Vincenzo Nibali

Vincenzo Nibali put his lungs and legs to work one last time, marching up to the winner's podium of the Tour de France and sighing deeply before the Italian anthem echoed over the Champs-Elysees.

Finally cracking broad smiles after weeks of no-nonsense racing, Vincenzo Nibali confirmed he will win the Tour de France after another impressive ride in a dramatic penultimate stage on Saturday.

As his team hoped, Vincenzo Nibali demonstrated he's the "boss" of the Tour de France. Just don't compare him to the last rider to regularly bear that sobriquet at cycling's greatest race, Lance Armstrong.

Riding in his 10th Tour de France, three-time world champion Michael Rogers of Australia finally got his first stage victory in cycling's greatest race on Tuesday by leading a breakaway group to a downhill finish as the pack entered the Pyrenees.

Almost at the line, Jack Bauer and Martin Elmiger were exhausted but could see it coming -- their first Tour de France stage victory. Those last 50 meters, however, got in the way.

Sitting on a roadside guard rail, wincing and rubbing his lower back, Andrew Talansky looked ready to quit the Tour de France in the middle of Stage 11. The Tour's Web site and French TV commentators said his race was over. So did some English-language Twitterati. The "Pit Bull" proved them wrong.

After just 10 stages, the two pre-race favorites have crashed out of the Tour de France. And Vincenzo Nibali is wasting little time in showing that he's now the man to beat.

In a solo breakaway, Blel Kadri gave France its first stage winner at the Tour de France in the entree to the Vosges mountains on Saturday. Meanwhile, Vincent Nibali extended his lead over his biggest rivals except an important one: Two-time champion Alberto Contador, who sped ahead thinking he might win the stage and trying to test the response of the Italian in the yellow jersey.

Vincenzo Nibali is growing comfortable in his yellow jersey. He's not taking the Tour de France lead for granted, though.

An injured wrist was just too much for Tour de France champion Chris Froome, in one of the most memorable and crash-marred stages in recent race history. Froome ended his repeat bid Wednesday, dropping out of cycling's big event and dropping a bombshell on his competitors after crashing twice in a rain-, mud-, sweat- and blood-soaked fifth stage through nerve-wracking cobblestones along France's border with Belgium.