Stage 20: Grenoble time trial (42.5km)

And so after all the buckets of sweat that have been left on the mountainsides, villages and country lanes of France, this year's Tour champion is not yet known. The three men in the picture above are the contenders: the leader, Andy Schleck (82h 48' 43), his brother, Frank Schleck (53sec) and Australia's Cadel Evans (57sec). The latter is the favourite, given that he's the better time trial rider and many expect him to be able to take at least a minute out Andy Schleck around the course today. The weather may play its part. It's wet out there.

Richard Williams has been driving around the course this morning but hopefully not tweeting at the same time. That would be a tut-tuttable offence.

"#TdF Driving Grenoble TT course behind #MarkRenshaw. Climb is steep and it's raining on the hill. Some will find it tough."

The likely stage winner is Fabian Cancellara, but keep an eye on David Millar too.

Here's yesterday's highlights. They're painful to watch.

Is it just me who thinks the blurt in the green medical gown kind of deserved to feel the force of Contador's forearm yesterday?

And I found this explanation of how the HTC lead-out train propels Mark Cavendish to his sprint wins fascinating. You might do too.

Afternoon. The riders have been tackling the course for the past couple of hours. They're going out in order of their placing in the general classification so the time trial world champion, Fabian Cancellara, has already been out there ... and the surprising thing is that he's not posted the fastest time. Australia's Richie Porte has done that. He's ripped round the course in 57min03sec. Cancellara is second with a time of 57'15. The Australian has just spoken about his belief that this course, which is big and not as flat as the Tour's usual time trial courses, suits smaller men.

But of course. The excitement really begins when the Schlecks and Cadel Evans set off down the ramp and hit the tarmac. Apparently the course is still wet in places and may slow the riders down. There are parts of the course where the riders get up to 80km per hour. Add a slippery bit of road to a slight bend at that speed and you could quite easily lose a leather bag's worth of skin if you were to skid off.

Thomas de Gendt of Belgium, who is a sprinter and not particularly a well-known one at that, has just snatched the fastest time off Porte. He's posted 57'02, shaving a second off the Australian's time. Some of the bigger names are setting off now. Philippe Gilbert has just wobbled down the ramp. He'll be expected to do well, although he's just predicted that Cadel Evans will win the stage and the Tour with a lightning fast time today.

Tony Martin of HTC has just narrowly avoided crunching into the back of a car that he was trying to slipstream to get a bit of extra pace. At the very last moment he realised it was going about 20km per hour slower than him and swerved out from behind it and escaped a nasty collision. Whatever he's doing seems to be working, mind. He's the fastest through the second intermediate stage.

Poor old Edvald Boasson Hagen was going great guns and seemed to be in with a shout of challenging for this time trial. He was second fastest after the third intermediate but has had to change his bike due to loose handlebars. I'd be pretty damn miffed if my bike hadn't been screwed together properly before being sent out to fly round a course at 80km.

Boasson Hagen comes home in a time of 57'43. It's the fourth fastest clocked today. Considering his mechanical problems, that suggests he would have posted an incredibly quick time.

"Gilbert's socks are superb..." tweets Simon Alex Turner. He's wearing pop-socks the colour of the Belgium flag. So I guess they're a question of taste. I'm not a pop-sock fan myself, nationalist or otherwise. Meanwhile, Tony Martin is about 30 seconds faster than De Gendt after the second intermediate stage. The German tearing it up out there.

You may or may not have seen this in this week's Classic YouTube. It's a brilliant documentary which kind of proves that sport always seems so much better in the years of yore. Check out the amazing drinks raid on 4min50sec when the riders run into a cafe bar and leave with red wine, champagne and beer to drink further on down the road. I'd like to see how Contador, Sanchez, Schleck et al would do if they were drinking beer on the Col du Telegraphe.

Tony Martin has just ripped round the course in 55'33. That's incredibly fast and is unlikely to be bettered all day, despite Cadel Evans's huge motivation to go quickly later today. The HTC rider posted the fastest times on all three intermediate stages. If you look at the pic above you can see the man himself up there looking like he's about to ride out of your computer screen.

