Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/21/2011

As I've written about before, on huge climbing days, the sprinters' grupetto can nullify the time-cut, if they have a large enough bunch. However, along with the other new rules for sprinter points in this year's Tour, the organizers have come up with a balance to that check by penalizing each of the riders the stage winner's points if they decide to do that. Today's stage was the first time that new rule was invoked, and 88 riders lost 20 of their green jersey points. Because Movistar seems to be aiming for the green jersey by trying to eliminate Mark Cavendish in the mountains, instead of beating him to the finish lines, Jose Joaquin Rojas beat the grupetto, came in under the time-cut, and cut Cavendish's lead in the points competition to 15, and extended his lead over Philippe Gilbert and Thor Hushovd.