It was a sight to behold as the three contenders for the green jersey fought it out over the last few metres on the Champs-Élysées. For the god of thunder it was a bolt too far as the manky missile blasted past the gentleman sprinter, aka Ale-jet Petacchi. Cav had the major consolation of taking out his fifth win for the year and second on the hallowed Champs-Élysées. Hushovd can look back on a less-successful than hoped for Tour with a few intermediate green jerseys to add to the collection, and fond memories of the day he rode through the Pyrenées with the “select group”. Petacchi meanwhile needed a couple more pints to get past Cav, but grinning in green at 36 he must be wondering why he’s never bothered making it to Paris before.

Meanwhile I have been hard at work re-installing REXX so I can turn the wheels of the tipping comp a few more times to produce the final results. It should have downloaded in a few minutes but for some reason it took all night.