tobydawq said:
The fact remains that Ewan could have had a good shot at this jersey if he had gone for it. Don't tell me it takes that much energy out of you to participate in the intermediate sprints, if you're just picking up the leftover points.
It's not just your energy. It's the energy from your leadout too and the relative benefit of making large efforts for small gains where your main opponent can just follow your wheel, making very little effort. Sprinters need to weigh this against the chances of losing out on the stage win and what that means, not just for points but also for the team and sponsors. There is very low interest in the jersey anyway, I think most just think it's not worth it considering Sagan can pick up so many points elsewhere when they have little to no chance. From what I remember, the last pure sprinter who really seemed bothered about intermediates was Cav, possibly Kittel? This may have been driven by their relative dominance in the bunch sprints and confidence that they could win the stage while still contesting the points elsewhere. At the moment there isn't one dominant sprinter and the rewards for winning the stage are too great to sacrifice on a slim chance of competing for Green.
To bring this back on topic, in terms of the competition I have no problem with Sagan winning the jersey every year he finishes the Tour for the rest of his career. If that happens then so be it. At the end of the day it's a points competition, not a sprint competition and if riders want to compete they need to be able to get points in more than just the finish of flat stages.
If ASO want it to be a sprint competition then they need to strip points from everything except the flat stage finishes and award 50, 30 and 10 points for 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Otherwise people just have to accept that Sagan is one of the most talented riders to ever race and suits this competition more than anyone we've ever seen.