Apparently Bradley Wiggins did this course in a time of 55'38 in the rain earlier this year in the Criterium du Dauphine. It was raining. What might have been eh? Wiggins came into this office earlier in the year. I bought him a chicken sandwich. He was the most laid back man I think I've ever met.

"Are they really making them go over speedbumps? Seems rather cruel - TV car clearly struggling" tweets Phillipa Booth. You've clearly got better coverage than me Phillipa. I've not seen them going over speedbumps. If they are they could easily bend a spoke or two if they take them too quickly. Speedbumps are the third most dangerous thing on the road after cars and other drunken cyclists. Thankfully, it's not 1962, so there shouldn't be any wine-sodden riders on the road out there today. Out on the course, Philippe Gilbert and his special pop-socks aren't going quite as fast as I expected him to. He was only 22nd at the second intermediate stage. But having heard Tony Martin had gone round in 55'33 at an average speed of 45.9km per hour it must have consumed his hope somewhat.

Sean Boiling adds a little insight: "When they raced this TT in the Dauphine a few weeks back Tony Martin won it in a time of 55'27. EBH was third in 56'10. Evans raced to sixth in 56'47. What he'd give for a 56 something today."

There's nobody out there bothering the times at the top of the time trial table at the moment. It's still Martin, De Gendt and Porte in the top three with Martin ahead of Porte by a good minute and a half.

Here are two very different takes on the Contador 'punch'.

Putting forward the case for the prosecution is Gary Naylor. "Poor show from Contador – it's not the done thing to punch a fan at. He should have been thrown off the mountain." Naylor's justice is swift and brutal.

And with the case for the defence is Sam Barritt: "The art of the high profile celeb reacting to provocation is a hard trick to pull off. Overdo it and the audience roots for the underdog, get surprised and like Tony Blair and the woman outside the hospital you'll just look like a twat. But if you can react with courage, conviction, and a good right hook, like Prescott punching the bloke with the egg, Rupert Murdoch's worryingly-young wife defending her octogenarian husband, and Contador's beautifully symbolic response to "Dr Dope" yesterday, you can turn from widely-despised villain to justice-dispensing victim with one jab. Either that or we all just secretly enjoy a bit of violence too much."

And tipping the scales of justice against the spectators is Lamorna Marie Rogers: "No it's not just you - can't believe the lack of respect that some spectators show the riders. That biff was well deserved."

Gilbert and his special pop-socks almost fell off their bike a few moments ago. It was a cock-up of the foot-slipping-out-of-the-pedal variety after his chain slipped. That almost gave him a high voice for a few weeks as his Lycra-clad package fell sharply towards his crossbar. He rescued the situation just in time, mind. But he's not going to bother the top 10 times today after that little episode.

The discussion about whether the Tour's final stage should be treated competitively tomorrow if there are only a few seconds between Schleck (Andy or Frank, but probably Andy) and Cadel Evans is an interesting one. Many believe that it would make little difference to the final result if there were only seconds in it as it is impossible to split the riders on a flat, short stage. But it would be more sporting to treat it competitively in my opinion. Richard Williams made the point better than I ever could last year in this article. The only thing the final stage seems to guarantee these days is a win for Cav and booze 1962-style as the champion-to-be shares champagne with his team-mates.

Right, we're down to the business end of the time trial now. The top 10 are set to start any minute. Peter Velits is going well for HTC out there too. He's fifth at the 15km mark. Has anyone got a wild prediction? Could Frank Schleck do something special and mix it up unexpectedly? Just asking.

"Not very insightful, but I've always written blert as, well, blert to match it to how it sounds round here. And Contador was spot on to give the beaut a slap. Sorry, to write it in an even more scouse way. Lid, dat Al-berrrr-toe was proper to give that blert a slap, lid. Scouse it." Neil Mackie from Seaforth has made me feel a little less homesick. To anyone not up with blert/blurt here's the urban dictionary.

Al-berrrr-toe Contador is off the ramp, quite shakily, again. The Spaniard shakes his head angrily as he wobbles down to the tarmac, having to unclip his foot from his pedal and clip it back in as he gets going. It looks like the commissaire let him go too early. Cadel Evans is waiting at the side of the road looking focused and a bit mean. Contador's sixth overall and will fancy his chances of perhaps moving up to fourth and ahead of Voeckler who is 1'40 ahead of him at the moment.

