2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
The Jays swept the Minnesota Twins from September 2–4, marking the second straight sweep of the Twins for the Jays this season and also the first time since several years ago that they swept one team three times in a row, since the Jays swept the Twins in July 2007 in addition to the two sweeps this year.


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
The Jays beat the Rays on September 5, 6–4 and then on September 6, they won their first series victory over the Rays this season, winning the game 7–4 due to a walk-off grand slam by catcher Gregg Zaun at the bottom of 13th inning. As a result, three records occurred: 1. That walk-off grand slam was the second in franchise history (the first was by George Bell on September 4, 1988) as well as being the franchise's first walk-off grand slam to occur in extra innings. 2 .


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
The win was the Jays seventh straight win, the first time this happened since September 2002. 3 . With the win, the Jays were 5–0 so far for the month of September, marking the first time since September 1998 that the Jays had that record at the beginning of that month.


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
On September 7, the Jays won the final game against the Rays 1–0, thus sweeping them. David Purcey got the win, going 8 solid innings, and Jesse Carlson got the save, his 2nd of the season. With this win, the Jays now have their longest winning streak since April 1999. The sweep of the Rays was also the first time in franchise history that they swept the Rays.


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
The Jays opened a four-game series with the Chicago White Sox by winning a rain-postponed double-header on September 9. A.J.Burnett got his 17th victory of the season by taking a no-hitter into the 6th inning before giving up a run. Jays win 3–1. Jesse Litsch pitched a solid 7 innings and records his fifth win since being recalled from AAA. Marco Scutaro leads off the game with his 2nd career lead-off home run. Litsch again receives much run support and the Jays win 8–2.


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
On September 12, the Jays went into Fenway Park to face the AL Wild Card Leaders, The Boston Red Sox. The Jays promptly lost 3 out of 4 in that weekend series, ultimately dropping them out of the AL Wild Card contention.


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
On September 18, the Jays scored a 3–2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, moving their record to 82–71. The victory secured a third consecutive winning season for the team, something which they have not accomplished since 1998–2000.


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Season summary, September
On September 25, versus the New York Yankees, Roy Halladay pitched a complete game six-hitter for his 20th win of the season, the first time he did so since his Cy Young Award-winning 2003 season. Halladay became only the 2nd Blue Jays pitcher to have pitched two 20+ win seasons, after Roger Clemens did so in 1997 and 1998. With that win, Halladay also became the first pitcher to have a 5–0 record against the Yankees in a season, since Luis Tiant accomplished the feat in 1974.


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Player stats, Batting
Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases


2008 Toronto Blue Jays season, Player stats, Pitching
Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts


2008 Toronto FC season
The 2008 MLS season was the second season in Toronto FC's existence. The club's season began on March 29, 2008 in an away game against Columbus Crew, which resulted in a 2–0 loss. The club's first goal of the season was scored by Maurice Edu on April 5, 2008 in a 4–1 loss against D.C. United.


2008 Toronto FC season, Squad, First team
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2008 Toronto FC season, Squad, List of 2008 transfers, In
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2008 Toronto FC season, Squad, List of 2008 transfers, Out
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2008 Toronto FC season, Squad, List of 2008 transfers, Players out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2008 Toronto FC season, Squad statistics
Competitive matches only. Numbers in brackets indicate number of games started. Updated to games played October 26, 2008.


2008 Toronto FC season, Squad statistics, Goalkeepers
1Player is no longer with team2Left club at start of the season but later rejoined under a new contractGA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; CS = Clean sheets


2008 Toronto FC season, Competitions summary, Regular season, Results summary
Last updated: October 30, 2008Source: 2008 Major League Soccer seasonPld = Matches played; Pts = Points; W = Matches won;  T = Matches tied;  L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; GD = Goal difference


2008 Toronto FC season, Player seasonal records
Competitive matches only. Updated to games played October 26, 2008.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival
The 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This 33rd annual festival was from September 4 to September 13, 2008. The opening night gala was the World War I romantic epic Passchendaele from Canadian director Paul Gross.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
The 2008 festival was heavy on Canadian fare as well as featuring prominent indie films and worldwide as well as North American debuts including: Adoration directed by Canada's own Atom Egoyan, Appaloosa the second film from Ed Harris (who directed Pollock), Blindness from screenwriter-director, Fernando Meirelles, Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and veteran filmmaker Barbet Schroeder's Inju, la bête dans l'ombre. Scheduled is The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (directed by Jodie Markell), based on a "rediscovered" Tennessee Williams screenplay. TIFF screened 312 films from 64 countries. These include 249 features, most of which were North American and/or world premieres.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
Neil Burger (director of The Illusionist) world premiered The Lucky Ones a character study of U.S. soldiers on an unplanned road trip, starring Tim Robbins.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
Also featured was Me and Orson Welles helmed by American "slacker" Richard Linklater, the Spike Lee-directed World War II film, Miracle at St. Anna as well as the Jonathan Demme directed film Rachel Getting Married. Other festival highlights are screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's first film, Synecdoche, New York, a slice of experimental filmmaker James Benning's Americana RR was featured in the "Wavelengths" avant-garde showcase, the four-hour-long Steven Soderbergh epic Che (playing in two parts), as well as The Wrestler lensed by Darren Aronofsky. The Brits are also well represented with Happy-Go-Lucky directed by Mike Leigh and Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
Despite showing fewer films than last year, among the 249 features, 116 are premieres and 61 are first features. Films from as many as 64 countries were screened, with more than 340,000 admissions expected.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
"Canadian Open Vault", which always highlights a restored Canadian film, focused on Quebec filmmaker François Girard's 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould made in 1993.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
Actors Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Benicio del Toro, Ethan Hawke, Laura Linney and film directors  Julian Schnabel, Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Soderbergh are among the celebs the festival has invited on its 500-plus guest list, thus completing its lineup.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
The festival closed on September 13, 2008 with the North American premiere of Stone of Destiny written and directed by Charles Martin Smith, the true story of four Glasgow university students who try to restore the 300-pound Stone of Scone to its rightful Scottish home.


2008 Toronto International Film Festival, About the 2008 Festival
With the film Fifty Dead Men Walking, Rose McGowan expressed support for the cause of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), with the reports of her comments being released into the media on September 11, 2008. After starring in Fifty Dead Men Walking, she was quoted as saying "I imagine had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100% have been in the IRA. My heart just broke for the cause. Violence is not to be played out daily and provide an answer to problems, but I understand it." Her comments were attacked by the original author Martin McCartlend. McCartland had general objections against the film, but approved of an out of court settlement, believed to be in the region of £20,000 (US$35,000 in summer 2008).


2008 Toronto Rock season
The Toronto Rock are a lacrosse team based in Toronto playing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The 2008 season was the 12th in franchise history, and 11th as the Rock.


2008 Toronto Rock season
The 2008 season almost never happened. On October 16, 2007 the league released a statement officially cancelling the season, after no agreement could be reached on a new collective bargaining agreement. However, negotiations continued, and on October 25, the league announced that a new CBA has been agreed on, and that the season would proceed. The new revised schedule was released on November 2, 2007, but only included 12 of the expected 14 teams were included.


2008 Toronto Rock season
The expansion Boston Blazers and 2007 Western division champion Arizona Sting had decided for "a number of business reasons" to opt out of the 2008 season and return in 2009. Due to the short time frame between the agreement on a new CBA and the start of the season, the New York Titans were unable to secure 8 home dates for the revised schedule, and thus both the Toronto Rock and Buffalo Bandits hosted a Titans home game in their own arena.


2008 Toronto Rock season
The Rock had their second consecutive sub-.500 season, finishing 7–9, and out of the playoffs for the first time since they were the Ontario Raiders in 1998. Despite the losing season, veteran Bob Watson was named NLL Goaltender of the Year.


2008 Toronto Rock season
This was captain Jim Veltman's final season as a player; he retired after 16 seasons and joined the Rock coaching staff in 2009.


2008 Toronto Rock season, Regular season, Conference standings
x: Clinched playoff berth; c: Clinched playoff berth by crossing over to another division; y: Clinched division; z: Clinched best regular season record; GP: Games PlayedW: Wins; L: Losses; GB: Games back; PCT: Win percentage; Home: Record at Home; Road: Record on the Road; GF: Goals scored; GA: Goals allowedDifferential: Difference between goals scored and allowed; GF/GP: Average number of goals scored per game; GA/GP: Average number of goals allowed per game


2008 Toronto Rock season, Player stats, Runners (Top 10)
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; LB = Loose Balls; PIM = Penalty Minutes


2008 Toronto Rock season, Player stats, Goaltenders
Note: GP = Games Played; MIN = Minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; GA = Goals Against; Sv% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals Against Average


2008 Toronto Transit Commission strike
The 2008 Toronto Transit Commission strike was a legal strike action by Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) unionized employees that began on April 26, 2008, at 12:01 a.m. EDT. All bus, streetcar and subway service in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was suspended, leaving thousands of people stranded across the city. Although the strike action was legal, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 113 did not provide 48-hour notice of the service withdrawal as they had previously promised they would do. Instead, the ATU only provided 90 minutes' notice before the service withdrawal. Bob Kinnear, president of ATU Local 113, claimed that the lack of an advance notice was necessary to protect the TTC employees from "angry and irrational members of the public".


2008 Toronto Transit Commission strike, General synopsis
The strike occurred when the two unions, ATU Local 113 and Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 2, voted 65% to reject the offer made on April 20, 2008. The result of the ratification vote was completed just after 10:00 p.m. on April 25 and Torontonians and TTC employees were given approximately 90 minutes' notice before the job action began.


2008 Toronto Transit Commission strike, General synopsis
The rejected offer had offered TTC operators a 3% wage increase each year for three years. Some operators and maintenance staff were not pleased with the offer. There were also concerns over the injury compensation package and, according to some reports, contracting out work. TTC employees voiced their concerns over the week prior to the strike.


