luckyboy said:
Surely they'd get enough from the towns hosting all the ****ty flat stages?
Yes, but not getting X euros from any town for a mountain top finish is X euros they won't get, period. Whereas if they drop 20km into a town after the climb, they can pick up those X euros there.
If X is how much they normally get for a stage finish or start in a city, then they collect 22 * 2 * X (assume 21 stages plus a prologue), or 44 * X, for having a city start and end for each stage. If X is 10,000 (I have no idea), then they get 44 * 10,000 = 440,000.
If they end a stage without a sponsoring city, then they collect only 44 * X - (n * X), where n is the number of mountain top finishes. Say they have three mountain top finishes, that's 440,000 - 30,000 = 410,000.
Would you rather have 410,000 or 440,000?
And that's assuming every start/finish city sponsor pays the same amount. It might very well be that the finishing city on a big mountain stage has to pay more, perhaps much more. After all, they are likely to get more publicity, and are more likely to be a tourist destination and thus more likely to value publicity more.