Libertine Seguros said:I feel about this the same way as I feel about the sprints in XC skiing. They're a bit of fun, a bit of light entertainment, but they aren't much more than that, and shouldn't be giving out the same amount of points as a victory in a 'proper' stage. But then I think points are weighted heavily in favour of sprinters enabling people to get good WT scores by coming 5th in a bunch of sprints in minor events and this should be rectified too, perhaps by making secondary jerseys worth more and placements worth less (I'm still ok with the points for stage winners, except I'm not sure about giving the same points for this 90km crit as for a 200km five climb stage in Suisse or a 250km hilly stage in Tirreno-Adriatico. Hypothetical of course as these stages could well fail to materialise). Should we include a cyclocross round in the World Tour? That might improve it greatly, actually. I'll take the crits in the WT if we get some cyclocross rounds.
But if this was a 200km flat road stage with a predetermined sprint finish you'd be complaining about how only the last 5km count anyway, so they've saved you 110km of complaining
The CBD circuit is driven by the sponsor Tourism South Australia to get fans spending money in city cafe's, restaurants, which also helps placate businesses for the disruption a road race may cause for the rest of the week. At a time where races keep folding because sponsors disappear from a sport which keeps shooting itself in the foot, if the race has to take one in the A to keep a sponsor onside then so be it.