On paper, stages 17 and 18 were relatively similar, but they played out a bit differently in real life. On Thursday, the break went from the gun so the peloton rode at a controlled, but steady tempo all day. But yesterday it took about 65 kilometers for a group to get away, so the first hour and a half of the stage was pretty stressful with one attack after another. With guys fighting hard at the front, it made for a lot of work in the back. But things calmed down a lot after the group that finally got away, stayed off. It was a welcomed change by that point.

We had a pretty long transfer last night from Saint Maixent l'Ecole to Nantes. It took us a couple of hours to get to our team hotel. It was a crowded highway with everyone in the race, including the publicity caravan and all the organizers headed along with the teams in the same direction. It started to rain as well which probably made things a little slower.

Dark clouds have been hanging over the race since we entered the Pyrénées, but we haven't seen any significant rain fall until now. We woke up to pouring rain and pretty fierce winds this morning. I guess you could say we were overdue, but no one is happy to see weather like this on the day of a time trial, especially at the Tour de France.

Everyone who follows cycling has been waiting all week for the showdown between Armstrong and Ullrich in the final ITT. The weather only added to the last-minute speculation and suspense. This has certainly been a Tour to remember. People are saying it couldn't have been scripted any better.

We previewed the time trial course by car this morning since it was raining pretty hard. One of our riders has been suffering from influenza since descending down the Luz Ardiden in the cooler temperatures after the race. And I've managed to pick up his cold over the last day or so. So I wasn't in the best mood before the race.

Still, all things considered, the stage went pretty well. There was a pretty significant tail wind out there, so I figured the times were going to be fast and close together. I'm glad we previewed the course as well, because it was pretty technical with a lot of roundabouts and turns. It was really hard to make a couple of them with all the water on the road. At one point there was so much water on my wheels my breaks weren't working at all, so I had to unclip a foot from one of the pedals just to brace myself if I lost control.

Finishing second by nine seconds is close enough to make you wonder just where you could have been a little faster. But on this day, in that weather, I think I went as quickly as I could. Taking any of those wet turns with more speed was out of the question. Everyone had to ride at a controlled tempo through the corners. Between that, and the wind, I still felt like I had a little gas at the end. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who felt that way. The race might have been a lot more interesting if there had been a long straight away to the finish.

I changed in the Cofidis bus after the race. David Millar was inside watching Lance and Jan duke it out on television. It was hard to be that close to the guy and not root for him. Being that the fight on screen was for the overall lead, I figured that was okay. I was happy to see Dave get a well deserved victory.

Tomorrow we transfer by high speed train back to the outskirts of Paris. I know we started this journey there, but it feels like that was another life time ago.

Thanks for reading.