2008 Toronto Transit Commission strike, General synopsis, Back-to-work legislation
At approximately 11:45 p.m. on April 25, minutes before the strike began, Toronto mayor David Miller held a news conference stating that the strike action was  "unacceptable and irresponsible" after the ATU failed to comply with the initial 48-hour strike notice and the subsequent rejection of the contract. The mayor made a special request to Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty asking him to seek back-to-work legislation, a special law that would block the TTC strike from continuing. By 12:30 p.m. on April 26, the provincial government had signed an Order in Council allowing for a rare Sunday sitting of the Ontario legislature to consider a bill (Bill 66) to order the union and its members back to work.


2008 Toronto Transit Commission strike, General synopsis, Back-to-work legislation
On April 27, 2008, Bill 66 was unanimously passed by the Ontario Legislature, a process which only took 30 minutes. The law was quickly given royal assent by David Onley, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and it came into force at 2 p.m. The TTC was given a few hours to ensure the system was ready to operate and to build up service. Most transit service resumed by that evening.


2008 Toulon Tournament
The 2008 Toulon Tournament was the 36th edition of the Toulon Tournament, and was held from 20 May to 29 May 2008. Tournament finished with the final between Italy and Chile at Stade Mayol in Toulon as Italy had the title after the final score of 1–0, scored by Pablo Osvaldo in the 70th minute.


2008 Toulon Tournament squads
Below are the rosters for the 2008 Toulon Tournament. The given age and club affiliation were current as of the start of the tournament.


2008 Toulon Tournament squads
Those marked in bold have now been capped at full international level.


2008 Tour Down Under
The 2008 Tour Down Under was the 10th edition of the Tour Down Under road cycling stage race, taking place from 22 to 27 January in and around Adelaide, South Australia. The Tour Down Under was the first race outside of Europe to be given ProTour status by the UCI.


2008 Tour Down Under
The race was preceded by an opening race called Down Under Classic, not part of the UCI ProTour competition. It was won by German André Greipel of Team High Road.


2008 Tour Down Under, Individual 2008 UCI ProTour standings after race
As of 27 January 2008, after the Tour Down Under


2008 Tour Down Under, Individual 2008 UCI ProTour standings after race
After winning 4 stages of Tour Down Under and the overall classification, German André Greipel is the first leader of 2008 UCI ProTour.


2008 Tour Down Under, Teams
The Australian national team called Team UniSA-Australia was the only non-UCI ProTour team invited to the race.


2008 Tour Féminin en Limousin
The 2008 Tour Féminin en Limousin was the 4th edition of the Tour Féminin en Limousin, a women's cycling stage race in France. It was rated by the UCI as category 2.2 race, and was held between 24 and 27 July 2008.


2008 Tour de Corse
The 2008 Tour de Corse was the thirteenth round of the 2008 World Rally Championship season. The event was won by Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb for the fourth year in succession. It was his tenth victory of the season and gave him a fourteen-point lead in the drivers table with just two rallies left in the season. Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen finished in second place after team orders issued by the Ford team forced François Duval and Jari-Matti Latvala to drop behind him, in order to improve his championship hopes.


2008 Tour de France
The 2008 Tour de France was the 95th running of the race. The event took place from 5 to 27 July. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regular final destination, which was reached in the 21st stage. The race was won by Carlos Sastre.


2008 Tour de France
Unlike previous years, time bonuses were no longer awarded for intermediate sprints and for high placement on each stage. This altered the way the General Classification was awarded in comparison to previous seasons.


2008 Tour de France, Teams
Long running disputes between the event organisers, the ASO and the UCI reached a head when the race organisers insisted upon the right to invite, or exclude, whichever teams it chose for the event. Under UCI rules, any ProTour event must be open to all member teams of the UCI's top level. The ASO made it clear that, despite changes in team management and personnel, it intended to exclude Astana from the event as a result of its involvement in the doping scandals that marred the 2007 Tour and its links to the 2006 Operación Puerto doping case. This meant that the champion (Alberto Contador) and third-place finisher (Levi Leipheimer) from 2007, both of whom had since signed with Astana, could not compete in the 2008 Tour.


2008 Tour de France, Teams
The ASO announced on 20 March 2008 that all ProTour teams except Astana would be invited, along with three wildcard teams: Agritubel, Barloworld, and Slipstream–Chipotle (subsequently renamed as Garmin–Chipotle p/b H30). With each team consisting of nine riders, 180 riders started the Tour.


2008 Tour de France, Pre-race favourites
Because Astana was not invited to the 2008 Tour de France, the winner of the 2007 Tour de France, Alberto Contador, the 3rd-place finisher Levi Leipheimer and the 2004 and 2006 Tour de France runner up Andreas Klöden did not compete. Ten days before the start of the tour, Contador picked Cadel Evans as the likely winner for 2008. Shown in the table below are the riders that, according to the bookmakers in the months before the start of the 2008 Tour de France, had a chance of winning the 2008 Tour better than or equal to 25/1. The odds shown are the odds in July 2008, directly before the start of the race. Thomas Dekker and Michael Rogers were also given odds in this range, but were not included in the Tour de France.


2008 Tour de France, Route and stages
The 2008 Tour de France was almost entirely in France, with only a small part in Italy. In previous years, the Tour started with a prologue, followed by a week of flat stages. The flat stages were dominated by the sprinters' teams, and the yellow jersey was worn by a sprinter who had a good prologue. At the presentation of the Tour de France 2008 schedule, Tour Director Christian Prudhomme announced that the 2008 Tour would be different: "We have wanted a first week of racing with much more rhythm.


2008 Tour de France, Route and stages
With no prologue, an uphill finish that will suit different types of sprinters at the end of stage one, with a short time trial on stage four and the first mountain at Super-Besse only 48 hours later, we have decided to change the scenario." The time bonuses at the end of each stage were removed, and there was 82 kilometres (51 mi) of time trials, less than usual. The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,802 m (9,193 ft) at the Cime de la Bonette loop road on stage 16.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview
In the first week of the 2008 Tour de France, the stages were mostly flat. As traditionally in the Tour de France, this resulted in small breakaways of cyclists, and the sprinters' teams trying to get them back. In the first stage, the sprinters won, with Thor Hushovd winning the stage, but in the second stage, four cyclists managed to stay away. The fourth stage was a time trial, won by Stefan Schumacher, who took over the lead. In the fifth stage, the sprinters won the battle and Mark Cavendish won the stage.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview
The Massif Central mountains were visited in stage six and seven. In stage six, all the breakaways were caught, and the favourites stayed together and finished together. In stage seven, the same scenario, only now Luis León Sánchez managed to stay a few seconds ahead and win the stage. The eighth stage was a sprinter stage, won by Cavendish. Then, from stage nine, the Pyrenees were climbed. Riccardo Riccò broke away from the bunch on the final climb, and won the stage. On stage 10, a group of four with some main contenders escaped, and Leonardo Piepoli won the stage. Stage eleven had easier climbs, and a group of four riders, not important for the overall classification, were allowed to break away and win by 14 minutes.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview
Stages twelve to fourteen were flat stages, and were dominated by the sprinters. Mark Cavendish won another two stages, and Óscar Freire took his first. In the fifteenth stage, a group of four cyclists escaped and stayed away, a similar thing happened in stage sixteen. In the seventeenth stage, Carlos Sastre placed a surprise attack (not only a surprise for his opponents, but also for his team mates and Directeur Sportif) won the stage and took the lead in the general classification. The eighteenth and nineteenth stage again saw breakaways of cyclists not important for the general classification. The twentieth stage, a time trial, was won by Stefan Schumacher who had also won the first time trial. The last stage was a sprinters' stage, won by Gert Steegmans.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
On 26 May 2008, the 2007 green jersey (points) winner Tom Boonen tested positive for cocaine. Since this was outside competition, Boonen was not sanctioned by the UCI or WADA, but he was nevertheless barred from the 2008 Tour de France.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
Following protracted disagreement between the organisers of the Tour de France (ASO) and the UCI, the race was sanctioned by the Fédération Française de Cyclisme (FFC), as was the 2008 Paris–Nice in March. Thus the FFC were in charge of the doping controls before and during the race, and rather than increasing the number of doping controls during the Tour, they applied a more targeted approach on suspect riders. The French government's anti-doping agency AFLD carried out approximately 60 random and targeted tests in the weeks leading up to the Tour.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
They took blood samples from all the 180 riders in a two-day period just before the first stage, and during the race took samples from up to 14 riders a day shortly after the stage was finished, 250 tests being run in total. The Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) also performed unannounced doping tests of riders at the finish of stage 15, which ended at the ski resort of Prato Nevoso, Italy. On 3 July 2008, France enacted a law criminalizing using or trafficking in doping substances.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
On 11 July news broke that Spanish rider Manuel Beltrán tested positive for erythropoietin after the first stage of the tour. Blood abnormalities before the tour start had led AFLD to target the rider. Beltrán's team Liquigas withdrew him from the tour with immediate effect. French law enforcement authorities questioned Beltrán over possible offences and searched his hotel room, but he claimed his innocence. The B-Sample has not yet been tested.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
On 13 July, prior to the ninth stage, it was revealed that AFLD had informed team doctors that five riders had unusually high hematocrit levels. The Italian press reported that Riccardo Riccò, who won the stage later that day, had been selected for testing several times during the first week, which led to a suspicion that he was among those whose teams had been notified. Riccò has for some time been known to have a naturally high hematocrit level of 51%, above the 50%-level which usually is taken to be an indicator of possible blood manipulation. Riccò stated that he has a licence confirming that this is a natural, long-term condition, which he gave to the doping agencies before the start of the race, but he later admitted to the offence at a hearing of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI).


