Gert Steegmans of Quick Step (right) sprints towards the finish ingline ahead of Oscar Freire of Rabobank, wearing the best sprinter’s green jersey (left) and Columbia’s Gerald Ciolek (center) to win the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Sunday. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)

Gert

Gert

Gert
Quick Step-Innergetic lost team leader Tom Boonen before the Tour de France, which told Quick Step Boonen was unwelcome to their July party because of a positive out-of-competition drug test for cocaine.

Then, as the Tour began,, news broke that Boonen’s understudy/lead-out man Big Gert Steegmans was moving to Tinkoff next season.And during the TdF, Quick Step’s G.C. hope, crazy Stijn Devolder, abandoned in the first Alpine stage.

So, the Belgian team with the American company sponsor was in disarray, and being lambasted for its lack of production in the Tour de France.

Until Sunday, when Big Gert sprinted away after a lead-out by Matteo Tossato and beat Columbia’s Gerald Ciolek to the finishing line on the Champs-Ellysees and win the final stage of the 2008 Tour de France.

“The team has worked perfectly so that I could win this sprint,” letour.com quoted Steegmans as saying. “I knew very well the last turn and I knew I’d timed it well enough not to be harassed by anyone in the final expect perhaps the two or three who were right on my wheel. Matteo Tossato gave me a pace that was so fast that I could not even get around him.

“It’s great to win here. Tom [Boonen] is usually our leader. The fact that he is not here added pressure on me and also Stijn Devolder. It was not easy, and this victory has been a long time in coming, still, the team has consistently done its best and finally the work they were doing helped give me that little bit of extra confidence.

“Several factors have prevented the Quickstep team from winning. The first is, of course, Cavenish. And then, (Carlos) Barredo was a little too nervous when he had the opportunity to win the stage a few days ago. But the team did not need to save its Tour; we had a meeting yesterday and our managers have praised our work although we had not yet won a stage.”

Carlos Sastre of CSC-Saxo Bank, who sewed up the yellow jersey in the time trial Saturday, finished safely in the peloton to claim the maillot jaune. CSC-Saxo led Sastre onto the Champs-Ellysees and even control several circuits with Stuart O’Grady pulling the train.

“Today was a really nice day today,” letour.com quoted Sastre as saying. “The team has done everything to make this Tour as easy as possible for me and even as we came to Paris for the final stage, they continued to work for me. It’s a great atmosphere now and I know that relief has set in and now everyone is happy.

“It was beautiful to have my children with me on the podium. It’s great to win the Tour de France but my kids represent the biggest victory in my life. They are so important to me and I want to share that moment with them and have them close to me. (AP Photo/Bernard Papon, Pool)

“Now I have a couple of races to do in Belgium and Holland before I go to the Olympic Games and then start to consider the Vuelta a Espana.

“There are so many Australians here because of Cadel Evans. For him to finish second again in the Tour de France… well, I feel for him. I have finished third and fourth and I know what it is to get close but I believe he has every right to be happy because he did his best.”

Evans of Silence-Lotto placed second in G.C. 58 seconds behind, with Bernhard Kohl of Gerolsteiner joining them on the podium. Kohl also won the polka dot jersey as the king of the mountains, CSC-Saxo’s Andy Schleck was the white jersey winner as the best young rider, Rabobank’s Oscar Friere won the green jersey as the best sprinter, and Cofidis Sylvain Chavanel was named the most aggressive rider in the ‘08 Tour.

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