Good work!Er...I have.
Unsurprisingly it would have made very little difference. Depending on which stages they would have called definite sprint stages and awarded the different points tally (I did it for stages 1,3,4,6,12,15,21) I get the following final totals for the top four:
Sagan 386 (-45)
Kristoff 265 (-17)
Kittel 238 (+16)
Cocquard 225 (-46)
So the only change in order is that Kittel leapfrogs Cocquard for third place. Sagan is still miles ahead and did not lose as many points as Cocquard.
It looks like one of those rule changes that no-one really thought through (like when F1 doubled the points for each position thinking it would reward the winner more). If the object is to stop it being a Sagan walkover, on this year's evidence, it won't work.
TdeF 2015
- Thread starter raindog
- Start date
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That's what I had thought... still would have thought that it would have brought them closer together than thatEr...I have.
Unsurprisingly it would have made very little difference. Depending on which stages they would have called definite sprint stages and awarded the different points tally (I did it for stages 1,3,4,6,12,15,21) I get the following final totals for the top four:
Sagan 386 (-45)
Kristoff 265 (-17)
Kittel 238 (+16)
Cocquard 225 (-46)
So the only change in order is that Kittel leapfrogs Cocquard for third place. Sagan is still miles ahead and did not lose as many points as Cocquard.
It looks like one of those rule changes that no-one really thought through (like when F1 doubled the points for each position thinking it would reward the winner more). If the object is to stop it being a Sagan walkover, on this year's evidence, it won't work.
The only 2 ways I see is
- they could take out the intermediate points of the Green jersey (and make that a side competition), but they ain't gonna do that (for money, spectacle, ... and whatever other reasons they make up)
- make it a flat-sprinter preferred Tour (so lots of flat sprint stages and keep the cobbelstone/Ardennes/Medium-mountain stages to a minimum or at least behind a bunch of flat sprints, so the green jersey wearer is motivated to protect it against the all-rounder sprinters)
There'll be years that the Tour route will be more like described in point 2 or even (a) year(s) where Sagan will get unlucky as well and will fall out of the race.
Already him riding with Tinkoff will make a big difference I believe (vs. the Cannondale years)... can't see that team riding as much for him when they have true GC-candidate in their midst that they'll have to ride for in the high mountains as well.
But with Kristoff (and Bouhanni) getting better each year, of course they might be interested in giving the Green a go to
w00hoo_kent
One of the 64K
- Location
- Maidstone or Greenwich
Not a thing. Sky spend a ridiculously small amount of their marketing budget on the whole of their cycling interests. They really have much bigger things to bother about.As @rich p says, I can't imagine Sky (the sponsors, not the team) want to be paying £££ for a team to pull its star (ahem ... sorry, its co-star) rider out from the annual premier event that has by far the biggest coverage and public interest.
Hont
Guru
- Location
- Bromsgrove
Since I'd put the spreadsheet together it was no more than a couple of minutes work to do the same for 2013. Cav would have lost to Sagan by 74 points instead of 97.
Hont
Guru
- Location
- Bromsgrove
That doesn't mean they quite happy to flush £15m (?) down the toilet. If you're not getting exposure for your sponsorship expenditure, there's no point in doing it. And they're not the only sponsors of the cycling team.
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+1 re budget. IIRC, it was 0.5% of their total marketing budget a couple of years ago. Also, IIRC, Sky (the TV/media company) is making a major push into the Italian market in 2015, so a bit of high profile exposure on the Giro would be beneficial.
w00hoo_kent
One of the 64K
- Location
- Maidstone or Greenwich
Agreed, £15m doesn't look so much when the budget is 1 billion. It's a bit like worrying whether to buy a snickers, or a snickers duo at lunch time. The feeling I got at one of the talks at the bike show was that they're willing to do quite a bit of experimenting to see what works there.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
Jeez if they're that uncaring about their money, they could sponsor me. I'd wear Sky kit for only a few thou. And I guarantee I wouldn't lose any races.
The thing is - Froome actually pulled back time on the steeper climbs in the Vuelta, and lost it on the not so steep ones. Same in the 2013 TDF, he blew the race apart on the earlier steeper climbs, and suffered to the more explosive climbers on the less steep ones (ish) towards the end. He has also has a great kick at the end of a long climb. I don't understand what all the fuss is about.
SWSteve
Guru
- Location
- Bristol...ish
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/ro...our-de-france-he-needs-to-change-his-approach
Someone may have already left this here...
Someone may have already left this here...
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
Should we maybe have 2 separate threads for every new topic - one SKY free and another to discuss a team that won't win much
SWSteve
Guru
- Location
- Bristol...ish
BMC?
Hont
Guru
- Location
- Bromsgrove
Towards the end he may have had less blood in his system than others.
You have a point but if you're the best TTer out of the GC contenders, you're going to want long TTs in the route.
Hont
Guru
- Location
- Bromsgrove
Nor me. The sprinters get enough glory with the stage wins, when they're only in the wind for 250 metres. However I can see that the ASO might not want to have the polka dot jersey go to someone who is not the best climber* AND the green jersey go to someone who doesn't win a stage.
*Quintana aside when was the last time the dots went to the meilleur grimpeur? Chiapucci?
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
I am totally in favour of them doing everything in their power to stop Pierre Rolland getting the KOM jersey.