Tour Enters Paris Finale

Denmark’s Bjarne Riis protected his lead in the Tour de France, and headed for Paris just about assured he will win the cycling classic.

Runner-up Jan Ullrich of Germany won the 40-mile individual time trial on the race’s next-to-last day. Ullrich nearly moved into the overall lead when he finished the 20th stage of the 21-stage race in 2 minutes, 18 seconds ahead of Riis.

But Riis, who started the day nearly 4 minutes ahead of Ullrich, finished fourth in the time trial, and held a lead of 1:41 when the day was over.