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Suggestions and Ideas for the Tour de France

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Jun 16, 2009
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A time trial up Luz Ardiden. That would be awesome. The tour should do a stage like the 60km time trial in the giro (forgot what it's called) except make it a bit more easier for guys like Cancellara and Grabsch so they have a bit more chance at a win.
 
Aug 9, 2009
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what about riding a stage at night or at least in the evening? At least more fans in Europe could watch it then, due to work... Yeah, sorry, would be bad for the fans further east, of course.
Or let's see how the pros can deal with a stage on the track... would be sth for the more eclectic guys.
 
May 5, 2009
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manolo said:
...When Saxo Bank lost Jens Voigt, I... would have been ok if they [had brought in] another domestique or roleur to help out. Someone... on an already designated reserve list... for Astana to bring in Chris Horner or Benjamin Noval in after Leipheimer had his incident. ... [for]Quick Step to bring in Allan Davis after Boonen left!

I've always wondered why you can't replace riders who leave the Tour through injury. I even like the idea that if you're DS and you're unhappy with how a rider is racing, you should be able to drag his a**ss out of the race and subsitute him at will! : )
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Lets have the best sprinter winning the Green Jersey, so more points awarded for the Stage win. Bring back the Catch Sprint jersey for the intermediaate sprints, don't include those in the Green competition.

Also the KOM, lets have points increased on the Hors and 1st Category climbs so the real best climber wins the competition.

Ban team radios.
 
manolo said:
I've always wondered why you can't replace riders who leave the Tour through injury. I even like the idea that if you're DS and you're unhappy with how a rider is racing, you should be able to drag his a**ss out of the race and subsitute him at will! : )
But a 3 week tour MUST be a true endurance event. Thats the essence of a grand tour.
.
If you could swap out riders, then most of the team wouldnt even complete the race, as a continuous infusion of fresh domestiques would be essential to protecting the GC man.
.
 
Aug 12, 2009
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Make it a team competition.

Team prize first based on top 4 per team.

The last several overall winners are boring or else cheats.

I couldn't give a toss about those you have won this last number of years.

Have an on site lab like they now have at the big money Ironman Triathlons like Roth, Gerrmany. You want to race for the money then you have to turn up and be tested to start full results on site.
Surely they could travel with Le Tour they seem to be able to fund and transport everything else.
 
manolo said:
Other times I think the grupetto takes it too easy on mountain climbs and get to rest too much. Just an opinion.

That's the whole purpose of the grupetto forming though... to relax through safety in numbers. They know that they can ride as slow as they want through the mountains providing they stick together. The organisers often adjust the time limit to just behind the grupetto to avoid having to cull big chunks of the peloton every day.

Nobody wants to see a Tour where 30 or 40 riders are kicked out after the first day in the mountains and maybe only eventually 50 riders reaching Paris do they?
 
Aug 4, 2009
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Naw. Just put the U.S. DNC (Democratic National "Party") in charge, they'll put a good permanent fix on the event, and as clear-thinking as both sides are I am quite certain the French will welcome the "help" ;)
 
Tugboat said:
That's the whole purpose of the grupetto forming though... to relax through safety in numbers. They know that they can ride as slow as they want through the mountains providing they stick together. The organisers often adjust the time limit to just behind the grupetto to avoid having to cull big chunks of the peloton every day.

Nobody wants to see a Tour where 30 or 40 riders are kicked out after the first day in the mountains and maybe only eventually 50 riders reaching Paris do they?

Didn't the grupetto finish outside the time limit for all 3 Alpine stages (or at least 2 out of 3) of the 2006 Tour?
 
May 5, 2009
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dgodave said:
A... 3 week tour MUST be a true endurance event. Thats the essence of a grand tour... If you could swap out riders, then most of the team wouldnt even complete the race, as a continuous infusion of fresh domestiques would be essential to protecting the GC man.

I can see that, but I definitely would be ok with replacing riders who leave through injury. Heh heh! Maybe there should be a system like American Football, if I'm correct, where you designate that certain players will only play certain positions. So, if you lose a domestique, you can only replace him with a domestique, etc.. But, truly, I even like the idea that if you're DS and you're unhappy with how a rider is racing, you should be able to drag his a**ss out of the race and subsitute him at will! : ) I bet Lefevre would have done that with Boonen this year!