"Hoping Cadel shows the Schleks how to cycle. The debate is also raging if it will be the most remarkable victory in Aus sport," tweets Sameer Patel. What are the Aussie success stories that will compete with it Sameer? Presume there are many ...

"So has Millar gone? If so what time did he do? ITV4 haven't mentioned him once yet," asks Roger Baddeley. Sorry Roger, my prediction was well off the mark. He is 18th as it stands with a time of 59'14.

Cadel Evans gets a clean start down the ramp as he begins his attempt to pull the yellow jersey out of Andy Schleck's grasp for the run into Paris on the final stage tomorrow. His manager has just spoken about what great shape he is in and thinks his man will benefit from having raced the course in the Dauphine earlier this year.

"I'm fascinated by the bloke doing the five second countdown at the start," says Denis Mumby. "It looks like he's wearing hospital shoes with his jacket and tie. Well, you'd want to when you're on your feet all day, wouldn't you? He also seems incredibly laid back, just sending the riders off with a waft of the right hand." When does a laid-back approach become negligence? Just wondering, having seen the riders wobble away time and time again.

Frank Schleck is wafted down the ramp and then it is Andy Schleck, his younger brother's turn. Clad in yellow and looking a little like a waxwork of himself in my opinion, he bares his teeth, takes a deep breath and roars off down the ramp with the aim of securing his first Tour title. The crowd cheer him on as he cycles off into the distance.

Gary Naylor's back to clear up a little confusion. "I wasn't clear in my previous e-mail. I have many criticisms of Alberto

Contador, but none yesterday. I felt that the idiot haranguing him was lucky to

get away with a punch and I'd have been happy to see Contador dismount and throw

the egoistical fool off the mountain. If Mrs Murdoch had been in the Team Sky

car behind, perhaps she could have obliged. And also, one doesn't often find references to Seaforth in the national press - I grew up there too!" You'll remember that club on the corner, Secrets, I imagine Gary. Never went in there, but a few of my braver/more stupid mates did. It's now, depressingly, a Tesco. Back to the race ...

Cadel Evans is approaching the first intermediate checkpoint so we'll have an idea of the kind of pace he is setting for the Schlecks. A quick time would be something around the 20'45 mark. Tony Martin went through at 20'12 to give you an indiication. The virtual screen shows an indication that Evans is already taking time off Andy Schleck, but 'tis early days yet.

If Cadel Evans wins today Sean Boiling says in Australia "they're putting it up there with The Americas Cup win in 1983 and Cathy Freeman's 400m win at the Sydney 2000 Olympics." He'd not only be the first Australian to win the Tour, but the first from the southern hemisphere too.

Contador has just passed the first intermeediate checkpoint second fastest in a time of 20'33. That's an heroic effort given the amount of energy he must have left up on the Col Du Telegraphe yesterday afternoon.

While Cadel Evans is flying down the descent towards the first checkpoint I'll publish an email tearing him to shreds. "Can't understand the Cadel Evans 'Aussie greatness' thing. He's a boring, chippy, ungracious rider, who's only ever won one stage in the Tour, has been behind the top riders in all the major climbs this year, and whose greatest achievement so far has been to catch people up quite well. Andy Schleck may have caused doubts with his slipped chain and seeming lack of aggression, but he's been behind Contador, who has, for whatever reason, been the dominant force in recent years, and this year's majestic attack on the highest ever Tour finish was the act of a great rider. Surely that's more worthy of respect?" That comes courtesy of Sam Barritt. I'm eating a flat peach by the way, it's bloody good.

Cadel Evans has gone through the first checkpoint third fastest, at 20'33, a few hundredths of a second slower than Contador. So that would put him at around 56min at the end, a time many believe would win him the Tour, much to Sam Barritt's disappointment.

Big brother Schleck has gone through at 21'07, which is way down on Evans. Meanwhile, his little bro Andy is hunched over his bike like a yellow Lycra-clad giraffe trying to squeeze as much pace out of his bike as he can on the descent towards the first checkpoint.

Andy Schleck is panting hard as he approaches the checkpoint. The virtual times have Evans as only 11 seconds down on the Luxembourg rider. We'll know more shortly but the wind of change appears to be blowing up the Aussie's rear and into Andy's face.

