LaFlorecita said:
And Valverde isn't a horrible tter. So quite a lot I'd say.
1'31 in the TT. You know what that meant? Valverde attacked early on Ventoux and gave us more than 3km of racing at the top of the climb. Because the TTers who could climb had the advantage over the climbers who could TT, and there were REAL mountain stages where the climbers could try to gain that time back, so they did.
It's true that the 2010-12 Dauphinés were won mostly in the time trial... but that's because, and this is important,
the rest of the route sucked.
If you make the rest of the race hard enough that the climbers can win their time back, then you can have a 40k time trial. Hell, if your time trial is too short, the climbers can just "Purito" their way into riding tempo until attacking for the last 2km. That's all well and good, but you have to get it right. The Dauphiné the last few years has had some weak mountain stages (2012 being particularly bad) allied to long ITTs. If you make the ITT too long and the mountain stages too easy, the climbers will be too far down in the GC to make a difference (see: Paris-Nice 2011, Dauphiné 2012). If the ITT isn't long enough, however, then the mountains will be the only place to win and lose times, and it will result in cagey, defensive mountain racing where all the action is in the last few kilometres (see: Giro 2012).
The Dauphiné should always have three mountain stages, with two summit finishes, one easier than the other. These stages should be multiple climbs. Preferably, the harder MTF should come first, giving the riders a chance on a multi-climb stage to make a last ditch attack on penultimate mountains or long range moves. The ITT should be of a length that it ensures the climbers have enough deficit to ensure attacking racing, but not so long that it renders them an irrelevance.
The Dauphiné takes place
in the freaking Alps. If, with three mountain stages
in the freaking Alps, you can't find enough ways to make it difficult that you can't balance out against 40km of ITT, you either can't read a map or you have been working for the ASO for three years.