Tugboat said:
... The whole purpose of the grupetto forming [is]... to relax... They know that they can ride as slow as they want through the mountains providing they stick together. The organisers often adjust the time limit to just behind the grupetto to avoid having to cull big chunks of the peloton every day.

Nobody wants to see a Tour where 30 or 40 riders are kicked out after the first day in the mountains and maybe only eventually 50 riders reaching Paris do they?

It would be a nightmare scenario, but, Yes! I'd love to see it! Then I would consider it a true endurance event! : ) It'd be kind of cool to one year see "not-sprinters" racing for glory on the Champs Elysee! : )
 
Jul 13, 2009
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How about giving a time bonus to the best placed team at the end of the three weeks.
They have the best team competition. Why not base it on the top 6 riders from each team and give the winning team a 2 minute time bonus.

That would have to shake things up no?
 
Jul 27, 2009
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Have mystery sprints!

For example, on a flat stage the race manager can call out over the radio 'sprint in 500m' (or something similar) and whoever wins gets green jersey points and a nice cash prize. :)

Or, alternatively, the race could be listed like 190-200km but no-one knows exactly where the finish is until they get there. Could end up with some interesting sprint finishes because the lead-outs wouldn't work.
 
Aug 12, 2009
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After reading all these nice and funny ideas...I`d really love to see sort of a tandem-TTT, for strong teamwork, everyone "in the same boat", ehm, on the same bike :p
 
May 5, 2009
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danyela said:
Have mystery sprints!... The race could be listed as190-200km but no-one knows exactly where the finish is until they get there...

That's hilarious! :) Heh heh! I can imagine the riders faces! "Oh, crap! There's only 1k left!" :) Heh heh! I imagine a lot more breakaways would succeed! I like this!
 
Aug 1, 2009
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Probably this has already been mentioned, but I think there should be a jersey for "Best old rider".
 
Jul 22, 2009
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How about:

1. Cyclists will have to descend the Croix de Fer brake-free.

That ought to make it fun huh?

Wait, that was my suggestion for the Angliru stage of last year's Vuelta... never mind.
 
May 5, 2009
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Amsterhammer said:
Conclusion: the top three are all occupying the places they have earned.

BroDeal said:
With the exception of Armstrong who unfairly benefited from the TTT [!]... On a real TdF course with a proper amount of climbing, he would have never made the podium.

Based on this I would suggest a minimum of 5 mountaintop finishes per Tour. No more stages like the Colombiere, the one Luis Leon Sanchez won or the one Astarloza won! Let the GC riders put a lot of time into each other! What a waste of mountains! How many mountaintop finishes did we have this year?...

And this is the problem with the Team Time Trial for me. You can take huge chunks of time which don't relect on your own ability. For me it's more of a show than something that should count for results. I wish at the very least they would tweak it so you could ride as a team but let the results reflect individual performance, so if Cancellara wanted to take a flyer at the end of the TTT to conserve his MJ with a wider margin, he could, or if Cavendish wanted a few extra seconds to get himself closer to yellow at the beginning of the Tour, he could! : )
 
Jul 25, 2009
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Señor_Contador said:
How about:

1. Cyclists will have to descend the Croix de Fer brake-free.

That ought to make it fun huh?

Wait, that was my suggestion for the Angliru stage of last year's Vuelta... never mind.

An excellent suggestion is worth making twice ! ;)

Better still, why not combine these two things ? If the Vuelta can start in Holland and the TdF in the old East Germany (that was fun, wasn't it ?) I see no reason why the Tour can't make an annual detour to Angliru for mucho downhill fun and games. :p

Wheeeeee ! :D:D
 
Mar 18, 2009
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Get rid of the TTT - or let it count only towards the team competition or run it as a split stage with a short (up to 10kms) TTT followed by a short road stage with a MTF.

Find some good new climbs - make better use of the massif centrale and the Jura.

A Classics type stage early on

Make the MTFs at least equal to the TTs - maximum amount of TTing for any GT should be 5kms per MTF, otherwise there is no balance

Run the race with 6 man teams.
 

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