Bye Bye Bicycle said:
It's a well known fact that certain users here want every GT to start with a MTF on stage 1 (and every other stage, too). Riders need some rest after a ridicilously long transfer? Doesn't matter, we want action!!!!111
Not this garbage again. I'd in fact state that modern cycling has TOO MANY MTFs.
What I want is a reason to tune in for more than 30 seconds of a stage. This Giro has not just provided stages that almost guarantee no action so far, but has actively gone out of its way to provide stages that guarantee no action. That is the problem. You don't need to have HC mountains in every stage to make a race interesting... but you need more than just pan-flat dross where the only possibility of any meaningful action is if there's a huge pile-up. And races where we are totally reliant on crashes for action are the worst of all races.
They've had a rest day from the transfer. A rest day! It's not like the Irish stages were especially strenuous either. Hell, in 2010 they transferred from the Netherlands, where they made them tackle a 200km obstacle course on stage 3, and the day after the rest day was a meaningful stage (even if it was a TTT, my most despised format of stage).
The other issue is the backloading. There are basically 6 mountain stages out of 8 in the final week. Every single GC contender will be looking to peak then, so they will race conservatively in the first two weeks to prevent themselves losing big on those stages, and we end up with a chronic fail like the 2012 edition. If these flat stages were spread more evenly through the race, they wouldn't be such a problem, but by bundling them all together at the start you give little reason to tune in, you can see all you need to see by tuning in at the kite and turning off once Kittel accelerates.
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