Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/10/10

During a three week Grand Tour, such as the Tour de France, there are only two rest days, each after about a week of racing. However, according to Chris Horner of Radioshack, there are more, because the non-GC contenders regard the time trial stages as rest days. The domestiques and sprinters only put in about an 80 to 85 percent effort into their race, and spend the rest of the day concentrating on recovery. At this year's Tour, the riders are feeling more tired than usual before entering the first mountain stages because they have not had the usual first week time trial. Instead, they have had hard crashes and cobblestone stages.