The former duo had a maximum lead of around 13 minutes 45 seconds, but the quartet of escapees was caught by the peleton just 500 m from the finish. 
Over the years the Tour de France has seen 52 British riders; the first being Charley Holland and Bill Burl in 1937. 
After an early escape, Nicolas Vogondy and Matthieu Ladagnous were joined by Stephane Auge and Frederik Willems (the first three French, the latter Belgian) at 42 km of the finish. 
Despite their being almost 190 riders the speeding cyclists had come and gone in a matter of minutes, however the show was not yet over. 
Despite some not being in the best of condition and some riding rather rickety bikes, these fans still managed to get an enthusiastic cheer of encouragement from the remaining onlookers. 
For a quarter of an hour afterwards tour buses, and still yet more support vehicles followed in the wake of the cyclists. 
George Hincapie was given the honor of leading his team and the peloton onto the Champs-Élysées, as he has now guided team mates to victory a record eight times. 
However, Astana Team, which has now withdrawn, had two other riders in the top ten, Andreas Klöden, fifth overall, and Andrey Kashechkin, eighth overall. 
Astana Team announced today that Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan failed a blood test following his victory in Saturday's time trial. 
Setting off at one minute intervals the 180 plus riders took less than ten minutes to speed past some. 
