Tosatto scores Stage 18 win

A lot of firsts in today's stage: it was Matteo Tosatto's first-ever Tour stage win, the first win of the Tour for an Italian, and the first win for QuickStep, which brought world champion Tom Boonen to the Tour to win some stages and compete for the green jersey. Instead, it was Boonen's lead-out who finally brought the team a stage victory.

Tosatto was part of a 15-man breakaway that included Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie, and Sylvain Calzati, and which saw its lead on a quiet peloton extend to 8:00 at the finish line. Gerolsteiner's Ronny Scholz and Cofidis's Cristian Moreni escaped to form a trio to the last kilometer. Scholz had nothing left in the finishing sprint, and Tosatto had to attack from the front, but still he held off Moreni to the line.

The stage had very little impact on the yellow jersey race; Leipheimer moves up from 18th to 13th, but still sits 15:01 back of Oscar Pereiro.

Top 10:
1) Matteo Tosatto, QuickStep, Italy, in 4:16:15
2) Cristian Moreni, Cofidis, Italy, same time
3) Ronny Scholz, Gerolsteiner, Germany, s.t.
4) Manuel Quinziato, Liquigas, Italy, at :47
5) Sebastian Hinault, Credit Agricole, France, at 1:03
6) Jerome Pineau, Bouyges Telecom, France, same time
7) Sylvain Calzati, AG2R, France, s.t.
8) Benoit Vaugrenard, Française des Jeux, France, s.t.
9) Inaki Isasi, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, s.t.
10) Egoi Martinez, Discovery Channel, Spain, s.t.
Full results

Overall:
1) Oscar Pereiro, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, in 84:33:04
2) Carlos Sastre, CSC, Spain, at :12
3) Floyd Landis, Phonak, USA, at :30
4) Andreas Klöden, T-Mobile, Germany, at 2:29
5) Cadel Evans, Davitamon-Lotto, Australia, at 3:08
6) Denis Menchov, Rabobank, Russia, at 4:14
7) Cyril Dessel, AG2R, France, at 4:24
8) Christophe Moreau, AG2R, France, at 5:45
9) Haimar Zubeldia, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain, at 8:16
10) Michael Rogers, T-Mobile, Australia, at 12:13
Complete standings