I think Degenkolb could have been a strong contender for green although not while he's with Kittel. And obviously not a favourite against Sagan, just a good contender I guess.
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SKSemtex said:I give you a question. Do you as cycling fan prefer Sagan anmimating 8 out of 11 stages, beeing allways in finale or Sagan doing **** all the stages and winning one or two?
I just love this tour and way he has raced it so far. The results are not the proof of him beeing weaker btw the results are proof that DSs, riders are not the bunch of lazy stupid idiots and they did a lot of work during the winter.
He is loosing stage by stage, but I find myself enjoying the race and especially his attacs on his "wins" anyway.
saganftw said:better hope nobody wins 2 or 3 tours in a row because some ppl might want to change that classification too
Well, considering the fact that he has been fuming for a good 8 days now, he pretty clearly isn't just satisfied with 2nds and 3rds.argyllflyer said:For such a living legend, surely he should aspire to a bit more than winning the green jersey every year? With his ability, it should be big classics won rather than consistent top five placings in a grand tour.
How much more can he go after classics than he already does?Jerkovin said:Well, considering the fact that he has been fuming for a good 8 days now, he pretty clearly isn't just satisfied with 2nds and 3rds.
I agree that he should go after the classics a bit more though.
SKSemtex said:Has the win in bunch sprint lost its prestige?
It looks like nobody is really going for stage wins in flat stages. It seems only Marce Kittel is really interested in them. I really do not know why.
We used have some quite interesting fight before in bunch sprints.
thequestionmark said:Seriously?
There are at lot of teams interested contesting in the bunch sprints. If not attackers would have won them. It's just that Kittel is way better than the others.
VO2 Max said:Exactly this. The yellow jersey is for the race on time, the green jersey is for the race on points - the most consistent rider. Which Sagan very clearly is. From letour.fr: Overall individual classification by points / Classement général individuel par points. Not Classement général du meilleur sprinteur by analogy with the polka dots.
I don't think anyone would be bothered about Sagan having this in the bag if the yellow jersey didn't seem sown up already as well.
kurtinsc said:I think the issue is the huge number of points for the intermediate sprint.
I think it would be fine if the tour went back to having multiple intermediates with 6/4/2 points on offer for first, second and third.
With only 3 spots getting points, the breakaway generally takes all of them. In hilly stages that eliminate the pure sprinters early, Sagan doesn't just get points from the finish but also picks up points from the intermediate that are virutally uncontested. If breakaways ate up those points in either case, then Sagan's edge would be smaller.
It would still be there... Hushovd beat Cav for a points jersey when cav was winning most of the sprints due to hilly and even mountain stage performances. But Thor had to pull off some impressive all-day attacks, got a Cav relegation and still barely pulled it out. It was a contest.
With the current big-point intermediat sprint model... it's no contest.
saganftw said:better hope nobody wins 2 or 3 tours in a row because some ppl might want to change that classification too
Netserk said:There are more who challenge Sagan than there are who challenge Purito...
Netserk said:There are more who challenge Sagan than there are who challenge Purito...
alspacka said:Sagan is currently by far the best rider in terms of variety and consistency. I think it's right he should be rewarded for this.
willbick said:Green jersey should be the reward for the most consistently highly-placed rider. not the best sprinter. the reward for the best sprinter is to win stages, that is enough. Sagan is by far the best as getting good placing on different types of stage so he deserves to win green
Krebs cycle said:There are numerous riders that are capable
Pretty much this. A closer race would give it more prestige as it would seen to be more competitive. He is just so far above anyone else in this competition that the story will be when he does not win it.DirtyWorks said:He's so good he makes the race boring!!!