Now that is a photo finish! … 
I couldn’t call this one way or the other. Can anyone here really call it?
Kept waiting for them to show that this morning before I headed to work…neither rider raised their arms in triumph so even they did not know who had one. Wonder how indeed they called it for Weening!
Definately too close to call. I say take them all back to the start line and do it all over again. That was a pretty entertaining race. 
I don’t think anyone can from that pic. As the announcers mentioned, everything becomes complicated when it ends in a dead heat–they don’t like ties. They probably flipped a coin. Heh.
They probably had a better version of the photo. If I had to call it, I would call it for the top rider, but this is so close that it could easily be an illusion.
Definitelt Rabobank 1 - T mobile 2
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they have a software to analyze finishes…
precise enough to see a .00001 second difference…the difference was reported to be .00002 seconds…
Please tell me you are joking.
If the T Mobile guy were going faster at this point, he might reach that line first.
not joking…the difference would not have been measurable before they got this software…first used in 2003 I think.
So you are saying this is accurate to 10 microseconds. Hard to imagine. If they were misaligned with the finish line by a mm, it would probably result in a bigger error.
it’s not that complicated to align a finish line and a camera…also, the Tour is VERY pro now and they have tremendous technical support.
say (to simplify) 60km/h at the end.
That’s 1km/min, roughly 16m/s, or 1.6mm per .00001…so roughly it means they can measure a 3mm difference with a movie software analyzing frame by frame…nothing not doing technologically…
It is just hard to see how to get accuracy that is probably far less than the shutter time, and to do it in the field reliably.
Certainly not impossible though.
hey, never said it was easy…maybe that’s why they just started using this software 2 years ago
But it’s not a still picture…it’s a movie. 24 frames per second. then there is an interpolation algorithm that computes the position of the bikes in between frames.
http://www.phoenix-sports.com/alge_opti.htm
http://velonews.com/news/fea/3836.0.html
I think Tissot and Alge are similar using direct to digital storage systems. Even analog cameras can have incredible shutter speed, look at ballistics photos.
They also use multiple cameras for high level events in case of failure and usually one camera on each side of the finish line.
Ok since the wheels virtually seemed to cross the line at the same time it would have helped if one of them pointed a finger forward for the tiebreak!
More daylight between the line and Kloden’s wheel. Plus Weening went around Kloden so it seems logical he would be the one going slightly faster. Strange how they both arch their bodies in the same way.
An interview with Pieter Weening 0.0002 seconds
Pieter Weening (Rabobank) took his first professional win today in the eighth stage of the Tour de France, in a desperately close two man sprint with 2004 Tour runner-up Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile). But in the end, Weening was awarded the win by just 0.0002 seconds, which has to be one of the smallest winning margins ever. *Cyclingnews’ Anthony Tan *reports from Gérardmer. Pieter Weening (Rabobank)
Photo ©: Sirotti 
Until today, Pieter Weening had come close to victory on several occasions, but lacked the luck or the legs to make it happen. At the third stage of the 2004 Tour of Germany, on a similarly difficult course to the one he conquered today, he beat Andreas Klöden and Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano in a three-man sprint to place third. Two months later and also in Germany, he finished second in a 23 kilometre time trial to Davide Rebellin at the Sachsen-Tour International.
This year, on the day he turned 24, the lanky Dutchman came within three kilometres of giving himself a birthday present in the form of a ProTour stage win on the second stage of the Tour of the Basque Country (Vuelta al Pais Vasco). So a win was always on the cards - it was just a matter of time. “When Klöden caught me , I said to myself: ‘The same thing can’t happen to me again.’”
Click here for the full interview T-Mobile on the rise
From the TDF website
17:19 - Smallest Winning Margin…?
The official timing system has sensors on every bike in the race. The finish of today’s stage was so close that a photo had to be used to determine the winner. It’s difficult to tell if Pieter Weening’s tyre was ahead of Andreas Kloden’s but the timing system declared the Rabobank rider the winner.
The winning time was just 0.0002 of a second!
Of course, on something this close, you have to ask just where on the bike, in relation to the front of the tire, the time sensor was attached.
That was really cool to watch:-)
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