Bring Back the Double ITT?

[Angliru]

Couldn't agree more. Plus the prologue. If you can't ride against the clock, you have no right to claim a win.

That's bs. If after 3 weeks you are the winner, they have every right to claim their win, horrible time trial skills and all. They obviously did what they had to do over the 3 weeks to negate that weakness in their game.

 

[Angliru]

TTT should be included once every3-4 years or so. To easily benefits the teams with the larger budgets for them to have this advantage every year.

 

[Angliru]

A prologue, a Mountain TT, and a Flat 50 km TT. That's all of the TT'ing I want.

I'm with you, with a TTT thrown in at the most every 3-4 years or so at the expense of one of the ITT's for that year.

 

[RedZone]

Whilst point 1 is true, maybe AC thinks with a much stronger team he could have won the giro without going as hard, then would be fresher at the tour?

Well he won the Giro by a street, so he probably didnt have to go as hard as he did. He was always the one going off the front, so a stronger team wouldnt make much difference there I think.

 

[Angliru]

1. AC was just not strong enough. Team was irrelevant to the result.
2. POrte seems really close to McGee and has become good friends with Alberto. I think he will stay.

I'd love to have heard you apply the same analysis to Evans' previous Tours instead of shouting down the very same statements when they were applied in the past to Cadel.

The odor of that word that starts with "h" and ends with "t" is quite strong in your above post.

Otherwise, congratulations on Cadel's win! A very well deserved victory after his many years of diligence.

 

[jacko_69]

75km TTT
70km Flat TT
55 km hilly TT
15km MTT

With the 15km MTT... I don't think you've given Tony Martin enough flat TT km's, may need to throw in another 40km TT for good measure

 

[Angliru]

Contador finally comes out and says he needs a stronger team to do the Giro-TDF double. However Porte should leave, he wanted to last year and it's time for the next step up.

I think everyone knew this already, especially with how the team was depleted by the exodus to Leopard Trek. This was not the ideal year for Contador to try the Giro/Tour double. The falls and resulting injury which were a direct result of the fatigue and the teams inability to have the riders strong and experienced enough to keep Contador at the front all came into play in his early lost time and added fatigue in trying to get the lost time back. It all eventually took it's toll.

 

[Thomsena]

This is how they should do it.

1st week. Prolouge. 3 flat stages, 3 mountain top finish stages, rest.

2nd week. 3 flat stages, 3 mountain top finishes, ITT, rest.

3rd week. 3 flat, 3 mtf, final stage ITT.

If that's too many days then take out a boring flat stage. If there are too many flat stages add a ttt.

Rubbish...

 

[Nick C.]

1. AC was just not strong enough. Team was irrelevant to the result.
2. POrte seems really close to McGee and has become good friends with Alberto. I think he will stay.

I don't know about that. He seemed to have one guy (Porte?) to close the gap after getting caught up in the first stage crash. Maybe a stronger team makes it easier to be at the front. Also a stronger team loses sub ten seconds like the others did rather than the 40 odd that he lost.

 

[Parrulo]

I'd love to have heard you apply the same analysis to Evans' previous Tours instead of shouting down the very same statements when they were applied in the past to Cadel.

The odor of that word that starts with "h" and ends with "t" is quite strong in your above post.

Otherwise, congratulations on Cadel's win! A very well deserved victory after his many years of diligence.

ahahah nicely done angliru you got that one spot on

 

[Escarabajo]

75km TTT
70km Flat TT
55 km hilly TT
15km MTT

I see you want Tony Martin to make the top ten.

 

[Angliru]

I don't know about that. He seemed to have one guy (Porte?) to close the gap after getting caught up in the first stage crash. Maybe a stronger team makes it easier to be at the front. Also a stronger team loses sub ten seconds like the others did rather than the 40 odd that he lost.

Having a strong team is only important when using it as an excuse when explaining away why a particular poster's favorite rider didn't do well or win. It simply cannot be applied in any other circumstance especially when it involves Spanish riders (with the exception of Igor Anton as I understand it).

Very complicated system dude has.

 

[Escarabajo]

Whilst point 1 is true, maybe AC thinks with a much stronger team he could have won the giro without going as hard, then would be fresher at the tour?

+1.

He had to form alliances at the Giro.

 

[Mich78BEL]

mix it up, one year like this year's Tour, then a year with a prologue & 2 ITT (one around 25-30 km, one 40-50 km) and the next year again a variation

 

[movingtarget]

With two ITT's. Would there be any point in the Schlecks turning up ?

 

[Thomsena]

With two ITT's. Would there be any point in the Schlecks turning up ?

With two ITT's there would be a point in improving their ITT-skills...

 

[Bavarianrider]

This year's Vuelta really would have needed a second TT in the last week.

 

[gregrowlerson]

This year's Vuelta really would have needed a second TT in the last week.

This is all that the parcours is lacking to make it perfect

And to give Klodi more of a chance of winning

I love the great variety of the hilly, MTF, descent, end with a short WALL, type of stages.

And it's not backended. We will get a good idea of GC after stage 4

 

[Thomsena]

And it's not backended. We will get a good idea of GC after stage 4

How is that a good thing?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

How is that a good thing?

You don't have 40 people all trying to protect their GC ambitions for 2 weeks and resulting in a very nervy péloton causing crashes that eliminate half the contenders - and what's more SOMETHING IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS ACTUALLY MEANS SOMETHING.

It's nice to be watching a Grand Tour. We've only had one this year, though the Tour de France was the best one-week race of the year.

edit: sorry, forgot California. Two.

 

[uphillstruggle]

You don't have 40 people all trying to protect their GC ambitions for 2 weeks and resulting in a very nervy péloton causing crashes that eliminate half the contenders - and what's more SOMETHING IN THE FIRST TWO WEEKS ACTUALLY MEANS SOMETHING.

It's nice to be watching a Grand Tour. We've only had one this year, though the Tour de France was the best one-week race of the year.

edit: sorry, forgot California. Two.

When I saw the parcours I agreed with everyone that the the Tour this year left it too late to hit the mountains but in hindsight I feel it hard to complain. This was the best edition for years. There were enough interesting stages in the first few weeks that meant it wasn't a track meet on tour. I agree there should have been something to alter GC in the first few weeks If they had made the TTT a short TT it would have saved a whole load of crashes.

I Have always felt the Tour quite handicapped by the topography of France compared to Spain and Italy who have mountains/very considerable hills in numerous areas of the country.

 

[gregrowlerson]

How is that a good thing?

It means that GC riders face the challenge of having to try to peak for close to 3 weeks rather than for 10 days.

 

[Swede1]

It means that GC riders face the challenge of having to try to peak for close to 3 weeks rather than for 10 days.

No problem for Evans, he can peak for a season He wins from Tirreno until the Tour

 

[dsut4392]

The odor of that word that starts with "h" and ends with "t" is quite strong in your above post.

Am I being obtuse, or is your spelling suspect? Perhaps you mean ending in "e"? Unless you are calling ACF a halibut, hazelnut, hairshirt, hovercraft, herpetologist, harpsichordist or histopathologist?

http://www.quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/m...lmnopqrstuvwxyz&sbs=&outp=0&dict=0&ent=Search (not a complete list)

 

[Nearly]

.....
One thing Tour organizers did this year that was very smart is that they took a page from the Giro and in the first week had a couple uphill bumps at the end of stages that brought out the GC riders. Even though it's only a handful of seconds usually, it's great to see and the fans love it.

+1 ... and with time bonuses they would have been even better!