Great. But it must be said that it isn't exclusively ASO's fault. There were a couple of stages this year where it should have been a fair chance for a proper breakaway to stay clear. But when there is close to none interest to chase these breakaways, they will of course end up with a mass sprint. There are at most 4-5 teams that should aim solely for the mass sprint and not trying to get riders in a breakaway. Teams like Bahrain (Bauhaus), Israel (Achkermann), AG2R (Bennett) and Movistar (Gaviria) should be at least as interested in breakaways that in a mass sprint. But that didn't exactly look that way in this version of the Tour.
The other problem, though, is that the UCI points make accumulating placements far more important than they are relevant, and it encourages and rewards negative racing for the purposes of accumulation more than it encourages entertainment value. Teams like Israel (trying to win back WT status) and Movistar (one of the lower-ranked teams in respect of WT points and without a bonanza points gaining leader, especially once Mas' GC ambitions failed) are going to see scoring some points with a sprinter as worth accumulating, especially as Israel are going to get a bunch of GC points from Gee, and you can't really accuse Movistar of not stagehunting given the escapades of Lazkano, Aranburu, Romo and now also Mas in the last two weeks; it's just that they don't have riders who are effective stagehunters for flat stages unless they're a stage like stage 9 with the
chemins des vignes which Aranburu and Romo both got into the break on and Lazkano would be a contender for too.
Mas has accumulated 185 UCI points this last 3 weeks. He'll likely finish around 20th on GC which earns 60 more, and is outside the top 3 of the KOM so won't win any points for that.
Gaviria has earned 365 UCI points this last 3 weeks, making him currently twice as useful as Mas, and still probably about 50% more useful once GC points are acquired.
Aranburu has accumulated 220, Lazkano 70, Oliveira and Romo 55 each, with Mühlberger and Formolo not scoring, meaning that the entire rest of the team is only just worth more than Gaviria (although Romo will get a few more points for finishing top 25 on GC as he's currently in 23rd and has about five minutes' margin to the next rider down, Carlos Verona).
That is why they are content to help pull the breaks back, because even though they know that unless something unusual happens, Gaviria isn't going to
win the stage, he will at least keep placing in the sprints and scoring them the garbage points that they might need in a couple of years' time, and him doing that will require a lot less effort than Álex Aranburu killing himself all day to make the final move in a baroudeur stage to finish in that same 5th position.
It has also meant, however, that wildcard teams - especially given we automatically have to give two of those wildcards to the teams that used to be WT and are trying to win back that status - have their eyes on the UCI points too, and a second rate sprinter is a very good way to bank safe, cheap points for little effort for these teams, again, expending a lot less energy than going on a day-long breakaway. The secondary classifications and intermediate sprints have little value (other than for the maillot vert which encourages the bunch to pull breaks back for them anyway), and the points system makes banking safe but boring points far more valuable than high-risk high-reward actions, and then the organisers and authorities running around apoplectic that the teams and riders are playing it too safe, when they basically made that the only sensible play to make.
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