Re: Re:
Then something like Tourmalet finish would help. When the climb is so long and has a good gradient then gaps will appear between the best GC riders. Also when it's a mtf riders won't think about saving energy to keep chasers away on the flats.
Because Mont Ventoux was shortened this year we didn't see obviously what we wanted to see but I think that Tour should have at least 2 climbs each year that are of similar difficulty and both with mtf. It would also help when one of them gets cancelled because of unexpected circumstances.
boasson said:RattaKuningas said:boasson said:RattaKuningas said:I think Tour needs to completely change their stage designs also and make things harder. I mean why would you put a flat finish to a hard climbing day. If Lacets du Grand Colombier had been a mtf today then we would've seen some good GC action but no. It seems like Tour is designed for a strongest train. The only result is that GC conteders might make small attacks to see what happens but nothing more because on flat they would be chased by everyone.
I mean Tour de France needs full Mont Ventoux, Alpe D'Huez and Tourmalet mtf.
I saw the yellow jersey attacking in the downhill, in the cross winds, at the MTF and in the TT. What do you want more? So the Route is well designed. The problem is: Did you see someone else doing this?
The lack of agressiv riding is not the fault from the stage design, the team from the yellow jersey, the salary of the riders or something else. It's the problem of the mentality of most of the teams and riders.
Why Movistar don't use Valverde to burn the Sky helpers apart? Because he is riding for 4th, 5th or 6th place in the GC. Why BMC don't use TVG to make the race hard and then attack with Porte? Because they are riding for 4th, 5th, or 6th place. Why Quintana didn't attack for 2 weeks? Because he is looking for the 3rd week. Why Tinkoff did not try something with Kreuziger in the breakaway? Because they want the green and the polka dot jersey. Why didn't Katusha ride for Purito in the first 2 weeks to grab some bonus seconds? Because they had no confidence in their own captain.
The only two riders in this TDF who took some risks were Froome and Sagan. Without any trains. On a pretty nice parcours. They were racing. All others were looking and saving energy.
Yes yellow jersey attacked from the downhill but it was hardly a technical downhill and it would've been impossible for Quintana to do anything about it. We have seen Froome do these impressive things (obviously Sagan played a big part in crosswind stage) but have we seen an mtf finish where GC riders have not come to the finish in groups. Do we know who is the best climber as of yet? We don't.
There hasn't been a single mountain stage finish where we can say that one rider was clearly better than others. Porte could easily be a better climber than Froome but we don't know.
And if Movistar want to use Valverde they can use him only once. If Valverde goes and makes a decisive move which will end his overall GC chances he can't do it again.
We saw, that about 10 riders are pretty similar at the climbs. And we saw, that Froome, Porte and Mollema were the best at Ventoux. That Quintana is far away from his best.
You can't see the best climber so far because there is no best climber in the race so far. It's the Tour de France, there are more world class climbers compared to the Giro with Niba, Krujse and Chaves.
Every rider says in the pre-race interviews: "i don't want to lose time today". Thats the big problem.
Then something like Tourmalet finish would help. When the climb is so long and has a good gradient then gaps will appear between the best GC riders. Also when it's a mtf riders won't think about saving energy to keep chasers away on the flats.
Because Mont Ventoux was shortened this year we didn't see obviously what we wanted to see but I think that Tour should have at least 2 climbs each year that are of similar difficulty and both with mtf. It would also help when one of them gets cancelled because of unexpected circumstances.