I realize there is no black and white answer because it depends on team strategy, but I'm interested to know people's thoughts on using placing in a GT as a measure of overall cycling performance.
Roughly whereabouts do you think we see riders going for as best position as they can on GC, start to trail off in favor of riders whose goals and responsibilities are different eg: loose time on purpose on some stages so they can get in a breakaway later on and win an individual stage, domestiques who destroy themselves for the team one day in the mtns and recover the next, TT'ist whose goal is to win the ITT etc
Top 20?
Top 30?
Top 50?
Top 100?
The question thus becomes, is it fair to compare the performances of a rider who came 70th in a GT one year, and 10th the following year if their team role has changed? Was it a true measure of performance capability when they came 70th if say, they were a domestique that year and a GC rider the next (perhaps because they changed teams or the GC rider retired or was sick or injured or whatever)??
edit: Another way to frame this question is to ask... at what point roughly (ie: placing on GC) does it become more prestigious to win an individual stage of a GT rather than always compete for the best possible GC place??
Roughly whereabouts do you think we see riders going for as best position as they can on GC, start to trail off in favor of riders whose goals and responsibilities are different eg: loose time on purpose on some stages so they can get in a breakaway later on and win an individual stage, domestiques who destroy themselves for the team one day in the mtns and recover the next, TT'ist whose goal is to win the ITT etc
Top 20?
Top 30?
Top 50?
Top 100?
The question thus becomes, is it fair to compare the performances of a rider who came 70th in a GT one year, and 10th the following year if their team role has changed? Was it a true measure of performance capability when they came 70th if say, they were a domestique that year and a GC rider the next (perhaps because they changed teams or the GC rider retired or was sick or injured or whatever)??
edit: Another way to frame this question is to ask... at what point roughly (ie: placing on GC) does it become more prestigious to win an individual stage of a GT rather than always compete for the best possible GC place??