In article ,
John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:

On Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:42:29 -0400, RonSonic
wrote:

The last stage in particular no rider even if he's three hours down on GC
will
get away without the sprinter's teams running him down and if the guy's a GC
threat then the leader's team will bring him back.

Everything you say is true about the difficulty of an escape on the
last stage, but it has been done in the last decade or two. Jeff
Pierce won the stage from a break, as did (I think) Eddy Seigneur
(sp).

The last time a GC contendor got a little gap was last year or the
year before by Vinokourov, but really that was a long sprint. The
last read "break" that I can think of by a GC rider was 20-25 years
ago by Hinault and Zootemelk, though that did not change GC since they
were in first and second anyway.

It should be said that I have always understood the tradition as "it's a
parade until the Champs Elysee."

They do, what, 8 laps of that, making up the last 22 km or so of an
already short stage (130 k this year).

I think the best formulation was someone who, answering the question of
what would happen to a rider who tried a breakaway before then, said the
entire peloton would chase down the offender, and then they'd pelt him
with their water bottles.

Again, I have no doubt that the bets would be off on a day when there
was something that could be meaningfully contested. The "truce" is
really more about the idea that GC no-hopers aren't going to be allowed
to go and do their usual 10-minutes ahead thing. The reason seems to be
a combination of letting the peloton relax and have an easy and
celebratory ride in, and it probably makes for a better spectacle to
have the whole pack ride onto the Champs at once, and let 'er rip for
the last 20 km.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos