Originally Posted by gsteinb

Parting shot:

The bottom line is it was never ever necessary for Garmin to kick up the pace in the last few Ks. They simply needed to put Cavendish on Thor and the worst that would have happened (in the wildly unlikely scenario that Cav didn't come around him) is that he would have lost a point. If you read Aldag's and Stapelton's comments they feel 'entitled' to have the yellow, and they wanted both yellow and to advance Cavendish's quest for green. In actuality they got neither yesterday because they were greedy, and instead of letting the field sprint go and having Hincapie drive the break home in the last few Ks they put themselves in this boat. Let's not forget they had race radios and Hincapie and his team knew what was going on and how close it would be. They could have altered their tactics to make up that 5 seconds.