Stage 19

The road

At the start

Fifty-three kilometres between Wiggins and Paris

Mark Cavendish, without a lead-out again, came out of the bunch at two hundred metres in Brive and beat everybody. Wiggins has led this Tour since La Planche des Belles Filles and takes 2:05 over Chris Froome and 2:41 over Nibali into the last serious day: fifty-three and a half kilometres to Chartres. The route was drawn so that a climber would be defending here. Instead the best time triallist in the race is.

How it was won

1. 142 km to go

   Gretsch sets the mark

   Argos-Shimano's Patrick Gretsch goes early and posts a time that stands for the best part of two hours over the fifty-three and a half kilometres between Bonneval and Chartres.

2. 229 km to go

   Sánchez takes it off him

   Luis León Sánchez, who has already saved his team's Tour in Foix, clips thirty-eight seconds off Gretsch and crosses in 1:06:03. It will be good enough for third on the stage.

3. 318 km to go

   Fastest everywhere

   Bradley Wiggins is quickest through every intermediate check on the course, which by now surprises nobody at all. The only question is by how much.

4. 46 km to go

   Froome, second again

   Chris Froome rides the second-fastest time of the day for the second time in this Tour, which is exactly what Sky need: his own second place overall sealed while the man in yellow puts the race away.

5. 5At the line

   1:04:13, and the last hurdle cleared

   Wiggins stops the clock a minute and sixteen seconds up on his own team-mate. Barring an accident on the Champs-Élysées, a British rider is going to win the Tour de France.

The result