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PERIGUEUX, France -- Vincenzo Nibali confirmed he will win the Tour de France and two Frenchmen will join him on the podium after a dramatic penultimate stage on Saturday. After his remarkable deeds in the mountains, Nibali finished the individual time trial in an impressive fourth place behind winner and German speedster Tony Martin, and padded his overall lead by more than 40 seconds to nearly eight minutes. Its mainly a ceremonial ride on Sunday to the Champs-Elysees, where Nibali is set to become the first Italian winner of the Tour since Marco Pantani in 1998. Nibali reduced the drama on Stage 20 to who would join him on the podium on Sunday. Jean-Christophe Peraud and Thibaut Pinot, will, the first Frenchmen on the podium since Richard Virenque in 1997. They did enough to leave behind an unlucky Alejandro Valverde of Spain in their three-man race for the final podium. Only 15 seconds separated them when the stage began in Bergerac, but it became more than two minutes when the time trial finished in Perigueux. Peraud, a 37-year-old former mountain bike racer, became tearful at the finish after learning he would be on the final podium: "Its beautiful." Because Valverde had a bad day, Peraud -- who even blew a flat and had to change bikes, losing about 20 seconds -- and Pinot were able to eclipse him. Among other changes, American Tejay van Garderen climbed a spot from sixth to fifth overall by overcoming a deficit of 2 minutes, 7 seconds to Romain Bardet -- by just two seconds. The young French rider lost key seconds after blowing a flat at the end of the stage. Because the last stage is flat, and the teams of Nibali, Peraud and Pinot will be hawking over any breakaway attempts, the final stage, after more than 86 hours of racing, is a cruise which often features Champagne bottles popping during the ride. Martin, the world time trial champion, clobbered the field over the 54-kilometre (34-mile) leg. Pedaling with his body curled up in a tight ball, with the aerodynamic rear disk wheel bearing the rainbow-colored stripes earned by the world champion, Martin maintained a steady pace on the flats, hugged the edge of the road on curves, and squatted down on his bikes top tube to reduce wind drag on the descents. Sweat trickled down his nose and off his chin. The German overtook the rider who started two minutes before him by about the 15-kilometre point. Four kilometres later, Martin, who began 115th in the stage, already had a 35-second lead on the fastest man up to that point: Czech time trial champion Jan Barta. At the end, he finished 1:39 faster than Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin in second, and Barta was third, eight seconds slower. Nibali was fourth, 1:58 behind the German, Van Garderen was sixth, 2:08 behind, and Peraud was seventh, 2:27 adrift. Overall, the Italian has a lead of 7:52 over Peraud, and 8:24 over Pinot. Valverde, in fourth, was 9:55 back. To understand the difficulty of overcoming a seven-minute margin, only 12 1/2 minutes separated Martin from the rider who finished last. Because Nibali was far from the worst time-trial rider -- in fact hes among the best -- it was nearly impossible for his longshot rivals to catch him. Ted Ginn Jr Jersey . With the win, the Marlies complete a three-game series sweep of the Admirals and move on to the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs. T.J. Brennan added an empty netter with less than 25 seconds remaining for his second of the playoffs. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson Saints Jersey .com) - Fair Grounds commences its road to the Kentucky Derby Saturday with the 71st running of the $200,000 Lecomte Stakes. http://www.saintsrookiestore.com/Saints-Morten-Andersen-Jersey/ . - A late-game interception by defensive back Malcolm Butler saved the Super Bowl for the New England Patriots. Willie Roaf Womens Jersey .com) - The 12th-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes continue a four-game homestand at Value City Arena on Wednesday night when they face off against the High Point Panthers in a non-conference matchup. Cameron Jordan Womens Jersey .com) - The Toronto Blue Jays will look to snap a three-game skid Friday night when they continue their road trip in the opener of a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.NEW YORK -- Marcus Thornton has been around the Brooklyn Nets for only two weeks, so hes still trying to learn his new teams playbook. According to Nets first-year coach Jason Kidd, there are some plays his reserve guard understands pretty well. "Its called shoot it," Kidd said. Thornton did just that on his way to scoring 15 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter against his old team while Joe Johnson added 18 points to help Brooklyn overcame an injury to Paul Pierce in a 104-89 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night. Alan Anderson had 11 points and Shaun Livingston and Deron Williams each scored 10 points as the Nets won for the fifth time in six games. Brooklyns win was its seventh straight at the Barclays Center, matching a season-high set Dec. 27, 2013 to Jan. 24, 2014. Thornton, acquired from the Kings in exchange for Reggie Evans and Jason Terry on Feb. 19, took it to his former teammates over a four-minute stretch that bridged the end of the third quarter and the opening minutes of the fourth. With 5.5 seconds remaining in the third, Thornton made a 3-pointer to extend Brooklyns lead to 77-65. Thornton then continued his streak of 13 straight points by opened up the final quarter with a drive to the basket to extend the lead. He then stripped the ball from Ray McCallum and finger-rolled it to make it 81-65. McCallum later would throw the ball out of bounds and Andray Blatche found Thornton for another 3 that made it 84-68. He then concluded his hot streak with another 3 right over former teammates Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins to make it 87-69 with 9:58 to go and the Nets never looked back leading by as many as 24 in the period. "Anytime you see the ball go through the net, you get confidence about yourself," said Thornton, who scored 15 straight against Memphis last week. "I credit my teammates for finding me in spots I can be effective in. And my shots were going down." So far, Thornton been able to show flashes of that scorer Brooklyn was looking to add when they swung the deal before the trade deadline. Hes averaged 11.8 points in six games despite his limited knowledge of the teams offensive scheme. "If Im open, Im (going) to shoot it,&quuot; he said.dddddddddddd Thorntons presence off the bench will be even more crucial if Pierce is out for an extended amount of time. After the game, Kidd said the team would re-evaluate Pierce and Andrei Kirilenko, who left the game in the third quarter after spraining his right ankle. "Well, I stepped on Derons foot in the first quarter and felt a little tweak," Kirilenko said. "I thought I could keep going but obviously it just stopped me. I dont think its a serious injury." Brooklyn will host the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Raptors on Monday night. The Raptors currently hold a four-game lead over the second-place Nets. Kings coach Michael Malone was criticial of the way the team mishandled the ball throughout the night while also singling out the way they shared the ball. "Once again we continue to beat ourselves on the road. Eleven assists in 48-minute game is absurd. More importantly is the 25 turnovers for 28 points," Malone said. "What I see now on both ends of the floor is a disease of me. Were becoming a selfish basketball team." Of the 25 turnovers forced by the Nets, 14 were steals. Cousins had 20 points and 28 rebounds to lead the Kings, and Gay added 20 points. "Turnovers killed us tonight," Cousins said. "Turnovers and Id say selfish basketball, thats what really hurt us tonight. We let Marcus Thornton get hot. We let one of those shooters hurt us and thats what kind of sealed the game." Brooklyn led by 16 points in the first half after losing Pierce to a right shoulder injury in the early minutes of the first quarter. However, Brooklyn outscored Sacramento 47-32 the rest of the way. Pierce got hurt with just under 11 minutes left in the first quarter when Sacramentos Jason Thompson backed him into the paint and as he kept looking to post Pierce in the paint, he quickly spun around for a layup. Pierce felt the force of Thompson banging into him and clutched his shoulder. Kevin Garnett has also missed the last five games with back spasms. NOTES: Brooklyn improved to 14-11 against the Western Conference this season but are 10-3 since Jan. 1. ... Brooklyns reserves outscored their counterparts 59-19. ' ' '