Millar sees bright future

The Tour de France is Millar"s first race since returning from a drugs ban following his admission of using EPO, and the 29 year-old is looking forward to seeing an improvement in his form as the season wears on

"I feel like I used to and I have started to fire now. Once I have rested for a few weeks before the Tour of Spain I will be back to my best, and next year I will be better than ever" he insisted.

He revealed his satisfaction at his performance in the time-trial, and one that could stand him in good stead for the world time-trial championships in September.

"I felt weaker towards the end of the course but it was a successful performance from me at the moment" he insisted.

French road race champion Florent Brard was forced to abandon the Tour de France with just one stage remaining after breaking his hand in a fall in Saturday's time-trial.

The Caisse d'Epargne rider's withdrawal brings the peloton down to just 139 riders after Phonak's Robbie Hunter finished outside the time-limit in Saturday's time-trial. The unfortunate South African was forced to ride the entire time-trial out of the saddle due a boil.

While Floyd Landis parades across the finish line, champagne in hand, beaming with pride, spare a thought for those at the other end of the general classification.

The battle for the 'lanterne rouge' (named after the red lantern on the back of steam trains in days gone by) this year is being fought between Davitamon's Wim Vansevenant and Cofidis' Jimmy Caspar.

Caspar currently lies 4h00'05" behind the yellow jersey while Belgium's Vansevenant is sixteen seconds further back.

A rather large gap, you may think, but nothing like the lanterne rouge of 1904. In that year, Frenchman Antoine Deflotriere was the last of the 27 finishers, a full 100 hours and 36 minutes behind Tour winner Henri Cornet.

Saturday's photograph brought a host of highly amusing captions flooding into our inbox - one or two suggesting Landis' performance was aided by flatulence. But while the UCI debate the legality of such matters, we can announce the winner is GL Hanson, with this mischievous effort: "Like an Alpha-Male would, Floyd marks his territory on the Tour de France."

Eurosport.com readers are invited to suggest what was said when the wearers of each of the jerseys joined hands at the start of the final stage of the Tour de France. Answers, as usual, to newsroom@eurosport.com