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
On 16 July Barloworld started the 11th stage without Moisés Dueñas, who had been withdrawn from the team after being tested positive for EPO at the end of the time trial fourth stage. Barloworld Ltd, two days later, announced that they were withdrawing from sponsorship after this year's Tour de France, but on 28 October, they announced that they would sponsor the team for another year.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
On 17 July, shortly before the start of stage 12, Ricardo Riccò and the rest of the Saunier Duval-Scott team, withdrew from the race after the announcement that he had tested positive for MIRCERA, a new type of EPO, at the end of stage 4. Leonardo Piepoli, winner of stage 10, was sacked by his team for "violation of the team's ethics code" the following day, though no positive test was reported at that time. Almost 3 months later his tests came back positive for samples taken one day prior to the start of the Tour, on 4 July, and also on 15 July, on the rest day in Pau.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
On the last day of the race, but after the end of the stage, Dmitry Fofonov was announced to have tested positive for the banned stimulant heptaminol after Stage 18. He was asked for a medical exemption to use the stimulant, but did not produce one. He was subsequently fired by his team Crédit Agricole.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
After the race ended, French cyclist Jimmy Casper was suspended from Agritubel because he tested positive after the stage to Super Besse for glucocorticoids, an asthma drug that is banned unless the user has a medical exemption for its use. Casper, an asthmatic, carried a therapeutic use exemptions (TUE) for the last twelve years but failed to renew this exemption. His authorisation expired on 29 May and was not renewed before the 2008 Tour de France. The French cycling federation's disciplinary commission exonerated Casper.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
In late September it was announced that several Tour de France riders were to have their blood samples retested for traces of EPO. Pierre Bordry, the head of AFLD, claimed the testing involved riders who were already under scrutiny for suspicious urine samples. AFLD had suspicion that there was MIRCERA in some samples but the laboratory could not say definitively. The urine tests were somewhat unreliable at giving definitive results, so the AFLD decided to order the blood samples taken before and during the Tour for additional testing with a newly developed CERA blood test.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
As a result of this additional testing, both Leonardo Piepoli and Stefan Schumacher tested positive for the same substance which Riccò used, MIRCERA. The riders were declared positive by AFLD.


2008 Tour de France, Race overview, Doping
On 13 October 2008, the AFLD announced that Bernhard Kohl, who finished in third place overall and winner of the climbers' competition, had also tested positive for MIRCERA on 3 and 15 July, before and during the Tour de France. Initial results were verified, and Kohl also confessed to doping. His third-place overall finish in the 2008 Tour and his first place in the King of the Mountains competition are considered vacancies in the Tour's official history.


2008 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were four main individual classifications contested in the 2008 Tour de France, as well as a team competition. The most important was the general classification, which was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. There were no time bonuses given at the end of stages for this edition of the Tour. If a crash had happened within the final 3 km (1.9 mi) of a stage, not including time trials and summit finishes, the riders involved would have received the same time as the group they were in when the crash occurred. The rider with the lowest cumulative time was the winner of the general classification and was considered the overall winner of the Tour. The rider leading the classification wore a yellow jersey.


2008 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The second classification was the points classification. Riders received points for finishing in the highest positions in a stage finish, or in intermediate sprints during the stage. The points available for each stage finish were determined by the stage's type. The leader was identified by a green jersey.


2008 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The third classification was the mountains classification. Most stages of the race included one or more categorised climbs, in which points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit first. The climbs were categorised as fourth-, third-, second- or first-category and hors catégorie, with the more difficult climbs rated lower. The leader wore a white jersey with red polka dots.


2008 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The final individual classification was the young rider classification. This was calculated the same way as the general classification, but the classification was restricted to riders who were born on or after 1 January 1983. The leader wore a white jersey.


2008 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The final classification was a team classification. This was calculated using the finishing times of the best three riders per team on each stage; the leading team was the team with the lowest cumulative time. The number of stage victories and placings per team determined the outcome of a tie. The riders in the team that lead this classification were identified with yellow number bibs on the back of their jerseys.


2008 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
In addition, there was a combativity award given after each mass start stage to the rider considered, by a jury, to have "made the greatest effort and who has demonstrated the best qualities of sportsmanship". The winner wore a red number bib the following stage. At the conclusion of the Tour, Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) was given the overall super-combativity award.


2008 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were also two special awards each with a prize of €5000, the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, given in honour of Tour founder and first race director Henri Desgrange to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Galibier on stage 17, and the Souvenir Jacques Goddet, given in honour of the second director Jacques Goddet to the first rider to pass the summit of the Col du Tourmalet on stage 10. Stefan Schumacher won the Henri Desgrange and Rémy Di Gregorio won the Jacques Goddet.


2008 Tour de France, Prize money
A total prize fund of approximately €3.25 million was awarded throughout the tour. In addition, each team received €51,243 towards expenses of participation, with an additional €1,600 per rider who completed the race, provided that at least seven did so.


