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Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 4: Redon - Fougères, 150.4 km

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nobody reads the stage manual for flat stages, do you think they do recon like mountain dudes? i really doubt that so only way to find out if something is too bad is when its too late
If that is true what you say (and I'm not sure it is), then the riders and teams have another reason to blame themselves.

ASO/UCI should engage some riders (under strickt NDA) to the desing work of stages - if they don't already.
 
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nobody reads the stage manual for flat stages, do you think they do recon like mountain dudes? i really doubt that so only way to find out if something is too bad is when its too late
They did. All sprint teams carefully look at the last 10K. Philippe Gilbert said they carefully read the roadbook and concluded that yesterday's stage was dangerous. The CPA told it to ASO and UCI. ASO was willing to change the 3K rule for stage 3, but UCI rejected the change.

They always do that, don't they? At best they find out the morning of the stage that the finish is unsafe (Monte Crostis).
The problem is that many riders don't even know they will be in the Tour some months before. And they also don't know that the first 2 stages would be carnage. If the first 2 stages were OK in terms of crashes, nobody would strike after what happened yesterday.
 
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Vandervfeld on NBCSorts just related that the riders Requested Prior to the start of le Tour that the 3K rule be changed to 5K. ASO AGREED and the UCI knocked it down. So the teams were proactive and the organizers agreed. The UCI was the hang up (as usual).
I'm really not sure about the safety zone.
It wasn't that long ago when 1k rule was in effect. 3k switch was welcomed and appropriate then.
Yesterday Roglič crashed well outside even 5k.
The line can't be indefinitely moved.
 
I'm really not sure about the safety zone.
It wasn't that long ago when 1k rule was in effect. 3k switch was welcomed and appropriate then.
Yesterday Roglič crashed well outside even 5k.
The line can't be indefinitely moved.

I mean, theoretically you could, but that would cheapen the race aspect significantly. Also, riders have fallen in the safety zone and broken a bone before.

But what you could do is decide on different perimeters by stage, you could make it a flexible line (decided before the stage starts) between 1 and 10 kms for example depending on how the stage finish looks.
 

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