What a thread
Amongst cycling fans it would seem that sprinters do not have much 'fame' at all. Everyone time you enter the professional road racing section just have a look at the threads and topics: Climber dominated. There is much more love for climbers than there is sprinters. But yes, on a twenty second news snippet the winner of the stage will naturally be mentioned....often a pure sprinter.
Many have mentioned that a GT should host stages of all kinds of terrain; so that even includes pancake flat. The key is to not have too many of these. To have 4 stage designs in a row that Cippo could win is a travesty.
As Avoriaz mentioned, recovery comes into it; the climbers need their 'rest days'.
But here's the thing: They don't get to rest as much as the sprinters, and this is the main problem. It's not flat stages. It's not sprint trains. It's weak time limits.
Most of the sprinters can climb a lot better than we see. The point is that they don't have to try particularly hard, so they don't. That makes sense. Why bust your gut to finish fifteen minutes behind Nibali in the high mountains when you are allowed to finish half an hour behind and not get eliminated (in the process saving extra energy for the next winnable sprint stage)?
Make the sprinters work for their sprint wins...on the other stages. Create a greater risk that just staying in the autobus will get you eliminated (this also will offer even more substance to the winner of the points jersey). Could also have a last rider out rule for each stage (meaning that even the climbers aren't safe on the flat stages).
In Australia I think that Evans is a lot more lauded than McKewen, though the latter won a LOT more stages. I enjoy the hilly stages much more too, but a rider like Robbie deserves his spot in the peleton. Winning a sprint is not always about raw power, but about tactics and timing. There is a skill to it. But a good way to go about all of this is to not have four or five pancake stages in week 1, and on the otherside of the coin, to have at least one other flattish stage in the final week besides Champs; that way you reward the fast men who have made it over the high mountains.