PARIS — Race director Christian Prudhomme proclaimed the 2008 Tour de France will eventually be seen as a victory against doping because cyclists were caught cheating.

However, even after some were snared, at least one other still tried to beat the system.

Sunday's glitzy, ceremonial end to the Tour tasted rather like flat Champagne when news of the fourth rider to test positive broke at about the same time Spanish rider Carlos Sastre was sipping from his glass while doing victory laps around the Champs-Elysees.

The day before, Prudhomme proclaimed that in the near future this year's Tour will be seen as the year "when the balance shifted the other way" in the fight against doping.

But the four doping tests revealed — thus far — from the 2008 Tour suggest this message has not hit home — despite Pierre Bordry's French Anti-Doping Agency operating with the kind of ruthless efficiency seldom shown in previous years.

"This Tour for me absolutely shows that this sport has one foot in the future and one foot in the past," said Team Columbia manager Bob Stapleton, adding that "methods and conduct that are not acceptable in sports and not acceptable in cycling" are still prevalent.

Sastre, whose Team CSC boss Bjarne Riis admitted to doping during his 1996 Tour win, became the third Spaniard to win the showcase event, while Cadel Evans of Australia finished 58 seconds behind. For the second straight year Evans has lost the Tour by less than a minute after conceding defeat to Alberto Contador of Spain by 23 seconds in 2007.

"It's very moving," Sastre said, hugging his two children as he savored his win.

While Sastre, Evans and third-place Bernhard Kohl of Austria mounted the podium steps, attentions were drawn elsewhere when it was announced Kazakh rider Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for the banned stimulant heptaminol after stage 18.

Fofonov, who said he bought the product off the Internet to treat cramps but forgot to tell the team's doctor, was immediately fired by his Credit Agricole team.