Re:
The old system, with 3 separate intermediate sprints and points for the first 3 placings at each, meant that the break hoovered up all the points before the peloton ever got there. There was no intermediate sprinting.Eyeballs Out said:There are UCI points for the points competition already (but not many compared to the GC).
The prize money is a lot better comparatively- 15k EU for 2nd place
The points competition since it was changed to award a lot of points for the intermediate sprints (around the start of the decade) has become a bit silly. Inevitably the meaningful points are taken by the break and so you end up with a few sprinters "fighting" for effectively 1 or 2 pts. So a complete waste of time unless you are the only points contender there. If there is a proper points contest then on the more selective stages each team just ends up chasing down the opposition guy which is often what happened this year with Bora and Sunweb. Matthews ended up dropping himself out of the competition in order to get in a break so he could try and win a stage.
I thought it was a much more interesting competition when the vast majority of points were at the stage finish