2008 Tour de France, Prize money
By tradition, a team's winnings were pooled and shared among the riders and support team. Team CSC, the team of Tour winner Sastre, won the most prize money, more than €600,000. Saunier Duval's prize money was not awarded after the positive tests of Riccardo Riccò.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11
These are the profiles for the individual stages in the 2008 Tour de France, with Stage 1 on 5 July, and Stage 11 on 16 July.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 1
For the first time since 1967, the tour started with a road stage rather than the traditional prologue. The stage was hilly with four fourth category climbs through the Monts d'Arrée in the department of Finistère. The finish at Plumelec is uphill on the Côte de Cadoual, with a 1.7 km climb at 6.2%. As there were no time bonuses in the three intermediate sprints, the first rider home wore the yellow jersey at the start of stage 2.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 1
An eight-man breakaway formed at the 3 km mark, and it got away for some time. At the first feeding station, Hervé Duclos-Lassalle crashed and sustained a broken left wrist, becoming the first rider to have to abandon the 2008 Tour. At about the 30 km to go mark, two in the break, Lilian Jegou and David de la Fuente got away from the other six after a short series of attacks and counter-attacks.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 1
The peloton, paced by Silence-Lotto, increased pace when the other six rejoined them, and Jegou and de la Fuente were caught at around the 7 km to go mark. At that point, the peloton split into several groups for the run in toward the finish, won by Alejandro Valverde. One of the pre-race favourites, Mauricio Soler, fell with 20 km remaining and lost more than three minutes.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 2
The second stage was another hilly stage, with three fourth category climbs and the third category "wall" at Mûr-de-Bretagne.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 2
Sylvain Chavanel and Thomas Voeckler established a breakaway at the first categorized climb, reaching a maximum advantage of 6'25'' before being joined by Agritubel teammates Christophe Moreau and David Lelay with 57 km remaining. The four Frenchmen were caught by the peloton in the final 2 km, and the sprint was won by Thor Hushovd.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 3
Stage 3 was flat, with no ranking climbs, which was expected to favour the sprinters at the finish alongside the River Loire in Nantes.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 3
A four-man breakaway formed at the 9 km mark, comprising William Frischkorn, Samuel Dumoulin, Paolo Longo Borghini, and Romain Feillu. They quickly took the three intermediate sprints available on the course and had a maximum advantage of 14 minutes before the peloton began to reel them in. Several teams helped with the workload to bring the breakaway back. With the day's early rain saturating the road, Fabian Wegmann crashed around 60 km in, needing to change his bike minutes later.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 3
For many kilometers, the time gap didn't decrease beyond about 6'30" to 6'45", leading to speculation that the four in the breakaway could survive to the line. The teams of the prominent sprinters came forward to make a faster pace at around 35 km to go. With about 23 km to go, Ángel Gómez and Nicki Sørensen were involved in a crash that split the peloton into three fragments, the second of which contained the white jersey Riccardo Riccò and Denis Menchov, finished 38 seconds behind the first, which contained the yellow jersey Alejandro Valverde. The third group contained Christophe Moreau. Gómez eventually had to abandon the Tour.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 3
The breakaway survived to the finish, giving the Tour a new maillot jaune for the next day's individual time trial. Dumoulin won the sprint to the line.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 4
The fourth stage was an individual time trial over a flat course to the west of Cholet in the department of Maine-et-Loire.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 4
Denis Menchov and Jens Voigt set nearly identical times about two-thirds of the way into the time trial, with Menchov one second better. It stood as best until reigning world time trial champion and stage favorite Fabian Cancellara gained a one-second advantage, despite having been behind Menchov's and Voigt's pace at both intermediate time checks. The surprise of the day came when Stefan Schumacher beat Cancellara by 33 seconds, having similar leads at each time check. Cadel Evans, David Millar, and Kim Kirchen also beat Cancellara, but could not match Schumacher.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 4
As was expected, the top three men in the GC, having been in a breakaway almost the entire previous day, fell in the overall standings after the time trial, and the Tour had its third different rider in yellow at the day's end.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 5
This was the longest stage of the 2008 tour, over flat roads in the departments of Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, Vienne, Indre-et-Loire and Indre.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 5
Mauricio Soler fell in the neutral zone before the start; already suffering injuries from a fall on the opening day, the Colombian who won the polka-dot jersey last year finally succumbed and retired from the race at the 11 km mark of stage five.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 5
The stage was led almost from start to finish by three breakaway riders. The French trio of Lilian Jegou, Florent Brard and national champion Nicolas Vogondy opened up a gap of more than eight minutes, which was slowly whittled away by the chasing peloton. Vogondy broke away from his compatriots in the final 1.5 km, only to be overhauled by the sprinters around 30 metres from the line.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 5
Mark Cavendish, who was led out by his German team-mate Gerald Ciolek, held off late attacks from Thor Hushovd, Óscar Freire and Erik Zabel, and pulled away from his rivals in the final metres to claim glory after almost five-and-a-half hours in the saddle.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 6
This was the first mountain stage of the tour through the Massif Central, with two Fourth Category climbs in the first half of the race before the riders crossed the Second Category Col de la Croix-Morand after 158 km. The finish is at the ski station of Super Besse on the slopes of Puy de Sancy with a climb of 11 km at an average gradient of 4.7%, including the final 1.5 km with a maximum gradient of 10%.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 6
A three-man breakaway, made up of Frenchmen Sylvain Chavanel, Benoît Vaugrenard and Freddy Bichot, claimed the sprints and the two small category 4 climbs early on in the stage. The group attained a maximum lead of 5'15'' after 95 km. The main field split on the climb of the Col de la Croix-Morand, with many of the sprinters and leadout men fell back into an autobus, and many short-lived attempts to catch the two remaining riders from the breakaway, Vaugrenard having been dropped.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 6
Chavanel and Bichot survived to the top of the Col de la Croix-Morand, giving Chavanel sufficient points on the day's climbs to gain the lead in the King of the Mountains classification, but he was caught with 20m remaining, and Bichot 7 km later. The autobus rejoined the second peloton on the descent from the Col de la Croix-Morand, before the field split into several small groups again. Riders who posed no threat to the GC attacked on the way up to Super-Besse, and the yellow jersey group, still being paced by Caisse d'Epargne, let them all go. Even when Christian Vande Velde, sixth overall and a member of the first place team Garmin-Chipotle, launched an attack, Caisse d'Epargne did not respond.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 6
Finally, at the 1 kilometer to go mark, the peloton came forward to bring back those who had broken away. Virtually all of the GC contenders were at the front of the main group. The last of Valverde's teammates peeled off to open the sprint to the line, won by Riccardo Riccò. In seeking a position for the final sprint, the yellow jersey wearer Stefan Schumacher caught the wheel of Kim Kirchen with 300m remaining, and fell. Since the finish was on an uphill climb, the rule giving anyone who crashes in the final 3 kilometers the same time as the group they were in upon crashing was not invoked, and he lost 32'' on the stage, and Kirchen took the overall lead.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 7
This is a short stage along the steep roads of the Massif Central, through the Monts du Cantal with the third category Côte de Fraisse coming after only 11 km. After a fourth category climb came a pair of Category Two climbs: the Col d'Entremont after 101 km, and the Pas de Peyrol, before descending to Aurillac via another fourth category climb.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 7
Early crosswinds split the peloton. Damiano Cunego crashed after about 50 km and although he rejoined the leading group, he missed a later break, losing 33 seconds on the day. A breakaway made up of Josep Jufré, Luis León Sánchez, David de la Fuente and Vincenzo Nibali formed on the way up the Col d'Entremont and were caught by a group of nineteen, including most of the overall favourites, with about 9 km remaining, but Sánchez counterattacked on the descent and held on to win the stage.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 7
De la Fuente's three leads over the tops of climbs earned him the lead in the King of the Mountains classification, while four riders, including Agritubel team leader Christophe Moreau failed to finish and Magnus Bäckstedt finished outside regulation time.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 7
Liquigas rider Manuel Beltrán was revealed after this stage to have failed a blood doping test earlier in the tour, and was withdrawn by his team.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 8
This was a connecting stage from the Massif Central to the Pyrenees and had four categorized climbs in the first half of the race before the finish in Toulouse.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 8
The significant break of the day saw Laurent Lefevre go clear on the second climb, and was followed by his Bouygues Télécom teammate Jérôme Pineau, Amets Txurruka, and Christophe Riblon. Eventually Lefevre allowed the other three to join him, and the group attained a maximum advantage of 5' 15'' at 110 km, but pressure from sprinters' teams reduced the gap rapidly over the following 20 km, to less than three minutes. Riccardo Riccò was one of four fallers at 116 km, and after being assisted to catch up with the peloton, needed medical attention.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 8
With 13 km to go, Pineau and Txurruka moved clear of their colleagues in the break, who were absorbed into the peloton 3 km later. The pursuit of the peloton, which had eased up to avoid regrouping too soon and allow other attacks, put on pressure again in the last 20 km, finally catching the two escapees with 3.5 km left. In a bunched sprint, Mark Cavendish gained his second stage victory.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 9
This stage took the riders into the Pyrenees with a series of fourth category climbs in the early stages before the third category Col des Ares at the 100 km mark. After passing through Bagnères-de-Luchon, the riders climbed the First Category Col de Peyresourde before the final climb over the Col d'Aspin, after which came a 26 km descent to the finish at Bagnères-de-Bigorre.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 9
Aleksandr Kuschynski, Nicolas Jalabert, and Sebastian Lang formed a breakaway after 22 km that claimed the intermediate sprint and first few small climbs. They attained a maximum advantage of 14' 20'' at 55 km before the peloton, being paced by Euskaltel-Euskadi, started bringing them back. Cadel Evans crashed after about 105 km, injuring his left elbow and needing to ride with torn clothing the rest of the stage. He had to change bikes and was paced back into the peloton by the rest of his Silence-Lotto team. He, and subsequently Alejandro Valverde, needed to seek medical attention.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 9
The leaders' advantage, after staying at around ten minutes for many kilometers, began to fall on the ascent of the Col de Peyresourde, and first Jalabert, then Kuschynski, dropped off Lang's pace. Maxime Monfort and King of the Mountains leader David de la Fuente moved ahead of the peloton before the first major mountain pass of the tour.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 9
After consolidating on the descent from the Peyresourde, the peloton thinned and split again on the way up the Col d'Aspin. The main GC contenders came to the front of the peloton as it neared the summit, and only Lang of the early escapees remained clear. After several other riders attempted unsuccessfully to do so, Luis León Sánchez bridged the gap to Monfort and de la Fuente, only for the latter to drop away. The decisive attack of the stage came from Riccardo Riccò, who rapidly passed the four riders ahead of the peloton and crossed the top of the Col d'Aspin 1' 15'' ahead of the yellow jersey group he had left 4 km earlier.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 9
Riccò preserved that margin on the descent to win the stage, with only Vladimir Efimkin moving clear of the peloton on the descent, to claim second position on the road.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 10
This stage was selected for the 2008 L'Étape du Tour run on Sunday 6 July when nearly 7,500 amateur and club cyclists raced over the route, with Laurent Four coming home in the fastest time of 5 hours 38 minutes.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 10
The highlight of this short, intense stage is the Hors Categorie climb over the Col du Tourmalet at 2115 m, with the finish at the ski-station at Hautacam. The final climb is 14.4 km, with an average gradient of 7.2%, with the steepest section at 10%.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 10
Twenty-four riders representing seventeen teams broke away from the peloton almost immediately. Included in the group were three riders each for Gerolsteiner and Bouygues Télécom as well as the green and polka-dot jersey wearers Óscar Freire and David de la Fuente. Only Milram, Lampre, and Garmin-Chipotle were unrepresented. Freire took the first intermediate sprint and with it the outright lead in the points classification.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 10
Seven of the twenty-four came clear on the way up the Côte de Loucrup. Freire was among them and took the second sprint to cement his lead. The leaders' time gap grew to over nine minutes before the peloton thinned as chases came forward to bring them back. Rémy Di Gregorio attacked and got free of the group of seven, going it alone to be the first over the Tourmalet.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 10
Jens Voigt and Team CSC Saxo Bank set a blistering pace up the Tourmalet in the peloton, with the intention of knocking off as many teammates of the overall contenders as they could while protecting Carlos Sastre. Several team leaders, including Alejandro Valverde, eventually dropped as well. Di Gregorio at last was caught by the yellow jersey's group of contenders at the 12 kilometers to go mark. The contenders traded attacks on the way up to Hautacam, and the yellow jersey himself Kim Kirchen was dropped along the way.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 10
Fränk Schleck, Juan José Cobo, and Leonardo Piepoli came forward and gained a maximum advantage of two minutes on the other contenders. The Saunier Duval riders went on to drop Schleck, and the time gap between Schleck and Cadel Evans was very close to see who would wear yellow at the day's end.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 11
Stage 11 was a relatively straightforward ride through the foothills of the Pyrenees, with one first category climb over the Col de Portel at the 110 km mark, and two third category climbs.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 11
Before the stage began, Moisés Dueñas was revealed to have failed a test for evidence of blood-doping at the end of stage 4, and was withdrawn by his team. Two more Barloworld riders withdrew injured during the stage, Félix Cárdenas and Paolo Longo Borghini. After 35 km, a 13-man breakaway, initiated by Fabian Wegmann and Kurt Asle Arvesen, formed, and with no rider within 20 minutes of the lead, came under no pressure from the main peloton. Gert Steegmans was dropped from this group on the first climb, but the rest of the breakaway increased their margin over the peloton.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 11
On the ascent of the Col de Portel, Amaël Moinard moved clear of the other escapees, and reached the top of the climb almost 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the group, while Óscar Pereiro moved ahead of the peloton, prompting a response by the CSC Saxo Bank team, and a split in the main field, but not isolating any GC contenders. Pereiro was re-integrated into the peloton with about 20 km remaining, while at the front of the race, Martin Elmiger and Arvesen attacked with 4 km left, shortly before Moinard was caught by the chasing group.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11, Stages, Stage 11
They were joined by Alessandro Ballan, and briefly by Koos Moerenhout, and in the final 200m Arvesen started the sprint, hanging on to win the stage in a photo-finish. The main peloton, including all the main contenders, finished over 14 minutes behind, but leading standings were unaffected by the day's events.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21
These are the profiles for the individual stages in the 2008 Tour de France, with Stage 12 on 17 July, and Stage 21 on 27 July.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 12
This stage featured one fourth category climb over the Col du Camperié east of Axat after 111 km, before a long rapid descent to Narbonne, which was expected to give the sprinters the chance to demonstrate their skills.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 12
The day began with news of the withdrawal from the Tour of the Saunier Duval-Scott team after their leader Riccardo Riccò, who was top of both the King of the Mountains and Young Riders' categories, had failed a blood test taken at the end of Stage 4.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 12
At the 40 kilometer mark, Samuel Dumoulin and Arnaud Gerard broke away, and attained a maximum advantage of 4 minutes. Juan José Oroz joined them at the 113 kilometer mark. The peloton didn't let them get very much of a lead, keeping the time gap at around a minute and a half for most of the race, until the catch occurred with about 9 kilometers to go. A bunched sprint saw Mark Cavendish win his third stage this tour.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 13
A series of fourth category climbs took the riders through Languedoc, before the run into Nîmes on this transitional stage before the riders move into the Alps.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 13
This stage was remarkably similar to the one from the day before. An early breakaway, by Niki Terpstra and Florent Brard led almost the entire day until being caught in the final 10 kilometers. Another bunched sprint saw Mark Cavendish win yet again, but beyond that, eight of the top ten placed riders were the same both days, with three (including Cavendish) in the same exact position. Cavendish became the first sprinter to win four stages at a single Tour de France since Alessandro Petacchi did so in 2003, although Lance Armstrong won five of the last eight stages in the 2004 Tour de France including two individual time trials and three mountain stages.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 14
The race approached the Alps through the Vaucluse department crossing two fourth category climbs before dropping down to Digne-les-Bains.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 14
A break of 21 riders, with representatives from all but three of the teams, moved away after 5 km. Only four riders remained clear by the 41st kilometer; Bram Tankink, Sandy Casar, William Bonnet and Jose Ivan Gutierrez. They were eventually caught on the last climb, and on the descent there were many splits in the field. Of many attempted breaks on the descent towards the finish, Sylvain Chavanel came closest to success, but the stage again finished in a sprint. Cavendish had been dropped from the peloton on the climb, and points classification leader Óscar Freire won the sprint.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 15
The 15th stage was due to start at Digne-les-Bains but due to the risk of rock falls in the climb up the Col de Larche, the organisers decided to modify the itinerary. The stage started instead from Embrun and headed to Prato Nevoso, crossing into Italy via the climb over the Hors Categorie Col Agnel (2,744 m). The finish at Prato Nevoso is rated First Category with an 11.4 km climb at an average of 6.9%.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 15
The road conditions at the start in Embrun were terrible, with consistent rain soaking the road. After several attempts earlier, Egoi Martínez, José Luis Arrieta, Danny Pate, and Simon Gerrans broke away from the peloton at the 12 kilometer mark, just before the first intermediate sprint. The peloton was content to let them go up the Col Agnel well ahead, as their maximum advantage was almost fourteen minutes before the summit. When the peloton's relatively lax pace finally quickened, the autobus formed in back of it on the way up the Col Agnel. Martinez was the first over the top.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 15
The peloton consolidated on the descent, but for an unusual reason - Robert Hunter and Óscar Pereiro clipped wheels and crashed, with Pereiro dramatically tumbling through a barricade from one section of the road down to a lower section. This happened at the front of the main group, and afterwards for several kilometers the peloton slowed nearly to the pace they'd had in the rain-soaked neutral zone. The time gap to the four leaders rose from eleven and a half to over seventeen minutes in this time. Pereiro broke his arm in the crash, and had to abandon.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 15
The field similarly slowed, affording more time to the breakaway, after a crash (which involved Christian Vande Velde, Damiano Cunego, Vincenzo Nibali, Sebastian Lang, and others) on both sides of a roundabout at the 60 kilometers to go mark. At that point, it was calculated that the peloton had no chance to catch the break, so the peloton stayed together, with the contenders poising to attack on the climb up to Prato Nevoso.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 15
Team CSC Saxo Bank set a blistering pace on the way up the Colle del Morte and again up to Prato Nevoso, splitting the field and trying to isolate Cadel Evans. The yellow jersey group thinned to ten riders, including the top six in the GC, as the CSC domestiques dropped off. On the way up to Prato Nevoso, Martinez attacked the other leaders and Arrieta was dropped. The favorites traded attacks and split as well on the way up.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 15
Gerrans won the sprint to the line. Bernhard Kohl, Carlos Sastre, Denis Menchov and Alejandro Valverde came clear of Evans' group on the way to the finish. Fränk Schleck came clear of Evans in the last 100m to claim the yellow jersey, with Kohl narrowly failing to have taken enough time out of them both.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 16
The race returned to France on this short stage, via the Hors Categorie Col de la Lombarde and Col de la Bonette (the highest pass in Europe at over 2,800 m altitude), before a descent of more than 20 km.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 16
Five riders, Samuel Dumoulin, Christophe Le Mével, Sebastien Rosseler, and former classification leaders Stefan Schumacher and Thomas Voeckler came clear of the peloton after 42 kilometers. Twenty-four riders also came clear as a chase shortly thereafter, splitting the field well before the climb up the Col de la Lombarde began. Riders were dropped and attacked from the various groups and the field split into numerous fragments, until Schumacher was the only leader left. He stayed well clear of the trailing groups and actually gained time to be the first over the Lombarde. The others from the breakaway, aside from Schumacher, were eventually absorbed by the chases.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 16
The field split even more on the way up the Col de la Bonette, to the point where it was difficult to call any particular group the peloton. Christian Vande Velde was the first GC contender to be dropped from the yellow jersey group, cracked by the pacemaking being done by Andy Schleck. A chase group paced by Cyril Dessel and Yaroslav Popovych caught Schumacher some 3 kilometers before the summit of the Bonette. John-Lee Augustyn, attacked from this group shortly before the summit and was the first to reach the top. He later skidded off the road and tumbled down a steep decline on the dirt beside it, losing his bike. He had no choice but to wait for a service car with a spare machine, and thus lost the chance to rejoin the leading group.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 16
The leading group was whittled to four on the descent - Popovych, Dessel, David Arroyo and Sandy Casar. Denis Menchov was dropped from the yellow jersey group early on in the descent, and lost time. This brought Cadel Evans forward to make the pace in the yellow jersey group, to put as much time as possible between them and Menchov, since Menchov was likely Evans' biggest threat in the individual time trial that was to come and thus in all likelihood, for the Tour title itself. Popovych tried to open the sprint at just over 1 kilometer to go, but the others got him back. Dessel eventually took down the run to the line.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 17
This was the last stage before the race left the Alps, with three Hors Categorie climbs of the Col du Galibier (2,645 m.), the Col de la Croix de Fer (2,067 m.) and the final climb up the Alpe d'Huez (1,850 m.).


