As the final stage of the 2010 Tour de France began this morning, cycling fans everywhere found themselves fielding the same irritating question: "So if the second place guy is only 39 seconds behind the guy in the yellow stretchy pants, and if the Tour's not over yet, then why doesn't the second place guy just try to win today?"

Unless you're one of those bike geeks who get really turned on by aerobars, time trials are not always the most exciting stages from a visual perspective.

With the mountains now behind the riders for good, Friday's flat stage was simply a day for Alberto Contador and Andy Scheck to remain upright on their bicycles until tomorrow's time trial. For the sprinters, however, this would be a hotly contested day.

As today's stage of the Tour de France began, everybody knew that the final ascent of the Col du Tourmalet would come down to a battle between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. It would be Schleck's last opportunity to regain time from his rival.

After yesterday's controversial stage in which Alberto Contador was criticized for taking advantage of Andy Schleck's mechanical problem, Schleck vowed revenge on Tuesday's stage to Pau, which included two hors categorie (which is French for "really freaking hard") climbs.

Today's stage of the Tour de France is sure to become one of the most hotly debated in the race's 97-year history, and at the heart of this debate is a simple question: "Should he have, or shouldn't he have?"

At this point in the Tour de France, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador only have eyes for each other -- not in the romantic sense, but in the "I'm going to kill you" sense. This means that, as they leer at one another, other riders are free to attack without fear of retribution (at least from them).

The Tour de France employs a number of methods in order to reduce a field of almost 200 riders to a single winner, such as: The "panning-for-gold method," the "gravity method" and the "atom smasher method."

As expected, today's Stage 11 came down to a sprint finish. And, as often happens when a Tour de France stage comes down to a sprint finish, Mark Cavendish won. However, Cavendish's victory came at a hefty cost.

Today's Stage from Chambery to Gap was the 10th in this Tour de France. This meant that the Tour was now at its halfway point, so in addition to it being Wednesday in the "today is Wednesday" sense it was also Wednesday in the grand, metaphorical "hump day of the race" sense.