I wonder if a Yellow Jersey can win the Polka Dot, or does that mean the second person in line for the Polka Dot gets it. Virenque is at 177 pts, only 35 points before LA's 142.
Interesting, here are the KOM points rules, from cycling4all.com:
Hors Category -- 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6 et 5
Category 1 -- 15, 13, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6 et 5
Category 2 -- 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 et 5
Category 3 -- 4, 3, 2 et 1
Category 4 -- 3, 2, et 1
if a mountain of the "hors" category or of the categories 1 or 2 is the last climb of the stage, the points which can be obtained on this mountain will be doubled.
Tomorrow:
1 Hors Category
3 mountains at Category 1 (1 is the last climb of the day and double points, for 30 POINTS!)
1 mountain at Category 2
Day after:
1 mountain at Category 2
2 at Category 3
2 at Category 4
To Paris:
1 at Category 4
Virenque needs to do another solo independent ride attempt tomorrow, to gather up as many points as possible. Unfortunately for Virenque, there are others who are desperate to get onto the podium (JU) or to provide insulation from slipping off the podium (Basso, given his poor flat ITT skills), and those other people are not people LA will let ride off. Virenque has to get into a break that does not include those JU, Kloden or Basso. Yet Basso's CSC probably won't let him do that, as Basso wants every time bonus he can get at the end to provide further insulation from Kloden. So, Virenque will be controlled by CSC.
Basso's going to want to gain time on Kloden and JU. If I were in Ris' shoes, I would approach Bruyneel and suggest collaboration with USPS to set a high tempo, in a bid to drop Kloden and JU earlier rather than later. As Ris, I would offer to do most of the work, in return for LA letting Basso win the stage if the two were the only ones left at the end. That way, Basso gets only 8" on LA, but trieds to build up further the buffer from Kloden/JU. LA might agree to that, given Basso no longer being as big a threat and given their non-cycling friendship.