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 17
At the very beginning of the day's racing a breakaway started, with Rémy Di Gregorio, Rubén Pérez and Peter Velits, joined later by Stefan Schumacher. With three major cols, the field inevitably became very fractured, but this group stayed clear of the main contenders for much of the day, with Schumacher first over the Galibier, and Velits taking the Croix de Fer. By the base of the Alpe d'Huez, only Velits and Jérôme Pineau were in front of the elite riders, whose group then numbered about 12.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 17
At the bottom of this final ascent of the day Carlos Sastre attacked twice, tagged by Menchov on the 1st go before eventually breaking clear. His fellow Team CSC Saxo Bank members in the group, Andy and Fränk Schleck worked to interrupt any counterattacks on the way up to Alpe d'Huez, and Sastre finished two minutes clear to claim yellow from the older Schleck brother, and establish a lead that he might be able to sustain in the time trial to follow.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 18
The race left the Alps and headed towards central France, with three rated climbs, including the second category Croix de Montvieux (811 m.) at 33 km from the finish.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 18
At 30 kilometers in, Alexander Bocharov and Damiano Cunego crashed, with Cunego falling face-first into a road obstruction. He lay on the road for seven minutes before remounting his bike, falling ten minutes behind the peloton, with four teammates remaining with him for the rest of the stage. After 68 km, Carlos Barredo made a break, prompting a reaction from Marcus Burghardt and Christophe Le Mével. After 81 km, Burghardt caught up with Barredo, meanwhile, Mikel Astarloza and Romain Feillu joined Le Mével, about four minutes behind the leaders. These time gaps held up to the start of the Croix de Montvieux, at which point the breakaway appeared uncatchable.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 18
The four main groups on the road continued up the final climb with time gaps remaining relatively unchanged. Barredo and Burghardt traded several attacks to the top of this climb and after it but Burghardt won a late, tense dash to the line. Feillu lead the next group home for third place, while an attack by Roman Kreuziger, an attempt to gain time on young rider classification leader Andy Schleck, resulted in a group of five riders including both Schleck and Kreuziger finishing some 20 seconds in front of the peloton. Cunego and his team-mates finished last, with Cunego dropping six places to twentieth in the general classification.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 19
After two rated climbs in the first 42 km, this was an undulating route through the Allier department.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 19
A four-man group, made up of Stefan Schumacher, Egoi Martínez, Alessandro Ballan and Pierrick Fédrigo, moved away from the peloton after 16 km and led over the climbs, but never got more than 1'05'' clear, and by 69 km the group had been caught. Nine km later, Sylvain Chavanel made an attack, and Jérémy Roy bridged the gap to join him. This pair stayed clear for the rest of the stage, with Chavanel thereby becoming the rider to have spent the greatest distance in this tour as part of a breakaway.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 19
The group's maximum advantage of over five minutes was reduced to a little over one by the end of the stage, in which Chavanel held off Roy's sprint to win. The bunched sprint for the minor positions was won by the tour's youngest rider, Gerald Ciolek, but green jersey leader Óscar Freire gained enough points to all but ensure victory in that competition. All the main contenders for Tour victory remained in the peloton all day.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 20
The second and final individual time trial followed rolling roads in the Allier and Cher departments.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 20
Despite the work he had done for his team in the Alps, two-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara had the legs to set the first true time to beat, nearly two minutes clear of early leader Sebastian Lang at the intermediate time checks and the finish. Stefan Schumacher, winner of the first time trial in the Tour, exactly tied Cancellara at the first time check and caught Sylwester Szmyd, who started two minutes before him, after only 18 kilometers. He came 14 seconds clear of Cancellara at the third time check and finished 21 seconds better than the world champion at the line.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 20
Roman Kreuziger took back over a minute from Andy Schleck in the race for the white jersey over the first two time checks, but missed winning the jersey at the end. Fränk Schleck seemed to be in poor form, losing considerable time as well as four places. Cadel Evans was unable to gain the time he needed on Carlos Sastre to regain yellow. Bernhard Kohl rode an unexpectedly good time trial, gaining slightly on Sastre and riding almost identically to Evans at the first two time checks, despite having fallen off the starthouse ramp before his ride began. Sastre was consistent and strong, riding one of his best ever time trials, catching Fränk Schleck and riding well enough to keep his yellow jersey for the ride to Paris.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 21
This was a hilly course to Paris winding through the Chevreuse Valley before the traditional loop on the Champs-Élysées, Place de la Concorde and the Rue de Rivoli. Once again, the strong men among the remaining sprinters fought it out for this prestigious stage win.


