Are the Grand Tours going too far?

[Flying_Monkey]

You'll probably all have seen the penultimate stage of next year's Giro d'Italia revealed yesterday. It is either epic or insane depending on your PoV, and there have already been some reactions from riders and managers arguing the latter and saying that the GTs are pushing things too far and trying too hard to outdo each other with more and more difficult stages or gimmicks. I know the Giro has been accused a lot over the last few years, and it was supposed to be 'easier' next year. The worry I have is that this is exactly the kind of trend that leads directly to pressure on riders and teams to either cheat and use banned substances, or to go easier by consensus and effectively neutralize these kinds of stages anyway.

What do the rest of you think?

 

[Norm]

Within reason, I think that all sports people need to be pushed to perform at their best. At this level, you need to differentiate between the world class athletes and the 'merely' bloody good.

That's a general comment, without going into all the specific details of the current situation. My preference would be to see longer and harder races but with less pressure to perform at every event.

 

[Smokin Joe]

100 metre sprinters dope, so I don't think the severity of an event has too much to do with it. Cheats cheat.

I agree that there is a limit to how hard you can make a three week tour, the health of the riders has to be considered, but provided the number of tough stages isn't increased to an abnormal level I think it helps the event to have a hard stage in the last few days. There have been many times in previous decades where the last week of the TdF was just for the sprinters and the race was effectively over after the second week.

 

[Tompy]

The problem with placing too much emphasis on a difficult late-in-the-race stage is that the main GC contenders will not attack each other much before that stage. And if that's the case it means they're often still relatively fresh and may cancel each other out.

For example, the Mont Ventoux stage in the TDF a few years ago - that was a bit of a damp squib (apart from Wiggins' great ride). And then the Tourmalet "battle" between Schleck and Contador in the mist - that too wasn't really as exciting as had been anticipated.

 

[raindog]

Got to admit, I'm uneasy with this recent extreme stuff. I noticed the Giro directors are "letting the fans decide" which is daft to me. Some of the "fans" will only be happy if there's blood spilt. We'll be having cyclo-cross stages soon, or underwater stages, or fighting with crocodiles stages.

 

[rich p]

I posted something similar after this years Giro, criticising the overall difficuty these days. The end result was that most of the GC contenders in the GTs were avoiding it, as it was impossible these days to do both the Giro and the TdF and the severity was resulting in a second rate contest.

Contador tried and failed this year after Basso, Evans and Wiggins had done so the previous year. Now Dirty Bertie has said it was the reason he had a relatively poor TdF, I very much doubt if any of the serious contenders will do the Giro next year.

Froome for the win maybe?

 

[Noodley]

What about the dirt tracks over mountains from the early years when they set off an dinished in the dark, had bears to contend with and one gear?

Difficult schmifficult.

 

[Smokin Joe]

What about the dirt tracks over mountains from the early years when they set off an dinished in the dark, had bears to contend with and one gear?

Difficult schmifficult.

And rode with a ciggy hanging out of the mouth.

 

[Will1985]

If Freire's comments about time limits were enforced, the peloton would be decimated for the final stage. Already looking foward to watching it!

 

[Noodley]

And rode with a ciggy hanging out of the mouth.

Maybe they should introduce a smoking handicap system - from full strength capstans down to menthol tipped...

 

[raindog]

 

[Noodley]

That Hors categorie capstan moment...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

We'll be having cyclo-cross stages soon, or underwater stages, or fighting with crocodiles stages.

I'd pay to see Ricardo Ricco fighting with crocodiles...

 

[raindog]

I don't think you're alone there....

 

[monnet]

I'd pay to see Ricardo Ricco fighting with crocodiles...

There are laws about treating dumb animals like that...