t have expend any effort worrying about whether we were going to get paid or not.

Today Sastre extended his lead on Alp d’Huez with each pedal stroke from the bottom steep part and it was beautiful to watch. Vandevelde had a good ride and stayed with the yellow jersey group proving you can have a good day after a bad day. I think if he rides well enough in the TT he might be able to climb back to the podium in Paris. Evans can wipe out his deficit to Schleck in the first kilometer of the TT so he’s still in there. For both Cadel and Sastre the TT on Saturday will have to be the ride of their lives. Little more than 50k separates these two guys from eternal glory.

Bobke’s Inside Line:  You asked about LeMond earlier and it reminded me of the time he was here in the race during the first week. He made some valid points of criticism, but he also said some things to the Euro press that sounded bitter. It makes you wonder, why should Greg LeMond stay so upset with a sport that he helped make famous? To be a critic is essential. To be a cynic, well, you lose out on the beauty of it all.