2008 Tour de France, Stage 12 to Stage 21, Stages, Stage 21
In keeping with tradition, the peloton took it easy on the way to the Champs-Élysées, with many riders taking time to smile for the cameras and enjoy some champagne courtesy of the team car of the victorious Team CSC Saxo Bank. Atop bicycles with new yellow handlebars, Team CSC led the field onto Champs-Élysées for the eight circuits over the famous cobblestone way. Beginning at the end of the first circuit, numerous riders tried to break away from the field, but none succeeded, and a classic bunched sprint saw Gert Steegmans win the race to the line. The field split in this final sprint, resulting in shifts of a few seconds in the final general classification.


2008 Tour de Georgia
The 2008 Tour de Georgia was a seven-stage professional bicycle race held from April 21 through April 27, 2008 across the state of Georgia. The race was part of the 2008 USA Cycling Pro Tour and 2007-2008 UCI America Tour, and was presented by AT&T.


2008 Tour de Georgia, Stage Results, Stage 1, April 21, Tybee Island - Savannah, 115.6 km
The first stage of the Tour was a short and flat stage suited for sprinters, starting in Tybee Island and finishing in Savannah. A group of six riders broke clear of the main field and established a lead of over one minute, before being caught in the final 10 miles (16 km). The stage was won in a bunch sprint by Ivan Dominguez of Toyota United, ahead of Nicholas Sanderson (Jelly Belly) and Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner). Dominguez's win meant that he assumed the lead in the overall classification.


2008 Tour de Hongrie
The 2008 Tour de Hongrie was the 35th edition of the Tour de Hongrie cycle race and was held from 22 to 26 July 2008. The race started in Gyomaendrőd and finished in Miskolc. The race was won by Hans Bloks.


2008 Tour de Langkawi
The 2008 Tour de Langkawi was the 13th edition of the Tour de Langkawi, a cycling stage race that took place in Malaysia. It started on 9 February in Alor Setar and ended on 17 February in Kuala Lumpur. This race was rated by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) as a 2.HC race category and was highest ranked stage race on the 2007-08 UCI Asia Tour.


2008 Tour de Langkawi
Moldova's Ruslan Ivanov emerged as the winner of the race, followed by Matthieu Sprick second and Gustavo Cesar third. Aurélien Clerc won the points classification category and Filippo Savini won the mountains classification category. Diquigiovanni–Androni won the team classification category.


2008 Tour de Langkawi, Stages
The cyclists competed in 9 stages, covering a distance of 1,377.4 kilometres. The route for the Tour was unveiled on 17 December 2007 and revised on 31 December 2007. The traditional final race, criterium in Merdeka Square was also brought back to the race schedule. On January 23, 2008 it was announced that the route for Stage 8 Maran to Genting Highlands had been replaced with a route from Temerloh to Fraser's Hill due to the cyclist's safety reason. For the first time in the Tour's history, Genting Highlands route was not included in the race schedule.


2008 Tour de Langkawi, List of teams and riders
A total of 25 teams were invited to participate in the 2008 Tour de Langkawi. Out of the 148 riders, a total of 131 riders made it to the finish in Kuala Lumpur.


2008 Tour de Pologne
The 2008 Tour of Poland cycling road race took place from 14 to 20 September 2008.


2008 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 2
15 September 2008 — Płock > Olsztyn - 231.2 km


2008 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 3
16 September 2008 — Mikołajki > Białystok - 184.8 km


2008 Tour de Pologne, Stages, Stage 4
September 17: Bielsk Podlaski > LublinThe results of Stage 4 were annulled due to a protest on the finishing laps. The riders stopped riding within the wet and technical finishing circuit when they learned that time gap were counted within the last circuit lap. All results, including intermediate sprints during the stage, were annulled.


2008 Tour de Romandie
The 2008 Tour de Romandie (62nd Edition) cycling road race took place from 29 April to 4 May 2008 in Switzerland. It is the sixth race of the 2008 UCI ProTour.


2008 Tour de Romandie, Stages, Stage 4 - 3 May 2008: Sion > Zinal, 112.4 km
A landslide forced the organizers to cancel the third climb of the day, Saint-Luc, and the route was shortened to 112.4 km.


2008 Tour de Romandie, Individual 2008 UCI ProTour standings after race
As of 4 May 2008, after the 2008 Tour de Romandie.


2008 Tour de San Luis
The 2008 Tour de San Luis was a men's road cycling race held from 22  to January 27, 2008 in Argentina. The second edition of this road racing event was a multiple stage race with a prologue, five stages and a total length of 622 kilometres.


2008 Tour de Suisse
The 2008 Tour de Suisse was the 72nd edition of the Tour de Suisse road cycling stage race. The race took place from 14 June to 22 June 2008 and is part of the 2008 UCI ProTour. It began in Langnau im Emmental and ended in Bern. The race was won by Roman Kreuziger.


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 1
14 June 2008 - Langnau I.E. to Langnau I.E., 146 km (91 mi)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 2
15 June 2008 - Langnau I.E. to Flumserberg, 197 km (122 mi)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 3
16 June 2008 - Flums to Gossau SG, 155 km (96 mi)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 4
17 June 2008 - Gossau SG to Domat/Ems, 171 km (106 mi)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 5
18 June 2008 - Domat/Ems to Caslano, 190 km (120 mi)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 6
19 June 2008 - Ambrì to Verbier, 188 km (117 mi)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 7
20 June 2008 - Gruyères to Lyss, 171 km (106 mi)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 8
21 June 2008 - Altdorf to Klausen Pass, 25 km (16 mi) (ITT)


2008 Tour de Suisse, Stages, Stage 9
22 June, 2008 - Altdorf to Berne, 168 km (104 mi)


2008 Tour de Vineyards
The 2008 Tour de Vineyards was a cycling tour centered on the New Zealand city of Nelson, and was held between 2 and 5 January 2008. The men's race was eventually won by New Zealander Jeremy Yates, while fellow New Zealander Serena Sheridan took out the woman's title.


2008 Tour de Vineyards
Full results of the race can be found on the cyclingnews.com website, .


2008 Tour de Wallonie
The 2008 Tour de Wallonie was the 35th edition of the Tour de Wallonie cycle race and was held on 26–30 July 2008. The race started in Tubize and finished in Aubel. The race was won by Sergei Ivanov.


2008 Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin
The 2008 Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin was the 24th edition of the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin, a women's cycling stage race in France. It was rated by the UCI as a category 2.1 race and was held between 16 and 25 May 2008.


2008 Tour de las Américas
The 2008 Tour de las Américas season consisted of 15 golf tournaments, hosted in eight countries across Latin America. Six events were played in Argentina, two each in Chile and Venezuela and one each in Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru.


2008 Tour de las Américas
The Tour de las Américas continued its close association with the PGA European Tour, with three events being co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour, Europe's official development tour. It also began an association with the Canadian Tour, co-sanctioning three events.


2008 Tour de las Américas, Tournament results
In 2008 the prize funds ranged from US$40,000 to US$200,000. The richest events are the first three, which are co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour, and the last three, co-sanctioned by the Canadian Tour.


2008 Tour du Haut Var
The 2008 Tour du Haut Var was the 40th edition of the Tour du Haut Var cycle race and was held on 24 February 2008. The race started and finished in Draguignan. The race was won by Davide Rebellin.


2008 Tour of Azerbaijan (Iran)
Tour of Azerbaijan 2008 was the 23rd running of the Tour of Iran (Azerbaijan), which took place between 22 May and 29 May 2008 in Iranian Azerbaijan. The tour had 7 stages, in which Hossein Askari from Iran won the first place in over all of the tour.


2008 Tour of Britain
The 2008 Tour of Britain was a UCI 2.1 category race of eight stages from 7 September till 14 September 2008. The race was the fifth edition of the latest version of the Tour of Britain. It formed part of the 2007–2008 UCI Europe Tour. The race begun with a circuit stage in London and ended in Liverpool.


2008 Tour of Britain
The race was won by Geoffroy Lequatre of Agritubel, whilst both Alessandro Petacchi and Edvald Boasson Hagen won three stages.


2008 Tour of Britain, Stages, Stage 8
The final stage departed from Blackpool and finished in Liverpool with six laps of a city centre circuit. Alessandro Petacchi took the stage win, his third of the tour, whilst Geoffroy Lequatre finished third to win the general classification.


2008 Tour of California
The 2008 Tour of California was the third edition of an eight-day, 650-mile (1,045 km) stage race, which began in Palo Alto (Stanford University), then raced through the California redwoods, wine country and the Pacific Coast and finished in Pasadena. The road bicycle racing event was held February 17–24. The 2008 Tour of California is part of the 2007–2008 UCI America Tour and the 2008 USA Cycling Professional Tour.


