Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/7/2009

The team time trial was back in the Tour de France, just in time to greet the last winner of the TTT, a Johan Bruyneel managed team with Lance Armstrong on it. Same result too, as Team Astana handily beat the second place Garmin-Slipstream by 18 seconds. Rules in the past limited the time damage over the field by designating time gaps based on a team's placement at the end of the day, ten seconds per placement starting at +20 to the first 15, and +5 for the remainders. The only teams who got their actual time were the eventual winners and any team finishing within 20 seconds of that winning time. So, if your team finished dead last, the most time your first five finishers would have lost would be about 3 minutes. Anyone not finishing in the bunch got their actual finishing time. The actual team times awarded were also based on any time gaps smaller than the ten second or 5 second increments, depending on how close one team's finishing time was to the team immediately above it in the rankings. This year, in keeping with the no time bonuses rule, your team time is what your fifth finisher gets today (dropped riders still got their actual finishing times). For the weaker teams, this was bad news, as the last place team, Skil-Shimano, finished 5'23" back of Astana. Also, overall contenders Cadel Evans and Denis Menchov will have to make some heroic efforts in the mountains to make up the 2'59" and 3'52" they've lost to Armstrong and the Astana boys.