Having looked at why there are no attacks on some of the sprint stages, a trend rather than a quirk, theres still value in the good old doomed breakaway according to Le Tlgramme. The newspaper cites Cofidis public relations staff have said that having Anthony Perez up the road in a long breakaway got them more media value than Victor Lafays stage win last year because Lafay only attacked in the final kilometre.Arka also claim theyre a well-known brand in France now thanks to the publicity from the Tour in recent years from all the breakaways. You can reach this calculation if you measure how much it would cost to buy Cofidis or Arka TV adverts for hours at a time. Thats a shallow way of measuring things. As ever teams prefer wins and Cofidis do say this out loud as well in the piece.It also depends what teams want from it all, UAEs backers wont settle for anything less than the Tour de France. Tadej Pogaar is presumably block booked for July for some time to come unless Isaac del Toro is ready. Similarly a lot of EF staff around the world wont be watching the Tour live so the efforts of Healy and Carapaz backed by the team tactics are fascinating for us to watch but they really want a result. The big question has to be Ineos, budget now unknown but possibly the biggest spender but discreet in terms of both visibility and results so far.Talking of budgets, Biniam Girmays been one of this years Tour heroes and hopefully hes ok for todays stage. Whatever happens his team have hit the jackpot. Intermarch-Wanty like to say theyre the lowest budget team in the Tour de France. Impossible to verify as few teams publish their accounts. But the UCI does give all World Tour teams a pack every year that includes a scale to show the scale of team budgets no numbers, just a line and each team is shown where they sit so presumably they know what theyre on about. However the team does publish accounts which are filed with the Belgian central bankThe accounts for 2022 are the latest available so were looking in the rear view mirror. They showed income of 7.852 million and expenditure of 8.7 million. Thats a big gap and the team ran at a substantial loss that year, over a million Euros.A note in the accounts (screengrab above) says the team pledged to balance the books and would do this in part by racing less and not hiring more riders. Plenty of riders did join for 2023 like Rui Costa, Mike Teunissen and Lilian Calmejane but presumably they would have been signed before the accounts went south and subsequent signings have been modest. It means cutbacks in a time when teams are spending more and more but luckily for them Girmay does not need an altitude camp as he just returns home to Asmara.TotalEnergies have the weakest team on paper but a budget for 2022 of 13.629 million. This could be hard to compare if money was flowing through the team to pay for Peter Sagan and his entourage, itll be interesting to see the numbers without him. But French teams also have to meet social security and payroll taxes which add a lot to the budget, a financial headwind if you like. While Intermarch are among those who dont take on riders as full-time house employees but hire them as contractors.Its official, Chinese bike company XDS will invest in the Astana team. Its not clear what form this will take from new bikes and a budget top-up, or naming rights and a change of ownership. XDS is Xi-de-sheng and plenty of questions remain, one big one is does the company really have enough money to underwrite a World Tour budget for several years? Intermarch moved up the World Tour after buying the old CCC licence for next to nothing. A relegated Astana licence is not worth a lot but there is still value in the World Tour spot as long as they can sign new riders. The knock-on effect will also see other teams have to try and sign riders if they want to avoid relegation.Its interesting to see China come into the World Tour. Watch the Jayco-Al Ula team to see if they fly under a Saudi flag soon. If youre running a lavish tourist project in the desert why not pay a little bit more so you dont have to share naming rights with an Australian caravan maker?Transfer rumours? There are not that many big moves. First its not big budget but symbolic and reprising Astana where Alexey Lutsenko is linked to IPT which really evokes the end of the Kazakh chapter because hes been their totem. Similarly Cofidis look set to lose their two best riders, Guillaume Martin to GFDJ and Axel Zingle to Visma-LAB so theyll be recruiting too.At the big budget end Remco Evenepoel is the central component and whether hell see out his deal at Quick-Step until the end of 2026. An early departure could require a cash payout making him even more expensive to acquire early but how much is he worth? A lot but clearly behind Pogaar and Vingegaard when it comes to making a down-payment on trying to win the Tour.Loyal readers will remember that Ag2r the company has bought the Ag2r cycling team, now Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale. LEquipe explained some of the background here, that the team started work on new HQ and this proved costly and time-consuming and then Citron exercised its option to pull out of a five year deal after three. Team owner Vincent Lavenu was given an ultimatum to sell up for 8,000 (eight thousand) or Ag2r would leave too, effectively the team would end. Some riders even asked if they could buy the team but Ag2rs offer also came with millions of funding. It shows the brittle nature, Ag2r are owners and on board but new corporate management had considered leaving. Now with Decathlon and managerial changes including some of the factors that have helped the team improve things look more stable.Ag2r are not having a great Tour but the reasons for this are probably easier to explain that the factors behind their success earlier this season. They sent a better team to the Giro and GC hope Felix Gall had injury issues in the build-up. Gall is capable of a stage win in the Alps but there are rivals on the margins of the top-10 overall who can do this too, think Santiago Buitrago and Giulio Ciccone.Mark Cavendish was memorably nicknamed le Mozart du 11-dents, the Mozart of the 11 tooth sprocket. Hes now composing his victories with 11 speed gearing. Having had Shimanos 12 speed Dura-Ace last year and seen his chain fall off during the sprint in Bordeaux he reverted to 11 speed. The 12 speed chain is more narrow and for want of a better word, whippy in the lateral sense. Plus 11 gears is plenty for a flat sprint stage. His chain came off anyway in Saint-Vulbas but only after sitting up and back-pedalling. Its a small example of freedom to chose being the ultimate luxury.Prudhomme Prsident? No, with the French government in limbo new ministerial appointments will be made at some point. But dont ask Tour boss Christian Prudhomme to be sports minister. While he keeps evoking his exit from the job, he told RTL radio on Monday hes too old now to start a new career in politics. Of course if he changes jobs that was the politicians answer.The post Tour Shorts first appeared on The Inner Ring.