Suggestions and Ideas for the Tour de France

[therealtimshady]

bring back time bonuses to stop the negative defensive riding

 

[Von Mises]

The Mont du Chat near Chambery is an underused hard climb in France - doesn't go under 10% for the last 7km.

Indeed. Why dont they use it? From pictures and youtube I see that road is in good shape and wide enough. Even rally cars use it. Okey, it is forested all way up, maybe this makes it complicated for spectators. Also, there seems to be not enough room on the top for finish.

But maybe they can use this route like this guy here http://www.cycling-challenge.com/mont-du-chat-col-du-chat-loop/

Up to Mont du Chat, then technical downhill and almost immidetly Col du Chat. There is room for MTF, aswell as beutiful view over Bourget.

 

[jaylew]

Maybe they should get rid of the whole flat week + mountains + hilly/flat transition + mountains formula.

Yes. You get all amped up for the Tour, it comes, and then there's this big letdown because you've got to wait a week for a decent stage. The 2008 1st week was so much better, with those two Valverde-finishes.

Smaller teams and more of them.

I'm all for this. Of course they always cite logistics as the barrier.

Time bonuses mean working harder to catch the break on the MTFs. If you feel you're the strongest climber that day you want to be able to try and secure the extra 20s. Also if Contador is riding to a summit finish with Valverde, he's more likely to attack, further out from the line to prevent the seconds going to Valverde.

So, in my entirely subjective view, I prefer them as they seem to add something to mountain days.

Also you get crazy things happening like Evans marking Vino on a slightly uphill sprint finish.

Agree with this one as well.

 

[Benotti69]

<snip>
Get rid if TT bikes. They are so expensive. I think it's unreasonable to spend so much money on them.

absolutely. +1

 

[rzombie1988]

I see no reason for no time bonuses. It doesn't make sense not to do it. I challenge anyone to give me a good reason for no time bonuses. I've watched alot of the TdF's over the years and I can tell you that every TdF with time bonuses was better than the ones without them. It makes people actually try their best, it prevents giving race wins away out of charity and it gives more people shots at winning. It also makes boring flat stages more competitive.

I'm all for more teams too. The more the better chance there is of a better race.

I'd also like to see smaller length flat stages. They don't seriously race until the last km anyway, so smaller stages would cut all the bs.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I see no reason for no time bonuses. It doesn't make sense not to do it. I challenge anyone to give me a good reason for no time bonuses. I've watched alot of the TdF's over the years and I can tell you that every TdF with time bonuses was better than the ones without them. It makes people actually try their best, it prevents giving race wins away out of charity and it gives more people shots at winning. It also makes boring flat stages more competitive.

I'm all for more teams too. The more the better chance there is of a better race.

I'd also like to see smaller length flat stages. They don't seriously race until the last km anyway, so smaller stages would cut all the bs.

I've long since said that the only way to make the flat stages interesting is either
1) make them much shorter, so the breakaway riders are fresher, and at least there's less time to get bored before the inevitable catch when HTC don't let them get more than 3 minutes up the road at any point in the day
2) make them much longer, so that any small obstacle can break things apart and in long, hot days attrition comes into it - regularly in races like the Tour of Turkey you find a péloton of only 30-40 come in to the final sprint together. In a 190km race, the Poggio di Sanremo is a little hump that can easily be negotiated. In a 290km race it's a potential killer.