Stage 18 - Cahors to Angoulême - (211km)
COURSE: The beautiful roads through the Dordogne area give this stage a similar feel to the one in which Armstrong took his famous solo stage victory at Limoges in the 1995 Tour, a few days after his Motorola teammate Fabio Casartelli died.
The latter part of this year’s stage 18 should favor the sprinters’ teams if they have enough riders left to organize a chase.
HISTORY: Angoulême, with a population of 105,000, has hosted only one stage finish. That was in 1975, when future Italian legend Francesco Moser, riding his first Tour, surprised everyone with an uphill attack in the final kilometer and just held off the Belgian sprinters Rik Van Linden and Walter Godefroot.
FAVORITES: Fast finishers like Sébastien Chavanel (Bouygues Telecom) and Bernhard Eisel (T-Mobile) may try to get in a break to ensure a stage win, but with Paris only two days away the green jersey contenders will all be striving for a mass finish.
If that’s the case, then expect sprinters like Boonen, Hunter, Förster and Hushovd to fight out the win.
