Virtually a yellow road all the way

The Tour de France's victory rostrum is designed in trompe l'oeil style to resemble a yellow road winding up the Champs ElysΘes to the Arc de Triomphe. Lance Armstrong's victory was not complete until he had climbed the podium yesterday, but the road had begun to turn yellow for him 13 days ago when he glanced back at Jan Ullrich at the foot of l'Alpe d'Huez, saw the German was vulnerable and stamped on the pedals to prove it was no optical illusion.

Armstrong's third victory is simply summed up. No overall winner has taken four stages for 17 years, and the last winners to take a time-trial and stages in the Alps and Pyrenees, reflecting total dominance of every phase and discipline of the race, were the five-times winners Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx.

There was no single knock-out blow such as Miguel Indurain or Merckx might have struck but "a succession of nails in Ullrich's coffin", as the double winner Bernard Thevenet put it - at l'Alpe d'Huez, in the Chamrousse mountain time-trial, at Pla d'Adet in the Pyrenees and in Friday's St-Amand-Montrond time-trial.

Yesterday, as is traditional, the teams pedalled up and down the Champs after the presentations. Armstrong's US Postal Service team brandished the stars and stripes, their leader a lone star-of-Texas banner - until it caught in his wheel and forced him to dismount briefly. That was Armstrong's only glitch in 2,275 miles.

For once, there was more than the prestige of the stage win at stake on the final day: the battle between Stuart O'Grady and the German Erik Zabel for the green jersey went to the wire as expected, after the German's third stage victory this year put him just two points behind the Australian on Saturday in Evry.

The pair were inseparable yesterday, as they had been for most of the five stages since the Pyrenees, but Zabel is the faster man and finished in front at the two intermediate sprints. In the final rush up the Champs he was second and O'Grady third behind the Czech sprinter Jan Svorada.

Thus, somewhat confusingly, O'Grady finished in green, but did not win green, while Zabel has now won the points award for six years in a row.