Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/23/10

With Mark Cavendish winning his 4th stage of this year's Tour de France, and Alessandro Pettachi finishing third, and ending up 10 points ahead of Thor Hushovd in the green jersey competition, the top three are only separated by 16 points. Hushovd has conceded the race, citing his poor fitness in his legs for field sprinting, but anything can happen on the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées. All the sprinters are now talking about the final sprint on the last stage, even though there is still one other stage remaining with the 52 km individual time trial. There are actually points available for the top ten places in an individual time trial, which is why some sprinters can actually get points in the short ITT's of a prologue. A five to ten minute effort is possible for sprinters to match the speeds of the time trial specialists, since this kind of effort matches the final ten kilometers leading up to a final sprint on a flat run-in. However, a one hour effort is impossible for the sprinters to maintain at the same level as the specialists or to match the different strengths and focus of the overall contenders.