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Crazy Grand Tour stages you would like to see

Apr 9, 2011
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So last year we had the Night TTT at the Vuelta.

The Giro always throws something up....

But Ive had a thought on something.


idea 1
Team Mountain Time trial time taken on the 4th person

Cat 2 climb ,descent, cat 1/HC time taken at top.

idea 2
splint the team in 2 with 1 getting extra.(depending on how many have crashed out etc)

Team 1 5 riders time taken on rider 3
team 2 4 riders time taken on rider 2

Team 1 Mountain Team time trial
team 2 flat Team Time trial.

add the time together for overall time

Just an idea anyone else got any ?
 
Dec 27, 2010
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Eshnar said:
Final stage: Individual Pursuit

Gc leader starts first, then the others, at the time established by the gc itself.
Whoever cross the line first wins the GT.

I've thought this before, like in the biathlon events for skiing, works really well there. Only issue for GTs, or even short stage races, is you'll have guys starting hours down which won't make for great viewing for the crowds - bit of an anticlimax :D
 
will10 said:
I've thought this before, like in the biathlon events for skiing, works really well there. Only issue for GTs, or even short stage races, is you'll have guys starting hours down which won't make for great viewing for the crowds - bit of an anticlimax :D
well, they could do it for the first 10 gc guys only. The others starts before and do a normal ITT

PS those guys aren't to be watched anyway ^^
 
Aug 11, 2009
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Eshnar said:
well, they could do it for the first 10 gc guys only. The others starts before and do a normal ITT

PS those guys aren't to be watched anyway ^^

I'd go a step farther and say just tell everyone outside of the Top 20 to not start. They can still be "official finishers" but just leave the final day tt to the top 20.

Also, you would need to have minimum intervals between riders or very strict no-draft enforcement applied to both forward-distance and lateral-distance between riders. You don't really want a guy starting two seconds behind a higher-placed rider only to immediately find himself in that rider's draft.

Still, I like the idea a lot. Very spectator-accessible and potentially very exciting.
 
Aug 18, 2009
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Eshnar said:
Final stage: Individual Pursuit

Gc leader starts first, then the others, at the time established by the gc itself.
Whoever cross the line first wins the GT.

That's a quality idea.
 
ergmonkey said:
Also, you would need to have minimum intervals between riders or very strict no-draft enforcement applied to both forward-distance and lateral-distance between riders. You don't really want a guy starting two seconds behind a higher-placed rider only to immediately find himself in that rider's draft.
yes, this is an issue to be solved yet.
I'll work on it :D
 
I think its time for cycling to try to cash in on the popularity of 1 on 1 style events.

The best way I can think of to do this would be to hold a tack sprint type race over a 5-10k city circuit. Obviously to be held on afternoon after a short 80k sprint stage in the morning, so your not actually wasting a stage, just holding a 17b type stage.

Time taken to complete the course is irrelevant but if you manage to beat your opponent you get a 1 minute gc bonus. If you lose you dont. Riders further down the field could choose to convert their time gained into kom or points jersey points.

Im not sure if it would be best for riders to have pick your poison type draws (top guy chooses his opponent, next guy his, next guy his etc) or to just draw them like a lottery.

Either way attention on the gc guys would be huge.
 
Team Sprint (Olympic Sprint) style TTT. Even better if it's held in a short hard climb, like Mende. Every member gets the time of the last man remaining.


50 men peloton for the last 3 stages (one flat, one hard mountain and one medium montain/hilly classic style). Only the 50 best in the GC starts the race.
 
Apr 15, 2010
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TTT, preferably long, 80+km, with a couple of hard climbs including1 hard climb to finish.

individually timed. you get your own time, but go off as teams. at what stage do the stars go it alone?
 
Apr 9, 2011
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one I thought of on the run home

TTT for an hour

every 10 m your team is behind the leading team equals a certain amount of time added to your own time.
 
Dec 27, 2010
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Not exactly a crazy suggestion, but I would like to see more shorter road stages. Stages like stage 19 of this year's Tour - only 109km of racing, but they're doing the Telegraphe, the Galibier and the Alpe. All the exciting bits without the long valleys or 50km after the last climb as the ASO are so adept at doing. Short stages like this you could also show the entire stage in the afternoon, so we'd see the first hour kicking off which is often missed on the TV cameras.

