Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/21/08 Rest Day

As we enter the final week of Tour, most of the attention is on the top six riders who are only separated by 49 seconds. But let's take a look at the last place man, the lanterne rouge, who happens to be Sébastien Chavanel from Team Francaise des Jeux. He's only a mere 2h 42' 15" behind the overall leader Frank Schleck. However, as a percentage of the leader's total ride time, which is 63h 57' 21", Chavanel is within 4.23% of Schleck. That doesn't sound so bad, now does it? On the flip side, it makes you appreciate how little a gap of 49 seconds actually is, among the top 5 percent of the elite cyclists.