2008 Tour of Flanders
The 2008 Tour of Flanders cycle race was the 92nd edition of this monumental classic and took place on April 6. The course was 264 km long and went from Bruges to Meerbeke.


2008 Tour of Flanders
Pre -race favorites included Fabian Cancellara (winner of Milan–San Remo and Tirreno–Adriatico), Alessandro Ballan (defending champion), Tom Boonen (winner in 2005 and 2006) and Leif Hoste (second-place position in 2004, 2006 and 2007).


2008 Tour of Flanders, General standings
200 riders had started the race, just 101 riders managed to finish.


2008 Tour of Ireland
The 2008 Tour of Ireland took place between Wednesday 27 August 2008 to Sunday 31 August 2008.


2008 Tour of Missouri
The 2008 Tour of Missouri was the second annual edition of a professional road bicycle racing stage race held in Missouri. It began on September 8, 2008 with seven days of racing. Run by same organizers as the Tour de Georgia and the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour of Missouri is being billed as the third highest profile domestic race in the United States. The race was broadcast on Universal Sports, a network being carried on the digital subchannels of twenty-one television stations throughout the country.


2008 Tour of Qatar
The 2008 Tour of Qatar was held from 27 January to 1 February 2008 in Qatar. It is a multiple stage road cycling race that took part over six stages with a total of 712.5 kilometres and is part of the 2007–2008 UCI Asia Tour.


2008 Tour of Turkey
The 2008 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, the 44th running of the race, took place from April 13 to April 20, 2008.


2008 Tour of Turkey, Teams
25 teams started the race – each had 6 riders at the start of the tour i.e., 150 started in total. The teams were:


2008 Tour of the Basque Country
The 2008 Tour of the Basque Country, the 65th edition of the Tour of the Basque Country stage cycling race, took place from 7 April to 12 April 2008. It was won by Spanish rider Alberto Contador of Astana.


2008 Tour of the Basque Country, Stages, Stage 1
7 April 2008 - Legazpi to Legazpi, 137 km (85 mi)


2008 Tour of the Basque Country, Stages, Stage 2
8 April 2008 - Legazpi to Erandio, 153 km (95 mi)


2008 Tour of the Basque Country, Stages, Stage 3
9 April 2008 - Erandio to Viana, 195 km (121 mi)


2008 Tour of the Basque Country, Stages, Stage 4
10 April 2008 - Viana to Vitoria-Gasteiz, 171 km (106 mi)


2008 Tour of the Basque Country, Stages, Stage 5
11 April 2008 - Vitoria-Gasteiz to Orio, 162 km (101 mi)


2008 Tour of the Basque Country, Stages, Stage 6
12 April 2008 - Orio to Orio, 20 km (12 mi) (ITT)


2008 Tour of the Basque Country, Individual 2008 UCI ProTour standings after race
As of 13 April 2008, after the 2008 Tour of the Basque Country.


2008 Towson Tigers football team
The 2008 Towson Tigers football team represented Towson University in the 2008 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by 17th-year head coach Gordy Combs and played their home games at Johnny Unitas Stadium. They are a member of the Colonial Athletic Association. They finished the season 3–9, 1–7 in CAA play.


2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
The 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the third round of the 2008 IndyCar Series season, for teams who competed in the Champ Car World Series in 2007. This was because the 2008 Indy Japan 300 occurred on the same weekend and there was no way of changing dates to avoid the clash. It was held on April 20, 2008, at the 1.968-mile (3.167 km) street circuit in Long Beach, California, United States. The race was historic in that Will Power became the last winner of a Champ Car-style race.


2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
The contingent of former Champ Car teams produced a 20-car field, all utilizing the turbocharged Panoz DP01-Cosworth for the final time. All participants entering other IndyCar races earned points towards the 2008 IndyCar Series championship. All the teams raced together again a week later at Kansas Speedway, and for the remainder of the schedule together. The race was run under Champ Car rules, which included the standing start, option tire, two-day qualifying format, ran on time (1 hour, 45 minutes) rather than a set number of laps. The option tire rule was adopted by the IRL for 2009, as well as standing starts for selected road and street course races in 2013 and 2014 only to be abandoned in 2015 due to safety concerns.


2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Several IRL staff and team personnel had flown back from Japan Sunday afternoon (local time) and saw at least part of the race, including Motegi winner Danica Patrick, who had scored her historic win the previous evening.


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350
The 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 was the sixteenth race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, and the first of two scheduled road course races on the 2008 schedule. The event was held on Sunday, June 22, 2008, at Infineon Raceway at Sears Point in Sonoma, California, televised on TNT starting at 3:30 PM US EDT, and broadcast on radio via Sirius Satellite Radio and Performance Racing Network starting at 4 PM US EDT.


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Pre-Race News, Race notes
The Australian rookie Marcos Ambrose had his first NASCAR Cup race/start in this race. He started 7th and the NASCAR Cup world noticed him. When Marcos Ambrose came to Sonoma to race, the fans and drivers remembered him for him being crashed by Robby Gordon in 2007 at Montreal with 2 laps left. Marcos Ambrose because of his road course talent & good finishes in the Busch series in his past, qualified seventh; and was contending to win in his Wood Bros. #21 Chevy.


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Pre-Race News, Race notes
However, with 25 laps left, NASCAR veteran Elliott Sadler tapped Marcos Ambrose who crashed and was damaged enough that he could not race anymore that day. Marcos Ambrose was really unhappy about the end of his good run and in post-race ceremonies he argued with Elliott Sadler in the garages. Ambrose said to reporters that he felt like beating Elliott Sadler for the tap but he got over it the next week after a call/apology from Sadler. Marcos finished in 42nd spot as a heartbreak for his first NASCAR Cup run.


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Pre-Race News, Race notes
Italian driver Max Papis also had one of his first NASCAR Cup races at Sonoma. He drove for Gene Haas' (Now Stewart-Haas) #66 Automation chevy and ended up in 35th spot.


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Pre-Race News, Race notes
The 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 also had one of NASCAR's largest numbers of road course drivers competing in the races with 8 drivers (Ron Fellows, Marcos Ambrose, Patrick Carpentier, Boris Said, Scott Pruett, Sam Hornish, Brian Simo, Robby Gordon).


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Qualifying
Kasey Kahne, who went out third in qualifying won the session, his second this season. Kahne, driver of the #9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Budweiser Dodge had bettered Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s time, and then sweated out 44 other attempts to sit on P-1. Jimmie Johnson started next to Kahne on the front row, with Kurt Busch and Bobby Labonte in the second row, followed by Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler in the third row.


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Qualifying
Failed to Qualify: J.J. Yeley (#96), Scott Riggs (#70), Dario Franchitti (#40), Brandon Ash (#02)


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Race recap
Kyle Busch came from the 30th starting position to win the race under a green-white-checker finish, the second furthest back in this race to win, bettering Juan Pablo Montoya's position one year earlier.


2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350, Results
NOTE: Race extended two laps due to green-white checker finish.


2008 Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council election
Elections to Trafford Council were held on 1 May 2008. One-third of the council was up for election, with each successful candidate to serve a four-year term of office, expiring in 2012. The Conservative Party held overall control of the council.


2008 Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council election
After the election, the composition of the council was as follows:


2008 Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council election, Summary
The following summary indicates the number of seats which are being defended by each party.


2008 Trail Appliances Curling Classic
The 2008 Trail Appliances Autumn Gold Curling Classic was held October 10-13 at the Calgary Curling Club in Calgary, Alberta. It was the first Grand Slam event of the 2008-09 Women's World Curling Tour.


2008 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections
The Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections of 2008 took place on 26 October 2008 in South Tyrol and on 9 November in the Trentino. It was the first time since 1946 that elections were not held on the same day.


2008 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections
The Trentino election was postponed as the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats' list (which would have supported Lorenzo Dellai) was excluded from the race due to lack of signatures.


2008 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections, Trentino
In Trentino, where the President is elected directly by the people, incumbent Lorenzo Dellai (Union for Trentino, supported also by the Democratic Party, the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party, the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats, the Greens and Democrats of Trentino, Loyal to Trentino, Italy of Values, and the Ladin Autonomist Union) defeated Sergio Divina (Lega Nord Trentino, supported also by The People of Freedom, Divina Civic List, Popular Autonomists, United Valleys, Fassa Association, Pensioners' Party, The Right, Tricolour Flame and other minor parties) by a landslide.


2008 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections, Trentino
The Democratic Party (PD) became the largest party in the Province, followed by Union for Trentino (UpT) and Lega Nord Trentino (LNT). The People of Freedom (PdL) lost many votes to LNT, UPT and the Trentino Tyrolean Autonomist Party (PATT). In fact both UpT and PATT were centrist parties, running strong campaigns at the provincial level.


2008 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections, South Tyrol
In South Tyrol the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP), which had governed the Province for sixty years, was confirmed by far as the largest party, but lost many votes to Die Freiheitlichen. Also South Tyrolean Freedom (a splinter group from Union for South Tyrol) and Lega Nord Alto Adige–Südtirol (LNST) made gains, while The People of Freedom (PdL), the Democratic Party (PD) and the Greens all lost votes and seats.


2008 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol provincial elections, South Tyrol
After the election President Luis Durnwalder proposed a coalition composed of SVP, PD and LNST, but finally stuck to the SVP–PD alliance.


2008 Tri Nations Series
The 2008 Tri Nations Series was the thirteenth annual Tri Nations competition between the national rugby union teams of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. The All Blacks won the series on 13 September 2008 after defeating Australia in the last match of the series.


2008 Tri Nations Series, Background
This was the first Tri Nations tournament after South Africa's 2007 Rugby World Cup victory, and they went into the competition as the top team in the IRB World Rankings (having ended a 175-week run for New Zealand). On 30 June 2008, before the tournament began, New Zealand and Australia were ranked second and third in the world respectively.