One suggestion: Bagneres de Luchon - Col du Tourmalet, 72km.
The first 72km of last year's Pau stage (http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-16)
 
Eshnar said:
Final stage: Individual Pursuit

Gc leader starts first, then the others, at the time established by the gc itself.
Whoever cross the line first wins the GT.

will10 said:
I've thought this before, like in the biathlon events for skiing, works really well there. Only issue for GTs, or even short stage races, is you'll have guys starting hours down which won't make for great viewing for the crowds - bit of an anticlimax :D

ergmonkey said:
I'd go a step farther and say just tell everyone outside of the Top 20 to not start. They can still be "official finishers" but just leave the final day tt to the top 20.

Also, you would need to have minimum intervals between riders or very strict no-draft enforcement applied to both forward-distance and lateral-distance between riders. You don't really want a guy starting two seconds behind a higher-placed rider only to immediately find himself in that rider's draft.

Still, I like the idea a lot. Very spectator-accessible and potentially very exciting.

Eshnar said:
yes, this is an issue to be solved yet.
I'll work on it :D

I don't think this idea is reasonably workable for a Grand Tour, simply because of the time gaps. In the biathlon it works precisely because the times are set by the sprint race, the shortest race format. And even then, it seems a bit unfair that the sprint pays medals at the Worlds and Olympics too - in Whistler, Anastasiya Kuzmina and Magdalena Neuner in the women's event were so far ahead of people from the sprint event that you could guarantee that, bar being complete idiots at the shooting range (admittedly a definite possibility in Neuner's case), they were going to 1-2 the pursuit too. They use it in short Tours in XC skiing, but it's most notable with the mountain climb of Alpe Cermis in the Tour de Ski.

However, on the other hand, I think for short stage races, especially relatively flat ones. Say, the Tour Down Under or the Tour of Britain - both races that could do well from including this. But I wouldn't do it as a full length stage. Take the Tour Down Under - you could do a circuit lap of the Old Willunga Hill circuit in pursuit format - do the sprinters wait for backup and then sprint it out or do they try to climb in earnest? It works because you wouldn't be waiting necessarily any longer than on a normal stage for the final finishers given the nature of a race like the TDU.

Patterned after the wintersports, however, I most definitely would NOT enforce a no-drafting rule. In the Nordic Combined, for example, part of the fun is seeing the likes of Gottwald and Kokslien having to work together to pull back a Lamy Chappuis or a Frenzel who has made their gains on the jump. In a long GT this will likely be irrelevant because of the gaps being larger, only that it takes all the late-goers completely out of their willingness to compete as they have to go it all alone and the crowds have likely cleared off - in essence turning all but the top 20 into the few stragglers in your average road stage, with the broomwagon at their back wheel. And if you don't let everybody start, they haven't finished the GT, so although they may officially be recorded as having done so they don't get the satisfaction. However, in a short stage race, especially one where you get a few riders on the same time (as happens not infrequently in the Nordic disciplines), it could be very interesting. For example, a TDU Willunga loop - should the likes of Greipel drop back and wait for teammates and try to have a sprint? Do you work together with your GC opponents to hold back those better climbers and ITT riders in the chasing pack behind you? Cameron Meyer, for example, would have to TT to victory had this happened in 2011 - but in order to get any help to chase him down the sprinters would have to sacrifice giving him a quite hefty headstart. And with the GC on the line, attacks like Evans/Valverde/Sánchez/Sagan on Willunga could have been helped immeasurably by Greipel having to wait an extra 30 seconds or so before help even arrived.
 
Nov 30, 2010
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Another idea for a TTT... Head to head racing.

Close off a nice wide highway, both directions, and have all teams competing at the same time.

Say there are 22 teams, and the road runs North-South, all teams to stick to the proper (lefthand) side of the central reservation...5 teams start in marked lanes from the North end, 5 teams from the South, 6 teams from the middle heading North and 6 teams from the middle heading South. The finishing time is the time taken to get back to the starting point.

I haven't worked out how to manage the U-turns at each end of the course. My temptation would be to do nothing and let the riders sort it out for themselves.
 

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