Tour de France Tour de France 2025 Stage 9: Chinon – Châteauroux (174.1k)

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Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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Rackham said:
He says teams used to depend on invites to take part in the TdF but because of the current system they're automatically selected, ergo there's a stranglehold by a whole bunch of sprint teams on the race and they stifle the entertainment. He said they're chopping off the branch they're sitting upon, basically, i.e. talking about limiting the number of sprint stages in the future to five or six.

He's not happy with yesterday's stage. I can only assume Alpecin and MvdP's behavior today is a sort of prank based on that criticism yesterday, i.e. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED (the Gladiator movie quote).
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Tbh the wildcard teams aren't exactly covering themselves in glory in these meme breakaways. Like it should be their one job and they ain't doing it.
 
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Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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tobydawq said:
I didn't ignore it, I think calling it merely "ok" is exactly proving the point I was making before.

Comparing this to first weeks of the 1990's or 2000's and it's just a whole different event. Yet people refuse to compliment the organisers for that because there is a flat stage on a Sunday.
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I've maintained all along that I by and large like the individual stage designs in this Tour. Main gripe in week 1 was that I'm kinda bored of Mûr de Brétagne now, but it fulfilled its purpose. I just hate the pacing. No, it is not as bad as some of those races back in the 90s and early 00s (though at least then with the racing trends, breaks in sprint stages were given enough rope to dare to dream rather than the more recent problem which has made these stages even worse to watch, where the péloton just holds the break at a minute or two all day to prevent any counter attacks but ensure they never even consider their chances of winning, and that's if a break even bothers to form at all because the UCI points system means a team will gain more from coming 11th in the sprint than getting the TV time of a breakaway). The sprint stages are, by and large, even less entertaining than the ones from those days, but they have been trimmed down in favour of more interesting stages like the Boulogne and Rouen ones, and all the better for it. But talking of how this is somehow like, greatest of all time first week standard is media types massively, massively overselling it. I get it, it's their job, but it's just too hyperbolic. I don't even see how it's been all that much better than 2008, for that matter. Which had a sprint stage on the second Saturday.
 
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Rackham

Rackham

Jul 16, 2015
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Red Rick said:
Tbh the wildcard teams aren't exactly covering themselves in glory in these meme breakaways. Like it should be their one job and they ain't doing it.
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I agree entirely. There's a whole bunch of teams and riders who're doing diddly-squat in this TdF. Inexplicably so because they'll feature nowhere - certainly not in the mountains either considering how hard Visma and UAE race those stages, i.e. if any ds in an invite team thinks his riders are going to play a significant role in mountain stages then he hasn't been watching this sport over the past few years.
 
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Peyroteo94

Peyroteo94

Mar 20, 2022
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Samamba said:
Literally 1 team that really is going to control this stage and the break is 2 guys. It's a joke. When are these mediocre teams who don't have a winning sprinter or a top GC rider going to understand that you can actually stay away in a stage like this if you try?
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Completely. For example, why Coquard has a team focused on helping him in this type of stages? He is not going to win.
 
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Rackham

Rackham

Jul 16, 2015
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Samamba said:
Literally 1 team that really is going to control this stage and the break is 2 guys. It's a joke. When are these mediocre teams who don't have a winning sprinter or a top GC rider going to understand that you can actually stay away in a stage like this if you try?
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I fully expect to see some of these teams and riders crying in the press when their breakaway attempts in the hilly and mountainous stages get mowed down by the black and yellow train, like on the Plateau de Beille stage last year.
 
Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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Libertine Seguros said:
Absolutely, but I think Stevie Wonder might have been able to see this coming.
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The problem with sprint stages is generally the lack of incentive to do anything. If Govenou wants something out of it, he should just ditch the white jersey and make a classification based around intermediates, intermediate timings or something that actually warrants a serious effort, and I'm not talking about some super minor classification that doesn't award a jersey.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Rackham said:
I agree entirely. There's a whole bunch of teams and riders who're doing diddly-squat in this TdF. Inexplicably so because they'll feature nowhere - certainly not in the mountains either considering how hard Visma and UAE race those stages, i.e. if any ds in an invite team thinks his riders are going to play a significant role in mountain stages then he hasn't been watching this sport over the past few years.
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Peyroteo94 said:
Completely. For example, why Coquard has a team focused on helping him in this type of stages? He is not going to win.
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Well, this is one of the problems with the top level mostly locked now, the number of invite teams reliant on the Tour for airtime and sponsorship value is now minimal, while the importance and value of UCI points is massive. Placement riding for the UCI points to guarantee the invites in future is more valuable than the old system of smaller teams animating the race to get their sponsors airtime and earn favour with race organisers that would invite them in future to reward them for providing entertainment.

It is unfortunately the way that the sport is now that it is much more valuable for Coquard to accumulate points from coming 6th in sprints and the maillot vert standings than it is for the team to get in eight breakaways if only one or two of them are allowed to go far enough to contest the stage.
 
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CyclistAbi

May 29, 2019
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Team radios are likely the reason on why breakaway racing is not feasible any more. Obviously paired with modern approach to cycling and high appetite for stage wins among GC riders. But somehow i don't see team radios to get banned. So innovation is what is needed now, new solutions.
 
Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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CyclistAbi said:
Team radios are likely the reason on why breakaway racing is not feasible any more. Obviously paired with modern approach to cycling and high appetite for stage wins among GC riders. But somehow i don't see team radios to get banned. So innovation is what is needed now, new solutions.
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Radio's were around a lot longer than just the last few years of controlling breakaways at 2 minutes.
 
Samamba

Samamba

May 10, 2015
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Peyroteo94 said:
No, tired peloton though. But there wasn't (stage 3 had gor example).
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The big crashes in stage 3 were in the final, which was exactly my point. Easy stage and then insanely stressful in the end, so more crashes there. A stressfull hilly or windy stage has typically more crashes during the stage (everyone wants to be in the front, in on edge, etc), but less in the final cause everyone is tired and the bunch has split.

I didn't agree with your focus argument. Cause to me it doesn't make sense as riders are always way more focussed when it's stressy, like in finals. And more crashes happen. Of course there's crashed that happen because some rider fell asleep, no one is denying that, but in general it's less.

We can agree to disagree, but taking one example in a stage like this is useless.
 
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