Are the Grand Tours going too far?

[Smokin Joe]

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

You may not like Ricco, but calling him a dumb animal is going a bit far...

 

[cyberknight]

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.

I believe Laurent Fignon said something very similar in his biography about how the stages on races were getting shorter and easier.

 

[frank9755]

Surely it's a non-point: If the stage is easier then, all things being equal, people go faster: if it's harder then they go slower. As has been pointed out above, in the old days they did far longer stages (on fixed, with bears, etc) but average speeds were lower.


The material point is who does the change benefit and who does it disadvantage?