Lance Armstrong will end his retirement and compete in the 2009 Tour de France, according to a recent report. The 36-year-old seven-time Tour de France champion will compete in five road races with the Astana team in 2009,a nd will also compete in the Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia and the Dauphine-Libere.

With a big rush in the final kilometers, Gert Steegmans had his victory in the last stage of the 2008 Tour de France, ahead of Gerald Cioleck and Oscar Freir.

Spanish Carlos Sastre came in inside the peloton, only slightly behind Steegmans, but close enough to hold on to his yellow jersey, becoming the 7th Spanish rider to win the title of the Tour de France. Runner-up Cadel Evans finished 7 seconds ahead of Sastre, closing the gap in the final classification between the two to less than one minute.

Tour winner Sastre said “Today was a really nice day. The team has done everything to make this Tour as easy as possible for me and even as we came to Paris for the final stage, they continued to work for me. It’s a great atmosphere now and I know that relief has set in and now everyone is happy.”