Contador is eating up the minutes on Voeckler, who has had a hell of a Tour, but looks more and more like a cadaver propped up on a bike and pushed down the road after his herculean efforts. The Spaniard is looking good for fourth spot having gone through the second checkpoint third fastest.

The virtual thingummybob has Evans as the virtual yellow jersey wearer. Andy Schleck went through the first checkpoint in 21'09, 36 seconds slower than Evans.

Yesterday's stage winner, Pierre Rolland, has just secured the best young rider's jersey but it's all about Evans and Schleck really, isn't it?

Evans is turning ever more yellow with every kilometre of this time trial. He's gone through second fastest at the second checkpoint in 40'33 and is looking likely (mechanical japery aside) to put it well beyond doubt tomorrow. He's around 36 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck on the virtual thingummybob.

Evans is in with a chance of winning this stage outright from Tony Martin the way he is going. Sam Barritt may even tip his hat to the Aussie if he does.

"Sam Barritt, if you want to understand the Cadel Evans Aussie greatness thing then you need to understand that here in Australia

the saying is 'winning's not everything, it's the only thing". So it doesn't matter that Cadel has been sitting back waiting for others to lose the Tour, it doesn't matter that he has shown no flash of brilliance, all that matters is that he's wearing yellow in Paris. I'm backing Andy by the way," writes Lamorna Marie Rogers. Evans is showing a bit of brilliance here in my opinion.

The King of the Mountains, Sammy Sanchez, has just posted the fifth fastest time (57'10) which is a fantastic effort for a climber.

This is a bit of an anticlimax. Evans is blowing Schleck out of the water with this performance. Andy Schleck has posted a second checkpoint time of 42'15 to Evans's 40'33. That's a 1'48 difference. He can probably taste the champagne on the Champs-Élysées already.

"At least we can be pretty sure that Cadel is clean - the dopers may be cheats, but at least none of them were boring." Gary Naylor gets catty.

Evans has gone through the third checkpoint in 49'55, two seconds behind Tony Martin. The Australian can afford to get a puncture or have a leak on the side of the road now and he'll still be wearing yellow tomorrow. If he wins this stage from Martin it will be a magnificent champion's effort.

Evans finishes in 55'40. Second on the satge, not that it matters, the Australian is going to be crowned Tour de France champion 2011. This time trial has been at the wrong end of the Tour for the Schlecks. Their achilles heel has struck again.

"Cadel might not have the sparks in the mountains, instead just slogging it out, but in my opinion, if you can't do well in the individual TT, you don't deserve to win," hoots Nicholas Aberle. "All the greats dominate the TT." Evans certainly stamped all over the Schlecks round this Grenoble course, Nicholas.

Like the end of an episode of Cheers (I think), there's only the sweeping up to do now. Frank Schleck has guaranteed himself a top-three place with a time of 58'14, almost three minutes behind the Australian.

Brett Badger Aussie's it up: "Ha! Churlish Poms. Fantastic Australian sporting history. You beauty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Andy Schleck finishes in 58'11 and immediately slumps over exhausted ... and probably demoralised. He gave it his all, but his all wasn't good enough. If he could time trial he'd win a Tour. The harsh reality is that he can't.

Overall standings

Cadel Evans 0'0

Andy Schleck 1'34

Frank Schleck 2'30

Thomas Voeckler 3'20

Alberto Contador 3'57

Post-race thoughts

Cadel Evans may not be a laugh-a-minute in the pub, or particularly entertaining round the Tour course but he has been the barnacle that the Schlecks have not been able to prise off them through the Pyrenees and Alps. For that he deserves the 2011 Tour title and the plaudits that go with it.

Etienne Michelet enjoys a bit of Schadenfreude: "This has to be the cruellest way to lose the yellow jersey for Andy Schleck. But wouldn't the ceremonies be more entertaining if the previous wearer had to take his jersey off and put on the winner? It would be quite harrowing but funny nonethless. Just a thought." It would be harrowing for both involved given the amount of sweat that would be transferred from one to another.

Anyway, you can follow Evans's coronation and probably a Mark Cavendish Parisian hat-trick of sprints tomorrow. In the meantime, thanks for your emails and enjoy your Saturday night. Ta ra.