The Tour is approaching it's final miles and the top positions remain unchanged except that Tyler Hamilton is now in 6th place in what is one of the more remarkable performances on this year's tour. He won Stage 16, the last mountain stage, with a broken collarbone.

Hamilton clinches courageous win

Tyler Hamilton clinched his first ever Tour de France stage win after a solo breakaway on Wednesday despite riding with a broken collar bone.

It was a stunning performance by the American, who injured his collar bone when he fell off in a mass crash on the first stage over two weeks ago.

Hamilton winces with pain and effort on the final climb as he attempts to stay away from the pack in the final few kilometres

Stage 17 was flat and, again, the top positions remain the same. Friday's Stage 18 will also be flat and fast and the leading teams will make sure their riders don't lose any time. Stage 19 will be the last day for anyone to challenge Lance and Ullrich is the only one with a chance of doing that. Ullrich is 1:07 down but beat Lance by 1:30 in the last time trial. I don't think Lance will let that happen again. The last stage, Stage 20, will be more of a procession into Paris. Saturday will the the stage to watch.

George Hincapie, one of the pillars of the U.S. Postal Team, has a Tour blog.

george hincapie's tour blog

One thing is for sure though...the tour isn't over yet and we have some serious hard days coming up. The flat/rolling stages can be brutal when we're trying to control everyone from attacking us...which they do from the zero K banner. The first hour is hell until the right break gets established and then we just start grinding away at the front. Saturday is the real test and I can tell you that Lance is so focused and so serious that he's going to tear up the pavement in the TT.
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In Cycling, Winning With Honor Means Everything

When Lance Armstrong was dropped to the pavement by the wayward handle of a fan's yellow bag, his closest pursuers, even Germany's Jan Ullrich, who had trailed Armstrong by only 15 seconds at the day's start, slowed to wait for Armstrong to pick himself up, dust himself off and get back in the race.

To many U.S. sports fans, casual watchers of this extraordinary bike race, what happened in Monday's Stage 15 of the Tour de France caused a collective "huh?"

But to Ullrich, who is now 1 minute 7 seconds behind Armstrong as the three-week race heads into its final five days, speeding off while Armstrong was on the ground would have been wrong.

"Of course, I would wait," Ullrich said Tuesday morning at his hotel here, where Stage 16 begins today. "If I would have won this race by taking advantage of someone's bad luck, then the race was not worth winning."
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A True-Blue Fan Follows Armstrong at Tour

While Lance Armstrong has many fans from the United States cheering for him on the sides of the roads in the Tour de France, Sammarye Lewis is hands-down the most fervent.

Forget the guy draped in the American flag who sometimes runs alongside the four-time champion as he labors uphill. Forget the fellow who wears what appear to be steer horns to celebrate Armstrong's Texas heritage. Pay no attention to the man wearing and selling "Lance Is God" T-shirts.

From tip to toe, nobody equals Sammarye Lewis.
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  thanks to Dumbmonkey