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How to make the tour even more exciting

Jul 18, 2009
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1. Allow spectators to chip in money for sprints along the course. The location for the sprints would not be decided and set up until 30 minutes before the lead rider gets to the sprint area. This allows the sprints to be more of a surprise, but give riders enough time to organize for it. This can be done multiple times in a single day. These sprints would not contribute to the sprint points competition (or should they). With the internet, you can even collect money from anyone via the tour website.

2. Drop the everyone finishes with the same time in the last kilometers of a stage during the final week of the race. But allow riders to draft off of team cars or scooters if they are chasing back due to a flat. Maybe allow riders to be slung by other rides as in track races. If you flat, you should have used stronger tires. If you crash, then you need to improve you bike handling skills.

3. Make it illegal to have more than two lead out men from your team in the last 5 kilometers of a bunch sprint. We need more raw sprints where a single rider is more of a factor. Time penalties are put against the team for violations.

4. Have team leaders decide before the race start who will be their designated domestique and one alternate. During the race you can only draft off of your designated domestique, or an opponent. You can only get food and water form your designated domestique. Each violation of this is a 5 second penalty. The penalty resets every 30 minutes, so as to keep riders from drafting off of an undesignated domestique all day. If your domestique crashes out, you then can use your alternate domestique. This policy applies to bunch sprints as well. Sprinters can only come around their domestique or an opponent.

5. Give a nice sum of cash from the race or spectators to the last 10 finishers of a race. This will break up team tactics a bit.

6. During one of the steep climbing stages with technical turns, riders must ride time trial bikes. It is about the rider, not the bike. They can of course race the handlebars so the are not bent over so much.

7. Instead of everyone finishing with the same time in a group finish. Your finishing time is your time. This will keep riders from maintaining the same time differences day after day on flat stages. In one day, you can lose a few seconds if you decide to finish near the back of a pack.

8. The last day of the tour (or second to last) should always be an individual time trial. The strongest man at the end of 3 weeks is the winner. The course has to be a well rounded course. Some small hills, technical turns, maybe some cobblestones, etc. Nothing to give advantage to any one specialty. This should not change from year to year.

9. If your opponent gets a flat and you stop to give him your wheel (hopefully they are compatible wheels) because the support vehicle is nowhere in sight, your team gets a time bonus. Good sportsman like conduct must be rewarded. The same applies for food and water. No one like seeing a fellow racer bonk. That is not a way to win a race.

10. Ban energy bars and gels. That is not manly food. There is nothing worse than seeing a grown man suck down a gel. Riders have to learn again how to eat sandwiches, fruit, trail mixes, etc.
 
Jul 19, 2009
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Limit the number of riders per team to seven. This way some of the GC contenders might actually have to do some work outside of the ITT and the last 5K of a couple mountain stages.
 
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Anonymous

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is this a joke :confused:


im trying to work out an award, but i dont even know what catagory this thread would go in..
 
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Anonymous

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titotito said:
Limit the number of riders per team to seven. This way some of the GC contenders might actually have to do some work outside of the ITT and the last 5K of a couple mountain stages.

although i do actually agree with the smaller teams, and allow an extra 4 w/c teams in..
 
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Anonymous

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how about the do the tour starts in real time... :D

so tommoro the yellow jersey sets off first, hincapie five seconds later, contador a couple of seconds after him, then lance, and so on and so on.. :D
 
Mar 13, 2009
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get the dope out of the sport, like keirin cycling in Japan, supervise the riders 24/7 during the month, get them to come in one week early, total hemoglobin CO2 tests, no team doctors, masseurs supervised and given the massage oils.

All of that, the final week of the Tour will be so much more exciting. No team will be able to control the race.
 

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