2007 Tour de France Alberto Contador in the yellow jersey as the leader, Cadel Evans in second, and Levi Leipheimer in third, were separated by only 2:49, with both Evans and Leipheimer recognized as far superior time trialists to Contador. In the end, each rider held his place after the final time trial, but with considerably slimmer margins, as the Tour ended with the smallest-ever spread of only 31 seconds among the top three riders. Alberto Contador also won the young rider classification, indicated by the white jersey, as the best young (under age 25) rider. A total of 21 teams were invited to
2009 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21 2009 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21 These were the individual stages of the 2009 Tour de France, with Stage 12 on July 16 and Stage 21 on July 26. 16 July 2009 – Tonnerre to Vittel, 200 km This was considered a flat stage, but had six hills that contributed points towards the climbers' competition. After some unsuccessful attempts at breakaways early in the stage, after 64 km Laurent Lefèvre started a breakaway. He was followed by the leader in the polka dot jersey category, Egoi Martínez, and the third-placed rider in that category, Franco Pellizotti, along