For the first time since 1998, neither an American nor a member of an American team stood atop the podium on the Champs-Elysees in Paris after the final stage of Tour de France.

But the 2008 Tour was not without a strong American influence.

American-based teams Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle gave the U.S. two teams at the Tour for the first time ever, and both teams had memorable moments. And their strong performances are part of what Columbia owner Bob Stapleton has called “authentic athletic competition” because of the teams’ strong independent anti-doping programs.

– Columbia picked up five stage wins, four from British sprinting sensation Mark Cavendish and another from Big Marcus Burghardt on a successful breakaway in Stage 18. Cavendish could have won another stage or two if he wouldn’t have had to drop out with a week to go to recuperate and prepare for the Olympics in a few weeks.

In addition, Columbia’s G.C. hope, Kim Kirchen, wore the yellow jersey as the race leader for four days, and although he faltered in the high mountains, he wound up eighth overall, 6:55 behind race winner Carlos Sastre of CSC-Saxo Bank thanks to third-place finish in the Stage 20 time. Kirchen also finished second in the Stage 4 TT.

Meanwhile, Columbia’s Konstantin Sivtsov, the winner at the Tour de Georgia, got stronger as the Tour progressed and ended up 17th overall. Last year he was 35th. Big George Hincapie had two top 10s in the TT, and Thomas Lovkvist finished 11th in each TT.

– Garmin-Chipotle scored the highest overall finish of the American teams, with Christian Vande Velde’s breakthrough fifth-place finish. After spending his career riding in support, first for Lance Armstrong at U.S. Postal and most recently for CSC, Vande Velde blossomed into the role of a leader at this year’s Tour and rode among the select group on all but one of the high mountain passes. He faltered only on the Cime de la Bonette-Restefond, losing 35 seconds on the climb before a crash on the descent cost him another 2 minutes. If not for that bobble, Vande Velde might have finished on the podium in Paris, but even so, he will return next year as a contender for yellow.

Columbia’s David Millar finished second in the Stage 4 TT and fifth in the Stage 20 TT. American Danny Pate finished 14th in both TTs, and finished third in a mountaintop finish as part of a breakaway in stage 15. Fellow American Will Frischkorn finished second in Stage 3 as part of a four-man breakaway that stayed away all day. And Canadian Ryder Hesjdal placed 13th in the final TT.

The American influence ran deeper than just the two American-based teams.

– The CSC portion of the CSC-Saxo Bank team is of course an American company, so at least an American sponsor got on the podium with CSC-Saxo’s Carlos Sastre. Unfortunately, this is CSC’s last year as the team’s sponsor.

– Gerolsteiner, which had a breakthrough Tour with Bernhard Kohl’s third-place finish and polka dot jersey, and Quick Step, which won the final stage with Big Gert Steegmans big sprint, both ride bikes from an American company — Specialized. Columbia (Giant) and Garmin-Chipotle (Felt) also ride American bikes. Like CSC, the Quick Step company has American roots.

– Scott, an American bike company, had its Tour ruined by the positive test of Saunier Duval-Scott’s Riccardo Ricco for a new form of EPO and the reported admission of Leonardo Piepeli to doping. Both riders were fired, the team withdrew from the Tour and Saunier Duval dropped its sponsorship. But Scott stepped forward to back the team for the rest of this season, with new co-sponsor American Beef. So, Scott will ride on, hopefully with the doping riders cleared out and perhaps an anti-doping program in place. At the moment, only four major teams have independent anti-doping testing — Columbia, Garmin-Chipotle, CSC-Saxo and Astana, which wasn’t invited to the Tour this year.

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