Today, as always after the final stage of a stage race, there were two heroes. The first was Tom Boonen (Quick Step), who won the 20 ^th and final stage of the Tour de France. The Belgian wunderkind took the bunch sprint on the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>
Champs Elysees from Jean-Patrick Nazon (Ag2r) and Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner) to take the flattish, 163-km run from Montereau to
Paris in 4:08:26. The second hero was Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service), who has won the Tour de France for an unprecedented sixth time, winning five stages en route to overall victory. After struggling for much of the 2003 Tour, the man from
Austin regained the form of 2001 and 2002 and beat Andreas Kl?den (T-Mobile) and Ivan Basso (CSC) easily. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

Tradition dictates that the Tour?s final stage be a procession for the winner until the race reaches
Paris. In the first km, Filippo Simeoni (Domina Vacanze) broke with tradition. The Italian attacked, and Armstrong, who is nursing a grudge against Simeoni for filing a defamation of character suit against him, led the U.S. Postal Service team in pursuit. The bunch caught the break at eight km, and the peloton slowed down.

When the race reached the
Champs Elysees , the hostilities began. Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), Thomas Voeckler (Brioches La Boulangere), Oscar Pereiro (Phonak), Scott Sunderland (Alessio), Jose Gutierrez (Illes Balears), Mikel Astarloza (Ag2r), Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa Bortolo), Axel Merckx (Lotto), and Karsten Kroon (Rabobank) attacked. The escapees ran up a 40-second lead, but the Credit Agricole-led peloton reeled them in. Flecha countered, but the bunch overhauled him. The stage came down to a sprint, which Boonen won.

In the overall, Armstrong beat Kl?den by 6:19 and Basso by 6:40. In other competitions, Robbie McEwen (Lotto) took the green jersey, Richard Virenque (Quick Step) grabbed a record seventh polka dot jersey, and Vladimir Karpets (Illes Balears) won the white jersey. These riders and others will cross swords in the races of the late summer and fall. Who will prevail at the Olympic Games, the Vuelta a Espana, and the World Cup races? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!

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