Norry1 said:
The race is over a lot (say 24 stages).
The three grand tours - France, Italy and Spain, are all 21 stages long.
I assume the winner is the one who has the lowest combines time?
Yep!
I know there are sprints and time trial sections. How do they play into the overall result?
It varies with time trials. Tey are usually very significant in shaping the overall result, but it's variant depending on how long and numerous the time trials are. Some recent Tours have had more than 100km against the clock. This year's has just 61km. Accordingly, a good time triallist who isn't so strong in the mountains will find that certain editions are better suited to them than other editions.
Sprints have no bearing whatsoever on the overall result. The kind of riders who win sprints aren't built to survive the mountains and time trials, so never figure in the overall standings. Some races (not the Tour de France) offer small time bonuses to the first three riders across the finish line, but these few seconds are nothing to offset the hours that sprinters will lose over the course of a few mountain stages and time trials. Those bonuses could feasibly affect the overall result when they are awarded at the end of a mountain stage, but in reality they seldom do. And as I said, the Tour doesn't use these end-of-stage time bonuses any more anyway.
I know there are different jerseys for top sprinter and climber. Do some riders just aim for these?
Absolutely - most riders don't have a hope of winning the overall general classification, so they'll aim squarely for stage wins or one of the other jerseys.
The points jersey is awarded to the rider with the most points. These points are earned by winning a stage (with decreasing numbers of points available for coming second, third etc. down to about 15th place or something like that). There are also two or three intermediate sprints at different locations on each stage where points are available to the first three across those lines - 6, 4 and 2 points respectively, I think.
The mountains jersey works on a similar principle. Climbs which are deemed tough enough are graded 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st or
hors category in order of ascending difficulty. There are points available to the first few people to the top of each climb, with those points being greater depending on the climb's classification. Climbs which serve as mountain-top finishes award double their usual categorisation points at the Tour de France.
During time trials, mountain points are available for whoever has the best time up a classified climb, but points-jersey points aren't awarded.
How does the Team thing work? Do team members just act as pacemakers and slipstreamers for the top guy?
They do both of these and more. If there's a crosswind, they'll adjust their position slightly to the side of their protected rider in order to protect them from the wind. They'll also go back and forth collecting water bottles or rain capes from their team cars, and if their leader punctures and a team car isn't immediately available, they'll give their leader a spare wheel or possibly just give them their bike.
So what is the point of sprint and mountain points? Do they count to the overall result?
Not to the overall result, no. They are basically there to animate the race. Only a select few can win the overall GC, and none of them are sprinters. The points competition enlivens the sprints, and the intermediate sprints means that sometime sprinters will go off on mountain stages to try and be the first to take those sprints if they know the stage will be too difficult for them to contest at the finish. Likewise, the mountains competition encourages aggressive riding throughout the stage rather than only at the key moments, and may see less fancied riders trying to get into long escapes to rack up points on earlier climbs if they know they'll suffer on later climbs.
