Team Time Trial Day

Lance back in yellow. Despite how natural that seems, Bruyneel was talking as though maybe it would be good to hand the jersey off to someone else on the team or maybe another team, but it is hard to imagine how that will happen at least for the next few days.

I pointed out last year how scoring of the Team Time Trial was changed; I presume to help the self-esteem of the weaker team. Despite some changes this year, it is still working like a transfer payment, taking time from the stronger teams and giving it to the weaker. In the current line-up, Armstrong, Basso and Ullrich/Vinokurov/Klöden (depending upon who you think is team leader at T-Mobile) are being penalized while the other potential GC (general classification) leaders are given time bonuses:

This may not mean much to Lance, since he usually wins the Tour by more than 6 minutes except for that 61 seconds in Win 5 (2003), but it could affect the podium—Klöden beat Basso last year by 21 seconds. We'll see in Paris.