One only needs to look at the 1989 Tour de France... Fignon needed to gain more time on LeMond before the final TT and he attacked on the flats to gain more time... LeMond refused to chase and Delgardo had to do the work…. From memory there weren’t time bonus back for stage wins in 1989….
Although the other contenders (Sastre etc.) will want to conserve themselves for the TT.. mad attacks from 80km could kill them….. the sprinters teams are dead and CSC look strong… Phonak have nothing so its conceivable someone could do this… multiple attacks with 40km could hurt landis… would T-Mobile chase down Sastre ? I think not…. it depends if Sastre is happy with second or wants to go all out with the chance of losing it all and coming 5th………. This is the exact scenario that happened today… everyone thought that Landis would slow and they would pull back most of the time on him… they thought wrong.. and he mad them pay....