text: Welcome back to the final stage of this year's Dauphine Libere, one of the final warm-up races for the Tour de France. Today's stage feature three ranked climbs, including the Category One St. Bernard-du-Touvet only 27 km from the finish.
  Here's the current situation: Columbia's Bert Grabsch is alone in the lead, 2:40 ahead of a large group, which is in turn 1:05 ahead of the peloton. The World time trial champion jumped out of the lead group at km 48, and has taken the points at the second climb, the Col du Frene.
  It's another scorcher today, sunny and already 32� C. The attacks started almost immediately after the start. A group of 14 riders got away by km 6, and by km 10 it had grown to 29 riders.
  Can we expect an attack today from Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) to take over from leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)? The Australian is only 16 seconds down.
  Caisse d'Epargne and Columbia-Highroad have the advantage in the group, with each team having three riders there. However, that may backfire Caisse d'Epargne. Will Cadel Evans take advantage of Verde's reduced number of helpers to successfully attack?
  Valverde called yesterday's queen stage �the most important stage of the race.� He noted that �Evans must have attacked 15 times on the final climb, each time he went all out, but I could follow him each time.�
  �I think my team should be able to control Evans even if he attacks again. We should be able to handle it,� he said.
  Bert Grabsch can look at these remaining 30-something kms as an individual time trial, his speciality. A success today would certainly help him in the consideration of Columbia's Tour de France squad. The question, of course, is how well he will come over the category one mountain.
  Grabsch is a 33-year-old German who turned pro in 1998 with Agro-Adler-Brandenburg, and rode for Team Cologne in 1999 and 2000. He was with Phonak from 2001 to 2006 before joining T-Mobile in 2007. He has ridden the Tour de France three times, with Phonak. Last year he won a stage in the Tour of Austria, and a stage and the overall title at the Sachsen Tour. He has been German time trial champ for the last two years and won the World TT title last September.
  The stage win yesterday went to climbing specialist David Moncoutie of Cofidis. �That was also on the toughest mountain stage of the race,� the 34-year-old said. �It�s nice to think that I�m still able to fend off the other top guys and go for the win.�
  Milram's Kux has dropped out of the lead group and been caught by the peloton. There is only about two mintues now between the two groups.
  Silence-Lotto leads the peloton, with Contador directly behind the two Belgian team riders, and Evans and Valverde right on his heels.
  The peloton has now caught Grabsch and he falls to the back. This is again not the full peloton, but only some 40-50 men.
  On yesterday's final climb, Evans was the only one of the three favourites to have a teammate at his side, and that was fellow Australian Matthew Lloyd. Lloyd has come back from a fractured sacrum and six broken vertebrae suffered in a crash at the Amstel Gold Race, and hopes that his performance here will be his ticket to the Tour de France.
  "I'm a climber and I'm on this team for specific reasons," he said. "I've worked so much to get back, I saw a physio every day. If anyone had any question of me being able to ride the Tour de France, today's stage is my answer.�
  Duggan has a 1:40 lead over the chasers. The favourites have caught more riders from the chase group. Lampre's Marzano takes off. Contador takes over the lead work.
  Fedrigo is also in the group now and he moves to the head, hoping to catch as many mountain points as possible.
  Evans goes again and Valverde goes with him, Contador not far behind. The Australian keeps on going and trying, but he can't shake his followers.
  Valverde reaches over and squeezes Contador's shoulder -- thanking him for his help in constantly preventing Evans from getting away?
  Today's stage (and the whole race, for that matter) ends in Grenoble, sometimes called �the capital of the Alps�. It is surrounded by ski resorts and hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics.
  There are now attacks out of the favourites's group, but not from the top three. David Millar was one of them, and that was enough for Caisse d'Epargne to pull him and the others back.
  Both Clement and Duggan are time trial specialists, so they may well be able to stay away until the end.
  Caisse d'Epargne has things firmly in hand again as they go down the mountain, 1:37 behind the two leaders.
  Yesterday was a big day for the Professional Continental BMC Racing team, as its Swiss rider Mathias Frank was in the early break and was alone at the front when he was caught again with only 10 km to go. In fact, DS John Lelangue called it �our best day ever in a ProTour race.�
  Duggan missed much of last season after an extemely serious crash in the Tour of Georgia. His only race after that was the US time trial championships the end of August, where he finished 13th. The American is 26 years old.
  Clement is also 26 years old. The Dutchman is new to Rabobank this year, having ridden previously for Bouygues Telecom for three years.
  Two Caisse d'Epargne riders continue to lead the way, followed by Valverde, Contador and an Astana teammate. Evans is further back in the group.
  The two orange-white-and-blue clad riders in the lead have built their lead up to 1:40. That ought to be enough.
  Joly is 29, and has been with FdJ since 2006. Previously he rode for Credit Agricole, Jean Delatour and Bonjour.
  Clement and Duggan sprint it out, but the win goes to the Dutchman who led the chase and the sprint.
  Hansen sprints ahead of a Liquigas rider to take the fourth place. There are still a handful of riders from the former escape group underway.
  The group of favourites crosses the finish line. Some riders sprint for the line, while the yellow-clad Valverde raises his fist in triumph.
  That was it for the Dauphine this year. Thanks for joining us, and keep an eye out for our further live reports!