Was a GT ever thus....

[Skip Madness]

How's about a tour of 3 segments? Like three 7 day tours. The winner & place getters of each get bonus points/time to carry into the next segment. Slate wiped clean at the start of each segment. Could that encourage more competitive quiet stages within each segment?

It sounds like it would be quite a difficult system to make work. It might just end up being a more confusing version of what we already have. If anything, I would think that it could mean GC teams controlling the front of the race more than they already do to make sure nothing dangerous goes clear.

If we are thinking sans limites then here's my proposal:

Get rid of the young rider's jersey. It's not something a rider actually wins, it's just losing with a caveat. I would replace it by upgrading the combativity award to jersey status. Instead of it being decided by a panel after the stage, it would use the Giro system of one point being awarded for every complete kilometre spent at the front of a stage in a group of ten or fewer riders. Maybe multiply the points inversely proportionally to how many riders are in the front: ten points per kilometre for a lone breakaway, nine each in a two-man escape, eight each in a three man escape etc.

Want a super crazy idea? Have a pancake flat stage of, say, 60km. Have all of the peloton in the positions with an odd number start at one end of the stage, and all of the riders in the positions with an even number start at the other end. Evens race to where odds start and odds race to where evens start. Have the middle 15km partitioned down the centre of the road to avoid collisions. Each peloton records it's own finish time, and the points only go to riders in the first peloton.

There's probably a really obvious reason why that's a bad idea, but it sounds pretty thrilling to me.

 

[Landslide]

There's probably a really obvious reason why that's a bad idea, but it sounds pretty thrilling to me.

Headwinds probably!

Mebbe it could be run as a giant team pursuit?

 

[Skip Madness]

Yeah, just turn it round at each end. Even better because you could make the course half the length.

Let's tell ASO!

 

[yello]

Cool stuff! More ideas like this please.

I particularly like the upgrading of the 'most aggressive' rider. It does seem to me to be a consolation prize at the moment when it's what many like to see.... like Haussler's victory today. That should be awarded truck loads of points/time!

 

[dellzeqq]

Go back to the days when Hinault ruled the peloton (remember Anderson being hauled back because he 'didn't understand our metier?) - now that was dull. The Big Mig years were dull, with the notable exception of '92 when Chiapucci went bonkers. Last year was a delight. This year I'm still hopeful, not least because Wiggers could still wind up on the podium, and we just do not know how the Astana beans will be divided.

Why were the time bonuses abolished?

Oh - run it counterclockwise. The Pyrennees are tougher that way.

 

[Skip Madness]

Why were the time bonuses abolished?

When Contador beat Evans, had it not been for time bonuses he would have won by just two seconds, I think. It was felt they were disturbing the classification a bit much. Personally, I would choose to have small time bonuses - instead of 20, 12 and 8, I would have 10, 6 and 4 or 5, 3 and 2.