plus the last stage is flat... so it would be difficult to maintain a breakaway.... the peleton would have you reeled back in quickly!

and yep.... lemond won with a time trial as the last stage! they joked that there hasn't been a time trial finish since cuz the french didn't want another incident of a frenchman laying on the ground crying in agony (i thought they were kidding until they showed the footage... and he WAS! i mean i'm sure they were kidding about that being the reason for not having a TT finish.... but they sure weren't kidding about him crying and writhing on the ground!)