Tour De France 

Team Barloworld 's Tour de France has been marked by bad luck until the very last metre. Belgian Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) won the final sprint on the Champs Élysèes - ahead of German Gerald Ciolek (Team Columbia) and Spanish green jersey winner Oscar Freire Gomez (Rabobank) - redeeming his team's weak results along the Grande Boucle.

Also Robert Hunter had the same purpose and hoped to gift his team a prestigious results on the finish line in Paris. Unfortunately he suffered two punctures in the penultimate lap, but Chris Froome firstly and Gianpaolo Cheula later on managed to help him quickly. Rob succeeded in taking part to the bunch sprint anyway and he placed tenth. "Honestly I don't think it was possible to make better", a disappointed Hunter stated after the race. Hunter was one out of four Barloworld's riders to complete Tour de France (together with Cheula, Froome and Augustyn ).

Overall winner Carlos Sastre , 33, and his CSC steered clear of trouble on the 21st and final stage enjoying their triumph on the Parisian catwalk, where an impressive crowd welcomed the riders despite last days' bad events as well as a threesome podium (Sastre, Evans, Kohl ) out of any forecasts. Sastre's overall victory continues Spain's recent dominance of the world's greatest cycling race.

95th Tour de France finished in a sunny scenario, in a Paris looking nicer then ever on the background, but the problems of cycling as a sport once more overwhelmed the race: and everyone keeps wishing it may have been the last time.

Tour de France - stage 21: results

1. Gert Steegmans (Bel, Quick Step) 3.51.38, 37.04 km/h
2. Gerald Ciolek (Ger, Team Columbia)
3. Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa, Rabobank)
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus, Silence-Lotto)
5. Thor Hushovd (Nor, Crèdit Agricole)
6. Julian Dean (Nzl, Team Garmin)
7. Stefan Schumacher (Ger, Gerolsteiner)
8. Robert Förster (Ger, Gerolsteiner)
9. Leonardo Duque (Col, Cofidis)
10. Robert Hunter (Rsa, Barloworld)

79. John-Lee Augustyn (Rsa, Barloworld)
138. Gianpaolo Cheula (Ita, Barloworld)
145. Christopher Froome (Ken, Barloworld) 1.37

Final General classification

1. Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa, Team CSC) 87.52.52
2. Cadel Evans (Aus, Silence-Lotto) 0.58
3. Bernhard Kohl (Aut, Gerolsteiner) 1.13
4. Denis Menchov (Rus, Rabobank) 2.10
5. Christian Vande Velde (USA, Team Garmin) 3.05
6. Frank Schleck (Lux, Team CSC) 4.28
7. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa, Euskaltel) 6.25
8. Kim Kirchen (Lux, Team Columbia) 6.55
9. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa, Caisse d'Epargne) 7.12
10. Tadej Valjavec (Slo, AG2R) 9.05

48. John-Lee Augustyn (Rsa, Barloworld) 1.36.21
84. Christopher Froome (Ken, Barloworld) 2.22.33
88. Gianpaolo Cheula (Ita, Barloworld) 2.30.12
107. Robert Hunter (Rsa, Barloworld) 3.04.02

The Tour de France may be over but Team Barloworld will continue to race across Europe in some of the most prestigious summer stage races.

The first race for Claudio Corti 's riders is the Tour of Denmark between July 30 and August 3. The five days of racing consist of a total of 889.5kms, with Flavio Miozzo as directeur sportif.

The route especially suits Enrico Gasparotto and hopefully he can repeat his success in the Ster Elektrotoer race in Holland earlier in the year.

The team will also include Italians Francesco Bellotti, Diego Caccia and Marco Corti , Switzerland's Patrick Calcagni , South Africa's Daryl Impey , Portugal's Hugo Sabido and Britain's Steven Cummings , who will use the Danish race as his final build-up to the Beijing Olympics where he will ride the time trial and road race events.

TOUR OF DENMARK - The stages

July 30 - 1st stage: Holstebro-Holstebro 175 km
July 31 - 2nd stage: Skjern - Sønderborg 220 km
August 1 - 3rd stage: Padborg - Vejle 200 km
August 2 - 4th stage: Ringe - Odense 115 km
August 2 - 5th stage: Kerteminde 14,5 km
August 3 - 6th stage: Slagelse - Frederiksberg 165 km