~7 minutes to go...
12:53 - Sprint Finish Not Certain...
The consensus is that today’s course is one for the sprinters but LeTour.fr spoke with a couple of key people about the stage earlier today and both Allan Peiper, the directeur sportif of HTC-Columbia, and Robbie McEwen, the winner of 12 sprint stage of the Tour over the years, both said it’s going to be an interesting tactical battle. Lampre and Cervelo will be the teams with the most to win or lose as the green jersey could be decided on a day like this...
12:56 - The Two Intermediate Sprints
Points for the green jersey will be awarded in Castelnau-Chalosse (29.5km), Hostels (150.5km) and at the finish in Bordeaux. There are 6, 4 and 2 for the first three over the line at the intermediate primes. And at the end, points go down to the first 25 over the finish line. The allocation of points in Bordeaux is: 35pts for first, then 30, 26, 24, 22, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1.
12:57 - Prize Category Summary: Yellow Jersey
The stage to the col du Tourmalet confirmed the dominance of the riders in first and second overall in the 2010 Tour. Andy Schleck was unable to gain any time on his main rival, the defending champion and race leader Alberto Contador. But the two increased their buffer over those in third and fourth overall. Samuel Sanchez crashed early in the stage yesterday but finished fifth. He lost 1’32” to the yellow jersey and is now 3’32” behind the GC leader.
12:58 - Prize Category Summary: Green Jersey
This is the classification that is likely to dictate how stage 18 is raced. There are two intermediate sprints – in Castelnau-Chalosse (29.5km) and Hostens (150.5km) – and then a good dose of points are on offer in Bordeaux. There’s no climb on the course and the consensus is that it should be a day for the sprinters, but Robbie McEwen said, “It’s one of those days that, on paper, everyone thinks is a day for the sprinters it has to be controlled so everything so it all comes together.”
12:58 - Green Jersey [Continued….]
“There’ll be two teams that will want to bring it together for a sprint to get the points: HTC and Lampre,” said McEwen earlier today. “Cervelo will NOT want it to come down to that… and there’ll be plenty of teams on the attack.” Lampre has the most motivation because Petacchi needs only four points to take back the green jersey that is worn by the winner of stage three, Thor Hushovd.”