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Reform: It's time to liven up the Grand Tours

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It's impossible to ride on the cobbles with a TT bike, I remember in Rio they had to made a strip of tarmac next to the cobbles sector in the Olympic circuit for the ITT, if you make a 15 kms ITT with only a sector at the end will be an invite for a bike change festival (I don't know if I've already said that I would like to ban the TT bike change).

Anyway I would make mandatory an ITT as final stage to avoid the parade, or maybe something like when Torriani decided to finish the last stage of the Giro on the top of the Stelvio.
 
Re:

Nirvana said:
It's impossible to ride on the cobbles with a TT bike, I remember in Rio they had to made a strip of tarmac next to the cobbles sector in the Olympic circuit for the ITT, if you make a 15 kms ITT with only a sector at the end will be an invite for a bike change festival (I don't know if I've already said that I would like to ban the TT bike change).

There's no rule saying a TT has to be on a TT bike... you could even say that the riders have to ride on normal bikes.
Make the TT go over multiple sectors.
 
Re: Re:

Pantani_lives said:
RedheadDane said:
*Stage 21: Roubaix-Paris; the cobbled classic in reverse direction.

The riders actually riding backwards! :cool: (They might need to do some tweaking with their bikes for that to be possible…)
Guess it's a good thing we're not actually in charge of organising GTs.
A stage on 19th century velocipedes is also an option.
A city center prologue, on City hire bikes. The competitor has to run out of a subway station, collect his bike from the docking station, and set off on a 6km route featuring bike paths, Red traffic lights, and being chased by a dog for a stretch.
 
I posted this on the Tour 2019 thread, but it looks like it might gain an audience here

“A final MTF on La Planche des Belles Filles would have the benefit of a slightly shorter transfer ahead of the Champs stage.

They could even do;
Monday; Rest day below the Alps
Tuesday, Wednesday; Alpine stages
Thursday; MTF Besancon - LPDBF
Friday; Long sprint stage from Epinal/Nancy area to around Reims.
Saturday; cobbled stage from around Reims to Arras/Amiens area
Sunday; Champs Elysees

A TT stage could fit in there if needed. Point being a week like that has gc potential, has cobbles late in the Tour instead of an early-stage afterthought, reduces long transfers for the riders, and also gives the sprinters and classics riders something else to stick around for than just Paris.”
 
Re: Re:

RedheadDane said:
Koronin said:
I agree with RedHeadDane, ride the Paris-Roubaix stage on stage 21 from Roubaix to Paris.

No, no. Having the Paris-Roubaix (or rather Roubaix-Paris) stage on stage 21 is all Pantani_lives' idea. I'm totally fine with stage 21 being a parade, and the riders are probably going to ride it as a parade anyway, so it would be a waste of good cobbles.
I'm thinking more stage 20. Sometimes the final show-down is a mountain stage, sometimes it's an individual time trial (I think it has also on occasion been an individual mountain time trial), why not have the final show-down be a cobbled stage?


Ok, then stage 20, with the parade on stage 21. But still stage 20 would be a lot better than week 1.
 
Re: Re:

Logic-is-your-friend said:
Pantani_lives said:
Logic-is-your-friend said:
I like the idea to have an ITT up Alp d'Huez in the dark. But, let's spice it up a bit. How about an ITT from the top of Alp d'Huez all the way DOWN, in the dark.

:p
Blindfolded?

But then there'd be no point of doing it in the dark. But i like this train of though :D

But if it is dark they can still see the motorcycle lights and all the light fans will have. Now it is total darkness and they have to use their hearing to navigate, a true professional.
 
Re: Re:

SHAD0W93 said:
Logic-is-your-friend said:
Pantani_lives said:
Logic-is-your-friend said:
I like the idea to have an ITT up Alp d'Huez in the dark. But, let's spice it up a bit. How about an ITT from the top of Alp d'Huez all the way DOWN, in the dark.

:p
Blindfolded?

But then there'd be no point of doing it in the dark. But i like this train of though :D

But if it is dark they can still see the motorcycle lights and all the light fans will have. Now it is total darkness and they have to use their hearing to navigate, a true professional.

Yes, but if you blindfold them, you can just race during day time... There would be no point in waiting for dark.
 
Re: Re:

RedheadDane said:
Nirvana said:
It's impossible to ride on the cobbles with a TT bike, I remember in Rio they had to made a strip of tarmac next to the cobbles sector in the Olympic circuit for the ITT, if you make a 15 kms ITT with only a sector at the end will be an invite for a bike change festival (I don't know if I've already said that I would like to ban the TT bike change).

There's no rule saying a TT has to be on a TT bike... you could even say that the riders have to ride on normal bikes.
Make the TT go over multiple sectors.
...yep. Some riders will change bikes. and make it fun. Because ITT in terms of entertainment value, unless it's stage 17+, they suck.
 
Re: Re:

Tonton said:
RedheadDane said:
Nirvana said:
It's impossible to ride on the cobbles with a TT bike, I remember in Rio they had to made a strip of tarmac next to the cobbles sector in the Olympic circuit for the ITT, if you make a 15 kms ITT with only a sector at the end will be an invite for a bike change festival (I don't know if I've already said that I would like to ban the TT bike change).

There's no rule saying a TT has to be on a TT bike... you could even say that the riders have to ride on normal bikes.
Make the TT go over multiple sectors.
...yep. Some riders will change bikes. and make it fun. Because ITT in terms of entertainment value, unless it's stage 17+, they suck.

If they change bikes, they have to do a running start a la Campenaerts.
Gearing problems optional.
 
Re: Re:

RedheadDane said:
Tonton said:
RedheadDane said:
Nirvana said:
It's impossible to ride on the cobbles with a TT bike, I remember in Rio they had to made a strip of tarmac next to the cobbles sector in the Olympic circuit for the ITT, if you make a 15 kms ITT with only a sector at the end will be an invite for a bike change festival (I don't know if I've already said that I would like to ban the TT bike change).

There's no rule saying a TT has to be on a TT bike... you could even say that the riders have to ride on normal bikes.
Make the TT go over multiple sectors.
...yep. Some riders will change bikes. and make it fun. Because ITT in terms of entertainment value, unless it's stage 17+, they suck.

If they change bikes, they have to do a running start a la Campenaerts.
Gearing problems optional.
Need to do a running match between Campenaerts and Froome where only Froome's time gets neutralised
 
The most important reason I am against too many short stages in a GT, is that it takes away from the element of fatigue. - It is also the reason I am against substitution.

Fatigue is what causes surprising results in the last week of a GT, it is also what puts emphasis on economising your strength over 3 weeks, and what promotes great teamwork day in and day out.

If we allow everyone to arrive in the last week fresh (and some with far less kilometers in their legs), we might as well just do 1 week races.

I agree that short stages are more interesting to watch, and that they have their purpose, especially in the big mountains.... but it should only be for a few stages in a GT in my opinion.
 
Re:

barmaher said:
I don't think there's too much wrong with Grand Tours at the moment. We aren't too far removed from a brilliant Vuelta 2017 followed by an even better Giro 2018.
Dont think we are either. GTs, as always, hugely depends on two things: route and field. The field is generally the same: The Giro is very, very strong (as strong as ever these last years), the Tour the best and the Vuelta less so. Then you look at the routes and say that this year, the routes for all of the GTs are pretty mediocre relative to what they normally come up with. Nothing too great, nothing too bad. You dont wanna experiment with something crazy like substituations and all that crap, but simply just focus on making a route attractive to see some great action. If you merge the first part of Tour with the second part of the Giro you get a pretty great GT.
 

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