2008 Tri Nations Series, Background
The All Blacks went into the series with a world record 29 successive home victories, and South Africa with a 13 match winning streak.


2008 Tri Nations Series, Background
By the end of the tournament New Zealand had retaken top place in the IRB World Rankings. After 26 weeks at number one, South Africa slipped to second. Australia remained third.


2008 Tri Nations Series, Background
The final match of the Bledisloe Cup series between Australia and New Zealand took place after the Tri-Nations, on 1 November (the first 3 matches of the series were part of the Tri-Nations).


2008 Tri Nations Series, Experimental Law Variations
Several of the sport's Experimental Law Variations (or ELVs) were trialled as part of the 2008 Tri Nations. A global trial of 13 ELVs at all levels is to be conducted for one year from 1 August 2008. The Tri Nation's governing body SANZAR approved the trial of all the ELVs that had been included in the 2008 Super 14 season, as well as the ELVs to be trialled globally. Statistics from the 2008 Super 14 revealed the ELVs increased the number of tries, reduced the number of line-outs and penalties, increased the number of free kicks, but did not change the number of scrums or mauls. The changes increased the attacking opportunities from scrums.


2008 Tri Nations Series, Fixtures
Touch judges: Mark Lawrence James BolabiuTelevision match official: Shaun Veldsman


2008 Triglav Trophy
The 2008 Triglav Trophy was held between April 2 and 5, 2008. It was an international figure skating competition held annually in Jesenice, Slovenia. Skaters competed in the disciplines of men's and ladies' singles across the levels of senior, junior, and novice.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic
The 2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic was the fourth season of the TOYOTA Classic, which is a knockout tournament competition for teams in the TT Pro League and the National Super League. The tournament took place at the conclusion of the 2008 season. Joe Public entered as the tournament's defending champion.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Qualification
Every club from the TT Pro League automatically qualified for the competition. In addition, following the conclusion of the National Super League season, the top five teams ranked according to the league table qualified. All teams entered the competition at the first round.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Qualification
The draw for the first round for the fourth edition of the tournament was conducted by Pro League CEO Dexter Skeene on 26 November 2008, at the Constantine Stand, Queen's Park Oval. The 16 teams in the competition, valued at TT$150,000 in total sponsorship, were drawn into four groups, all named after TOYOTA branded vehicles, Terios (Group A), Sirion (Group B), Delta (Group C), and Daihatsu (Group D). All clubs were seeded based on their positions in their respective leagues.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Qualification
W Connection, Caledonia AIA, San Juan Jabloteh, and Joe Public of the TT Pro League were drawn as the top seeds in Groups A, B, C, and D, respectively.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Qualification
The following clubs have qualified for this year's edition of the TOYOTA Classic:


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Schedule
The schedule for the 2008 TOYOTA Classic, as announced by the TT Pro League and National Super League:


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Results
All matches were played over two 45 minutes halves, and in the process if the match were drawn at the end of regulation time, penalty kicks determined the winner.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Results, First round
The tournament commenced on 1 December, with all 16 teams competing in single elimination matches. Despite having the chance to upset a club from the Pro League, each Super League team lost in the first round. Tobago United provided the only upset of the round, when the Tobago Boys topped Defence Force in Group C. All other higher-seeded teams advanced to the quarterfinals with little difficulty.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Results, Quarterfinals
In the quarterfinals, top-seeded clubs W Connection and Joe Public were ousted from the competition following defeats to North East Stars and St. Ann's Rangers, respectively. On the other side of the bracket, San Juan Jabloteh and Caledonia AIA both advanced easily as both Pro League sides did not concede a goal during the round.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Results, Semifinals
One week after the quarterfinals, on 12 December, St. Ann's Rangers continued their run through the tournament with a 1–0 win over fellow Pro League side North East Stars. San Juan Jabloteh also advanced to the final with a victory against Caledonia AIA.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Results, Third place
In the consolation match-up, Caledonia AIA narrowly defeated North East Stars 6–5 on penalty kicks, after the match ended 2–2 in regulation, to claim the competition's third place.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago Classic, Results, Final
In the final, San Juan Jabloteh claimed their first TOYOTA Classic title with a 2–1 win over St. Ann's Rangers using goals from Jason Marcano and Trent Noel. Conrad Smith used a brace in Caledonia AIA's victory in the first round to eventually end as the tournament's leading goal scorer with four goals.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy
The 2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy was the 79th season of the FA Trophy, which is the oldest football competition for teams in Trinidad and Tobago. The tournament took place at the conclusion of the 2008 season. Joe Public entered as the tournament's defending champion. The tournament began on 3 December, with 32 teams competing in single elimination matches.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Qualification
The tournament featured teams from the top three levels of the football pyramid. These three levels and 8 leagues, namely the TT Pro League, National Super League, Central FA's Premier Division, Eastern FA's Premier Division, Eastern Counties' Football Union, Northern FA's Premier Division, Southern FA's Premier Division, and Tobago FA's Premier Division, each have their own separate qualification process to trim their ranks down to their final team delegations.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Qualification
The top eight finishers in the Pro League for the 2008 season all qualified for the competition. In addition, the top eight finishers from the Super League also qualified. However, only three clubs from 4 of the 6 regional football associations were awarded qualification into this year's edition, with the Eastern Counties and Northern FA as the exceptions as they only received two.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Qualification
The following clubs qualified for the 79th edition of the FA Trophy:


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Schedule
The schedule for the 2008 FA Trophy, as announced by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association:


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results
All matches were played over two 45 minute halves, and in the process if the match were drawn at the end of regulation time, then two additional 15-minute halves were used, and if necessary, penalty kicks if still drawn after extra time.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, First round
The draw for the most prestigious knockout tournament held by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association was made on 24 November 2008 at its head office in Port of Spain, Trinidad with ties played on 3 December 2008. The only Pro League match-up featured United Petrotrin against North East Stars. All Pro League clubs advanced easily into the second round with a combined scoreline of 28–2. With the withdrawal of Trinidad and Tobago U20, Charlotteville Unifiers was the lone survivor facing competition from a higher division.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, Second round
The draw for the second round took place on 4 December 2008 and involved the 16 winning teams from the first round. These were from the following levels:


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, Second round
Matches in the second round were played on 7 December 2008. 1976 FC Phoenix and WASA provided the Trophy's first two upsets over Pro League clubs by putting out Joe Public and North East Stars, respectively. Another surprise from the round was that Dathea Copious Suns defeated T&TEC to be the lone representative from the third level of the pyramid in the quarterfinals.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, Quarterfinals
The draw for the quarterfinals took place on 8 December 2008 and involved the 8 winning teams from the second round. These were from the following levels:


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, Quarterfinals
Matches in the quarterfinals were played on 10 December 2008. WASA remained the only club from outside the TT Pro League to advance to the semifinals after defeating Dathea Copious Suns. Caledonia AIA needed extra time to defeat St. Ann's Rangers (PL), Defence Force stunned San Juan Jabloteh 2–1, and W Connection put out giant-killers 1976 FC Phoenix to advance to the semifinals.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, Semifinals
The draw for the semifinals took place on 11 December 2008. It consisted of Caledonia AIA, Defence Force, and W Connection from the Pro League (1) and WASA from the National Super League (2). The semifinal matches took place at Marvin Lee Stadium on 15 December 2008.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, Semifinals
W Connection made quick work of Super League side WASA to end their run in the competition by putting up eight goals. Caledonia AIA defeated Defence Force 4–2 to make it back-to-back final appearances.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago FA Trophy, Results, Final
The final was played at Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya, Trinidad on 17 December 2008. The match was contested by Caledonia AIA, who beat Defence Force 4–2 in their semifinal, and W Connection who beat WASA 8–1. Caledonia AIA used a goal late from Conrad Smith to level the match at two each in the 82nd minute. After the match ended 2–2 in regulation, Caledonia AIA used the momentum and produced a goal from Jameel Perry in the 108th minute to give Caledonia AIA their first FA Trophy title. Atiba McKnight claimed the title of the Trophy's leading goal scorer with six goals for W Connection on their way to the final.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup
The 2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup was the ninth season of the First Citizens Cup, which is the league cup competition for Trinidad and Tobago teams competing in the TT Pro League. The slogan for the year's league cup was No Room for Losers and was sponsored by First Citizens Bank for the eighth consecutive year. W Connection entered as the defending champions after having defeated Caledonia AIA 2–0 in the 2007 final for their fourth consecutive league cup title.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, Qualification
Seeding for the competition was determined from the league standings following the eighteenth league match day. The bottom four teams were placed in the qualifying round to determine which teams advance to the quarterfinals. The teams ranked from first to sixth advanced directly to the quarterfinals.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, Qualification
The automatic quarterfinal qualifiers in order of league position were: San Juan Jabloteh, W Connection, Caledonia AIA, United Petrotrin, Joe Public, and St. Ann's Rangers.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, Schedule
The schedule for the 2008 First Citizens Cup, as announced by the TT Pro League:


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, Results
All matches were played for 90 minutes duration, at the end of which if the match was still tied, penalty-kicks were used to determine the match winner.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, Results, Qualifying round
The knockout cup began in the qualifying round with Tobago United and Defence Force recording upsets over higher-seeded Ma Pau and North East Stars respectively.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, Results, Quarterfinals
Fans saw a goal spree in the quarterfinals where 22 goals were scored in four matches on 12 September, which saw Jabloteh, Joe Public, Rangers, and W Connection advance to the semifinals.


2008 Trinidad and Tobago League Cup, Results, Semifinals
On 19 September 2008, Joe Public used a lone goal from Gregory Richardson to advance to the final. In the other semifinal, W Connection blanked St. Ann's Rangers after goals from Jonathan Faña and Atiba McKnight on either side of half-time.