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tour de france yellow jersey


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why is it that lance armstrong wins the yellow jersey every stage ?

Because though he doesn't win any stages, cumulatively he is the fastest overall. He's not the fastest on the flat, he's not the fastest up the hills, but overall his the best of the lot. It's about not losing time. The guy who was in yellow one day was level with Lance a few miles from the end, but came in thirty minutes after him by the end, and was eliminated altogether the next day.

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Woody, you pipped me to the most to ask this, I was starting to think I must be the kiss of death for poor old Armstrong as I hadn't seen him win once this year.  So basically the riders' times are totalled and then divided by the number of stages?  I guess this is fairest system when you consider what a gruelling challenge it is.  M
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No, the riders times are not totalled and then divided by the stages.

Armstrong won the first time trials with his equipe by such a good margin and then continued to chip away with minutes and seconds that he is the fastest each day even if he doesn't win.  He lets the riders well below him in the classment win if it changes nothing for him but you will notice that he, Basso, Ullrich and 'The Opportunist' in the red spots are always together because if one of them broke away and won by a couple of minutes, Armstrong would go down the classment.

If Ullrich is fastest today for example, he might not overtake Armstrong but he could beat Basso and Red Spots - who's name I would have to look up to spell.

I didn't watch it yesterday so I don't know the exact time differences as I'm trying to wean myself off it when it isn't on next week  I will be watching Maigret instead!

(Actually I went spending money at IKEA)

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I could have been talking drivel to you this morning.  That will teach me to post before my second cup of coffee....

I asked Gilles and he is like me, doesn't know if the time trials for the team are actually counted in the individuals time.

Didn't Armstrong go today.  Wow!

I think Rasmussen just wanted out sympathy.  Falling off his bike TWICE and then swapping bikes about four times.

I won't be cheering for him next year.  I am going to have to find a hero to get all excited about though.

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