Cerberus said:
It's no safer to ride in the middle than in the front, more like the other way around, to be "safe" you'd have to more a less ride behind the field, which would lose you a lot more than 1-2 minutes. As for which plan is best? Risking an injury that could lose you the GC or throwing the GC away with 100% certainty? I think they chose well.
plus a lot of the selections are through crashes and punctures which I think is unfortunate for a GT. For one day races it's less of an issue because if you puncture in Vlaanders you can still win Roubaix, but in a GT one bad day can ruing you chances of the GT, even if you don't crash out. Plus of cause in the one day races the guys in the front are the specialists, while a GT encourages a bunch of non-specialists to be near the front messing things up.
Agree with this post about inclusion of Cobbles in a GT
While it is exciting to have Cobbles in a grand tour it is too much of a lottery. Armstrong, the Schlecks, Evans and Contador were all positioned roughly in the same position jostling around hitting the cobbled sectionS.
Luck played too much a part, Frank Schleck went over a rider in front of him nothing he could have done different. Armstrong and Contador were around the area of the crash and were impeded more than Andy Schleck and Evans so missed the selection this was just pure bad luck.
Armstrong looked good on the cobbles and near drove it up to the front group before he punctured and paid for it dearly. I despise Armstrong but still am annoyed that he lost time for bad luck rather than inferior riding ability. Contador wasn't as unlucky as Armstrong but still lost time purely because of bad luck and gained on other contendors with even worse fortunes. Evans and Andy Schleck were no better than anyone on the cobbles just had good fortune which shouldn't be a deciding factor in the tour.
Other riders like Basso and Carlos Sastre also lost a lot of time with mechnical problems and now are over 2 mins down going into the mountains. If it is very close between riders in the mountains there are more attacks with lots to gain. Now with guys like Basso and Sastre so far back Schleck and Contador can let them go to an extent and mark each other a bit more which has a negative effect on the race tactics later in the mountains less selections and splits made.
The gaps created on this stage have a negative more than a positive influence on the race and dont help the best riders