2015 Tour de France Route

[DJ Sprtsch]

Re:

I'm curious to see how the TTT will be affected by teams having riders already abandonned. If one of the favoritesfor the GC has aready one rider out the TTT will be far more difficult for him...

Some of them will for sure have a rider out. By stage 9 last year 14 had retired, in 2013 it was 11, in 2012 it was 20.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

I'm curious to see how the TTT will be affected by teams having riders already abandonned. If one of the favoritesfor the GC has aready one rider out the TTT will be far more difficult for him...

Definitely, and it's going to be up to the DS's to decide firstly on the make up of the team and secondly how many riders they allow to get involved in the usual risky situations (i.e. the sprints).

Of course, people can crash anywhere and be taken out through no fault of their own, but having two goals on one team and splitting their riders to cope with that could easily backfire on them.

 

[Miburo]

I'm not sure if the descends will be technical but if so, nibali will have a field day in many stages. A good team is really important in this parcours.

Setting out guys on the front and help you out in many of the 10km valleys if you go from "far".

 

[Escarabajo]

What happens if by the time of the TTT a team has less than 5 riders?

 

[Arredondo]

Re:

What happens if by the time of the TTT a team has less than 5 riders?

In a team time trial, the team gets the time of the fifth rider of that team to cross the finish, or the last rider if there are fewer than 5 left for the team

Source: Wikipedia

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

What happens if by the time of the TTT a team has less than 5 riders?

In a team time trial, the team gets the time of the fifth rider of that team to cross the finish, or the last rider if there are fewer than 5 left for the team

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks.

Why did I not think of wiki!!

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

What happens if by the time of the TTT a team has less than 5 riders?

What is sure is that team will lose a lot of time respect teams with 9 riders, except if that four are Tony Martin, Cancellara,... or people like that...

it looks an important stage this year, and all the first week.

 

[Bavarianrider]

The TTT is a frikkin 29km, gaps will still me mariginal.
Climber would lose a hell lot more time if it was an ITT. Not even to mention real TT of a descent distance

 

[Gigs_98]

I dont understand why many people say the TTT will be extremely decisive. If there is a 30 km long ITT nobody cares because the distance isn't that big. But because 29 km are unusual for TTT´s everyone cares about it although the time gaps will be even smaller than in an ITT. Of course I understand the problem that if a team already lost a member (which isn't very unlikely if you consider that there is a cobble stage and some stages with a high chance of cross wind before the ITT) the time gaps might increase but still I very much doubt that this years tdf will be decided on that day. However I could imagine that the fact that there is a TTT incoming causes a more defensive driving stile of some teams in the first week, but I am not sure if that will make the race more or less entertaining.

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

What happens if by the time of the TTT a team has less than 5 riders?

What is sure is that team will lose a lot of time respect teams with 9 riders, except if that four are Tony Martin, Cancellara,... or people like that...

Reminds me of Garmin being very close to Wonderboys US Astana team in the 2009 timetrial while only relaying with 5 riders

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

The TTT is a frikkin 29km, gaps will still me mariginal.
Climber would lose a hell lot more time if it was an ITT. Not even to mention real TT of a descent distance

Im not sure about those gaps on descent tt

 

[Netserk]

In case anyone was in doubt, it is absolutely clear that the bonus seconds (10, 6 & 4) will only be awarded on stages 2-8.

Seconds up for grabs

They had disappeared since 2008. Bonus seconds will again be awarded at the finishes of the 2nd to the 8th stage. The bonuses will be of 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the first three of each of these stages.

 

[Flamin]

My god how ridiculous.

 

[Miburo]

Re:

My god how ridiculous.

What's wrong with boni sec? I love it. Of course not 20/12/8, that's way too much but it awards the attacker unless it's flat stages but that way it makes sprints more interesting cause they've a chance for yellow.

And that way MTF's will be more contested by GC guys cause there's boni.

I wish they would do boni's for every stage. I honestly don't see the issue, it can only create more action i feel like.

 

[Anderis]

Re:

The TTT is a frikkin 29km, gaps will still me mariginal.
Climber would lose a hell lot more time if it was an ITT. Not even to mention real TT of a descent distance

My bet is that the worst team will lose something around 3 minutes to the best one. It's quite hilly, so weak teams climbing-wise will probably lose more than if it was a fully flat course, like usual in TTTs. But I don't expect anyone important to get out of contention due to that stage. Unless the team is really unlucky with crashes before and during that stage (I mean more than 4 riders combined to crash hard before and during this stage).

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

My god how ridiculous.

What's wrong with boni sec? I love it. Of course not 20/12/8, that's way too much but it awards the attacker unless it's flat stages but that way it makes sprints more interesting cause they've a chance for yellow.

