Tour de France 2017 ***SPOILERS***

[hoopdriver]

Sure. It's a mountain stage. Where was the racing during much of the past week though? Other than in the final couple of kilometres? Long club run, concluding with a frantic sprint involving a handful of the 190 or so riders in the peloton and everyone else just looking to get through the day and remain upright. Every day the coverage concludes the same way: a list of the top ten sprint finishers and the words "...and once again, no change in the GC..."

 

[MikeG]

There's nothing stopping them 'racing'.As I'm sure you'll see today.It's sky's race to try and control/defend and everyone else's to attack !

Where does all this racing happen? In the last 400 metres of flat stages, and on 3 or 4 climbs. How many of the 190 riders are involved in each?

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I'm not sure some posters are grasping the concept of a grand tour, either overall or it's component parts. The route this year has been awful, which was glaringly obvious before they set off. Maybe the organisers wanted to limit the number of 'dangerous' roads that I see people posting about? It also might have something to do with the unwritten rules that people seem to support which limits options for racing. You gets what you wants...

Maybe it is time to do something different?

 

[mjr]

I suggested in another thread that once or twice during the tour there are pursuit days, where the riders get set off at their over-all time. So the leader would go first, followed, at the moment, by Aru 18 seconds later, Bardet 33 seconds after him, and so on. The leader on the road is the leader of the GC, and sprinters wouldn't get the chance to be anywhere near the front of the race if they hadn't kept their over-all time within reach of the front of the race. If nothing else, it would force a change of tactics by the teams in the days leading up to the pursuit day, because they couldn't afford to have big gaps between their riders if they wanted to work together.

The thing is, so many people see the Tours as perfect as they are, and even mentioning the prospect of doing something to break up the Sunday-club-ride-with-sprint routine is seen as an anathema. Watch the snide comments follow........

Not so much snide as: I think it would be an interesting finish to a race, as we're probably going to see with the scandalous fourth women's La Course (it's a scandal because there was only one men's La Course before they resurrected the Tour), and there should be a place for a couple of them on the calendar, but it ain't a grand tour.

 

[BrumJim]

From memory, transition stages have a reputation as being long and dull. However, for me the problem this year has been that the flat stages have all ended on flatish finishes. A gentle mixture of flat and sloping run-ins have given different sprinters different advantages. Looks as though they have limited Sagan-friendly stages in order to provide a bit more competition for the Green Jersey. Although that is all out of the window now.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I have also read comments from Froome that he/Sky will be trying to ensure riders who have lost time on GC do not make any time back in the next few stages; I am assuming that includes Dan Martin who lost time due to crashing. Seems that it's the done thing to not take advantage of opportunities to race the leader when the opportunity presents itself but ok to gain advantage and then close down any attempt to try to overcome any previously experienced adversity.

I hope a number of teams attack. And keep attacking.

The ideal situation would be Froome going into week 3 in 3rd or 4th...

 

[hoopdriver]

But what you're describing there is just a regular sprint stage. They have always been part of the tour, and they are why some of the teams are there.

Unforunately at the moment the sprinting competition is a bit one sided. You know something is wrong when Eddie Bosen Hagen is featuring heavily as a pure sprinter.

Yes, that's true. And the intermediate sprints were set up so that there would be some racing throughout the stages, and I can appreciate that is why some of the teams are there and that is a good thing.

But it seems to me there should be something similar set up so that GC contenders are obliged to race as well on these long flat stages instead of just essentially going on long fast club rides - perhaps some kind of intermediate contest with bonus seconds etc awarded to induce a bit of competition amongst the time-hungry GC contenders, especially those in fourth or fifth or sixth place who might want a podium.

This years' course does seem to be rather dull in terms of racing. As a travel writer I enjoyed the aerial tour of Dordogne valley the other day - and will probably try to do some stories there - but looking for travel story ideas is not why I watch the Tour de France...

 

[brommers]

Early start today 10.10am (UK)

 

[smutchin]

I have also read comments from Froome that he/Sky will be trying to ensure riders who have lost time on GC do not make any time back in the next few stages; I am assuming that includes Dan Martin who lost time due to crashing.

Yes, he said that in the post-race interview yesterday. I presumed he was referring specifically to Dan Martin. I really hope Dan takes that as a challenge.

 

[mjr]

Maybe it is time to do something different?

Boardman has called this year's race "utterly, utterly boring".

I suspect if Froome wins five, then we'll see some radical changes to try to stop him surpassing Hinault - although with Froome being quite good at French-style climbs and Sky being quite good at driving on the flat, I'm not sure what. No TTs and trips into Spain, Italy and Switzerland for stuff Sky doesn't seem so good at?

 

[400bhp]

Boardman has called this year's race "utterly, utterly boring".

I suspect if Froome wins five, then we'll see some radical changes to try to stop him surpassing Hinault - although with Froome being quite good at French-style climbs and Sky being quite good at driving on the flat, I'm not sure what. No TTs and trips into Spain, Italy and Switzerland for stuff Sky doesn't seem so good at?

Maybe they will just run it in Italy and call it the Giro

 

[400bhp]

The race isn't necessarily the issue, it's driven in part by the UCI points system which rewards (mediocrity) for positions up to (IIRC) 15th place.

 

[hoopdriver]

No radios. No support vehicles. Riders to carry pump and patch kits. Steel frames. The one concession to modernity being that domestiques are allowed to work the bellows at the local blacksmith's if a new fork has to be forged. That would sort them out.

 

[mjr]

The race isn't necessarily the issue, it's driven in part by the UCI points system which rewards (mediocrity) for positions up to (IIRC) 15th place.

Up to 60th on GC innit? First 5 on stages.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

C'mon all teams other than Sky!!!!!

As Delia would say "let's being having you..."