Brother versus brother, final update

By Susan Westemeyer

The Tour de France drew to a close on Sunday in Paris, won by Spaniard Alberto Contador, with only one pair of bothers finishing form French brothers Chavanel and German Brothers Grabsch.

Sylvain Chavanel's Tour came to an abrupt end last week as his whole team was pulled out of the race, but the German Grabsch brothers continued their duel until the end.

Sylvain Chavanel had moved himself up to 26th overall when Team Cofidis withdrew from the Tour following Cristian Moreni's positive doping result. Brother Sébastien was in 141st overall, and by the end of the Tour had managed to move himself up to 130th.

The Grabsch brothers Bert (T-Mobile) and Ralf (Milram) were close in the classification until the last time trial on Saturday. Bert, who is national time trial champion, came in over three minutes ahead of his older brother. At the end of the day, Bert was 105th overall and Ralf 116th in the General classification. They had those same rankings after the final stage in Paris, where they finished together on the Champs-Élysées.