And that way MTF's will be more contested by GC guys cause there's boni.

I wish they would do boni's for every stage. I honestly don't see the issue, it can only create more action i feel like.

I don't have a problem with boni secs an sich, but my point is that there are boni seconds for some stages. That's just silly, either do it for all road stages or for none.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

My god how ridiculous.

What's wrong with boni sec? I love it. Of course not 20/12/8, that's way too much but it awards the attacker unless it's flat stages but that way it makes sprints more interesting cause they've a chance for yellow.

And that way MTF's will be more contested by GC guys cause there's boni.

I wish they would do boni's for every stage. I honestly don't see the issue, it can only create more action i feel like.

Yes, sprinting for bonus seconds creates so much action, just look at Leipheimer...
I dislike bonus seconds, gaps should be created on the road, the create artifical gaps.

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

My god how ridiculous.

What's wrong with boni sec? I love it. Of course not 20/12/8, that's way too much but it awards the attacker unless it's flat stages but that way it makes sprints more interesting cause they've a chance for yellow.

And that way MTF's will be more contested by GC guys cause there's boni.

I wish they would do boni's for every stage. I honestly don't see the issue, it can only create more action i feel like.

I don't have a problem with boni secs an sich, but my point is that there are boni seconds for some stages. That's just silly, either do it for all road stages or for none.

I see, i guess you've a point.

 

[Netserk]

Okay, they have changed it so there's bonus seconds on all mass-start stages

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2015/docs/TDF15_Reglement-BD.pdf

Meanwhile, still on the website:

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2015/us/sporting-stakes-rules.html

 

[TheYouyou7]

Absolutely ridiculous, bonus seconds everywhere or nowhere. Now Valverde is gonna take 20s free.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Okay, they have changed it so there's bonus seconds on all mass-start stages

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2015/docs/TDF15_Reglement-BD.pdf

Meanwhile, still on the website:

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2015/us/sporting-stakes-rules.html

Its quite funny how the aso always does exactly the things the fans don't want. There might be some people who like bonus seconds but I think they just support the froome tactic because like this he can gain even more time with this boring stage wins

 

[damian13ster]

Yeah, winning stages being a tactic? What is he thinking..... boooooorrrriiingg :/

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Yeah, winning stages being a tactic? What is he thinking..... boooooorrrriiingg :/

The froome tactic is that he attacks 1-2 km´s before the finish because even if there is someone stronger than him he never looses much time with this tactic (look at the dauphine, where he did exactly this). The problem with the tactic is that you don't get so much time, normally only about half a minute which means that you can loose the tour with one bad day. With the bonus seconds this tactic gets supported because he gets 10 seconds more per stage victory.

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

Yeah, winning stages being a tactic? What is he thinking..... boooooorrrriiingg :/

The froome tactic is that he attacks 1-2 km´s before the finish because even if there is someone stronger than him he never looses much time with this tactic (look at the dauphine, where he did exactly this). The problem with the tactic is that you don't get so much time, normally only about half a minute which means that you can loose the tour with one bad day. With the bonus seconds this tactic gets supported because he gets 10 seconds more per stage victory.

But stage wins should be awarded bonuses, because ultimately it is the winning that counts.
That tactic is damn effective, and it is hardly the only one. Froome attacks from further than 1-2km most of the time. It is just in prep races that he goes so late because he is not in top shape. Plus bonus seconds are really beneficial for both Froome and even more so for Contador who can count on TTT and then wheelsuck and jump at the finish moreso than Froome who is pretty much always agressive (attacking at some point on almost every MTF) when in decent shape.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Yeah, winning stages being a tactic? What is he thinking..... boooooorrrriiingg :/

The froome tactic is that he attacks 1-2 km´s before the finish because even if there is someone stronger than him he never looses much time with this tactic (look at the dauphine, where he did exactly this). The problem with the tactic is that you don't get so much time, normally only about half a minute which means that you can loose the tour with one bad day. With the bonus seconds this tactic gets supported because he gets 10 seconds more per stage victory.

But stage wins should be awarded bonuses, because ultimately it is the winning that counts.
That tactic is damn effective, and it is hardly the only one. Froome attacks from further than 1-2km most of the time. It is just in prep races that he goes so late because he is not in top shape. Plus bonus seconds are really beneficial for both Froome and even more so for Contador who can count on TTT and then wheelsuck and jump at the finish moreso than Froome who is pretty much always agressive (attacking at some point on almost every MTF) when in decent shape.

lol, you think froome is more aggressive than contador. Let me guess, your comment is based 100% on last years vuelta.
Yes the tactic is very effective and it gets even more effective with bonus seconds. However the tactic is also extremely boring, which is the reason why I don't want bonus seconds on mtf´s