Tour de France: Contador's glory after holding off good Evans

Spain's Alberto Contador will ride into Paris today as the winner of the Tour de France, but the future of the Tour, and of professional cycling, is seriously in doubt after the doping scandals that have rocked this year's race.

The final stages were seen by some as a funeral procession and by others as the "Tour de Farce" after three riders tested positive and the leader, Michael Rasmussen, was pulled out by his team for lying about his whereabouts while training for the race.

Contador took the yellow jersey after Rasmussen's departure and sealed overall victory with an impressive ride in yesterday's 55.5km time trial between Cognac and Angou-lême. The 24-year-old Spaniard lost 1min 27sec to the second-placed Cadel Evans of Australia in the time trial, but had accumulated a lead of 1:50 earlier in the race, and so kept the lead by 23 seconds. When he crosses the finish line in Paris at the end of the 146km promenade stage today, his will be the second-lowest winning margin in the 104-year history of the Tour.

Contador's Discovery Channel team-mate Levi Leipheimer won the time trial and so finished third overall, eight seconds behind Evans.

In 2004 Contador collapsed while racing with a brain aneurysm, but he has recovered to become the first Spaniard to win the Tour de France since Miguel Indurain in 1995.

"Two years ago I was afraid I'd never have a normal life again. Fortunately an operation saved me and meant I could make a comeback and win the Tour de France," Contador said.

"For a moment during the time trial I was worried thatI'd lost too much time to Evans and my legs were hurting, but then the gap stayed the same and in the final kilometres I'd knew I'd done enough to keep the yellow jersey."

Britain's David Millar had been determined to win the final time trial but he had a nightmare ride, finishing 87th at7:52 down after two mechanical problems at the very beginning of proceedings.

"Two of my disk wheels exploded in the opening five hundred metres. It was bizarre," he said. "I didn't give up and went as hard as I could until the first time-check, telling myself I'd keep going hard if I was within a minute. I was overthat and so just shut it downto save something for the Champs- Elysées."

Millar is set to finish the Tour halfway down the overall standings, two-and-a-half hours slower than Contador. Charly Wegelius and Geraint Thomas will also make it to Paris.

The future for the sport, however, is bleak. Television, team sponsors and race sponsors are all threatening to cut their budgets as cycling struggles in the war against doping. The Tour organisers and the world governing body of cycling, the Union Cycliste International, are blaming each other for the doping problems.

"The UCI never wanted a clean Tour," the race director, Christophe Prudhomme, said. "They knew Rasmussen had missed out-of-competitiontests but let him start the Tour de France."

The UCI deny any wrong-doing and have created the ProTour structure that guarantees the biggest 20 teams a place in the biggest races in the calendar, including the Tour de France. However, the big-three race organisers now refuse to be part of the ProTour.

"Next year we'll decide on ethical grounds who to invite to our race," Prudhomme said.

The 141 riders who have survived the three weeks of racing are divided. Some are considering a protest and may walk across the finish line. Others, including Millar, want to race for the fans. "The riders need to show some cohesion against the people who are still doping, but I think it's best we just get on with the racing and let the UCI, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Tour organisers, the team managers and sponsors try and bloody well fix our sport," Millar said.

It is a sentiment shared by millions who have enjoyed the three spectacular weeks but who want to watch a clean race.

Stephen Farrand writes for cyclingweekly.co.uk

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