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Team Time trials in Grand Tours

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Should there be Team time trials in Grand Tours?

  • No, under any circumstances

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
LaFlorecita said:
Should not contribute to GC

Poor carrots

karrotten said:
Agreed. Include the times in the team classification but not GC.

agree likewise. It would make good sense to have the TTT only count for the team class.

But, while the TTT is a very interesting event, having it count only for the team class could remove some of the interest and result in teams sandbagging on the event b/c they don't care about the team class or only care about the GC. In that case, my alternate vote would be to not have TTT in any GT.
 
Afrank said:
Interesting idea, but then you run the risk of the more climber friendly teams (FDJ, Euskaltel, Ag2R and others) not even getting to race the Tour. Which would be a shame IMO.
:eek: I forgot to mention that it would be teams of 12 so there would definitely be riders expected just to wear themselves out for the team's spot. This isn't a fantasy thread though; and that requires multi-race logistics not to ruin the season for the losing teams. The Tour would be a letdown anyway after the most exciting hour of television for the year.
 
Would the additional of an uphill TTT make a difference. If the TTT is to reward a team for bring a strong team should they be stong in all disciples. Could help the carrots make up some time that they lose on the flat.
Or does that just take all the problems of the existing TTT and make them worse
 
Gugashwill said:
Some very long stretches (in crosswinds if it's possible) some medium sharp to sharp turns, winding sections and rolling ones.
Also it should be long enough to demand precise calculations in sense of riders' ability, order and length of their turns depending from terrain.

That's a truckload of planning and organisation for just one stage, no?

Dekker_Tifosi said:
yes but longer.. perfect gt would be 5 mt top finishes, 3 mt stages with downhill finishes, 2 30km itts, 1 hilly, 1 flat, 1 50km TTT, and rest flat stages

pardon? ;)
I like the format, but maybe your extra flat stage to be a hilly stage? to give a bit more to the puncheurs/escapees?
I'd also go for one long ITT and one short ITT too.

Eyeballs Out said:
Personally, I find them tedious to watch. The final result is interesting but once you've seen one team riding in formation you've seen them all. On TV it's difficult to see who is doing what within the team because the coverage naturally jumps around from team to team

Some form of relay race would be more fun to watch in my opinion

Have to agree here. Not really getting people who call the TTT's "a spectacle". They're mundane at best - only interesting at the time checks and finish. And it's not like any team surprises us, unless they fail dismally when expected to do well...
 
I'm not really for TTT's. If they are short enough to keep the time differences small then that's fine but longer ones totally throw out the balance of the race like in the 09 TdF.

I have no problem with them being used to assign a leader's jersey similar to a prologue as long as there are set time differences (or better yet, none), they could also contribute to the points competition as well. Just as long as real contenders aren't getting to the pointy end of the race minutes down.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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Tigerion said:
Would the additional of an uphill TTT make a difference. If the TTT is to reward a team for bring a strong team should they be stong in all disciples. Could help the carrots make up some time that they lose on the flat.
Or does that just take all the problems of the existing TTT and make them worse

I like this idea. Why does the TTT have to be flat? It would be cool to see them shake things up and have a hilly/mountainous TTT some time. Or even something like the Giro's long TT this year; technical first half, flat in the middle, and hard finishing climb.
 
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Tigerion said:
Would the additional of an uphill TTT make a difference. If the TTT is to reward a team for bring a strong team should they be stong in all disciples. Could help the carrots make up some time that they lose on the flat.
Or does that just take all the problems of the existing TTT and make them worse

I have thought about that quite a bit. It could in fact help the main GC contenders which isnt what the TTT is designed to do now.

If the TTT stages now are designed to neutralize the Climbing teams as some suggest.

However an uphill TTT with a fast technical descent might be interesting. Start up finish on the back side at speed.

Imagine teams trying to hold their best 5 descenders together over the top and the others keeping in touch in case a few go down? and the skill set required to complete. Talk about some interesting time splits

Altogether too dangerous I presume.

(Maybe then BMC so called TTT Race track training would helm them) ;)
 
Jun 28, 2012
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I recall asking about this time last year why we never saw a mountain TTT, and was roundly mocked for it (and, thinking back, probably rightly so). That being said, a TTT that went both up and then down a mountain would be pretty interesting in terms of team tactics...do you leave Riders X, Y, and Z behind, knowing that they are your three best descenders? Interesting questions would abound...
 

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