Carlos Sastre ready to win Tour de France 2008

amplify image

Carlos Sastre. Photo: EFE

Spaniard Carlos Sastre was poised to win the Tour de France after surprisingly resisting Australia's Cadel Evans in Saturday's 53km time-trial won by German Stefan Schumacher.

Gerolsteiner's Schumacher, who also won the first time-trial of the race, clocked a best time of one hour three minutes and 50 seconds to beat Swiss Fabian Cancellara by 21 seconds, with Luxembourg's Kim Kirchen coming home third.

Evans, who had been widely expected to overcome a 1:34 deficit to leapfrog Sastre, cracked and could only finish seventh, beating the Spaniard by just 29 seconds.

Going into Sunday's parade to the Champs Elysees, Sastre leads Evans by 1:05, with Austrian Bernhard Kohl in third place 1:20 off the pace.

Sastre, riding his eighth Tour de France, should become the third Spaniard in a row to win the world's greatest stage race, after Oscar Pereiro and Alberto Contador.

Contador, who won the Giro d'Italia last month, did not take part in the Tour because his Astana team were not invited because of their past doping record. This year's Tour has also been marred by doping.

Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Dueñas Nevado were kicked out after testing positive for the banned blood-booster EPO.

Italian Riccardo Ricco, winner of two stages, was also dismissed following a positive EPO test, with the whole of his Saunier Duval team leaving the race before the 12th stage.