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Points Road Races

Aug 20, 2017
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Hey cycling fans!

Unfortunately some of the cycle races (or stages) are quite boring, for example the sprint stages the first week of the tour de France. This has been discussed early on this forum. The ideas were basically to short down the stages or add more climbs. Shortening down the stages might be a problem since that might give more buss transport between the stages and less pain in the ass for the riders when they come to the third week. Adding climbs would give more action, but then you make the tour poorer with less chances for the sprinters and less diverse stages.

Why not start with point races in road cycling on flat races/stages?
In a 1-day race, the rules could be:
- The 8 first riders get 10 - 8 - 6 - 5 - (...) - 1 points on each of 5 - 8 intermediate sprints
- The 15 first riders get 20 - 16 - 14 - 12 - 11 - (...) - 1 points on the final sprint
- The riders get subtracted 1 point per second behind the first rider to cross the finish line.

In a tour, each point on the intermediate and final sprint could count in the point classification. Each point earned will give 1 bonus second. Today bonus seconds count only in the GC and not on the stage result. This would need to be changed so that bonus seconds count both in GC and on the stage results. If a rider finished at 4:10:00 with no bonus seconds and another rider at 4:10:10 with 20 bonus seconds, the rider at finishing at 4:10:10 will go first since his time included bonus seconds is 4:09:50.

Of course this rule change will apply only for the boring flat stages. Mountain and medium stages could be as today with no bonus seconds on intermediate sprints so that the first rider to cross the finish line wins.

What do you think about this idea?
 
I think this could actually lead to interesting racing but I don't think it should be applied to already existing races, since, if I understand your idea correctly, the whole concept of stage racing would change.

It's a bit like the hammer series. I think it was very entertaining to watch but that doesn't mean that I want to see its racing concept in the already existing races as well.
 
Aug 20, 2017
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I think this should be tried out in a one-day race first, and then maybe a small tour, where the GC is based on points instead of time.

I don't think this would change the whole concept of stage racing. It would actually be similar as today except that
- There are more intermediate sprints and more time bonuses on them
- The time bonuses are included in the stage result so that the stage winner is the rider with lowest finish time minus bonus seconds. Today bonus seconds count only in the GC, but with this system, the bonus seconds will also count in the stage classification.

Medium and high mountain stages would be as today, with first to cross the finish line as winner.