'Twas ever thus, since the campionissimi+gregarii days. The current problem is more that both GC battles and sprint battles have seen development of train techniques since the early 90s, GCs with Banesto, USPS/Disco, Astana and now Sky, and sprints with Saeco, Fassa Bortolo and HTC, so that a series of formulae for how to maximise success when you have the strongest racer of a given type have come about; these increase the predictability of racing and reduce the individual battles to a very short period of the stage. It's no coincidence that the most legendary stages of recent years - Montalcino and Aprica in the 2010 Giro, Rifugio Gardeccia in the 2011 Giro, Galibier in the 2011 Tour, Fuente Dé in the 2012 Vuelta, Aprica in the 2015 Giro, Cercedilla in the 2015 Vuelta, Andalo and Risoul 1850 in the 2016 Giro and Formigal in the 2016 Vuelta, are stages where the modern 'train template' was unable to operate, due to either the leader's team not being strong enough to provide sufficient backing, pre-planned stepping stone tactics à la Heras in 2005, or extreme difficulty of stage + conditions meaning that the heads of state's domestiques were burnt off earlier.
The problem is, this will always be more common at the Giro and Vuelta because the Tour is so important, especially at an era when so many of the major sponsors are from non-traditional cycling countries where the Tour is the be-all and end-all of cycling, because its international currency is so much greater than other races. Of 18 WT teams in 2017, only 6 are registered in the six most traditional cycling countries, that is to say France, Spain, Italy and the Benelux. While some of the other teams are of course based in Europe (BMC in Switzerland, UAE in Italy for example), the importance of the Tour to sponsors has always been the greatest, but it is exacerbated at present. Therefore everybody who arrives at the Tour is aiming to be peaking, so while not everybody CAN be at peak strength, it does increase the likelihood of an overpowered team such as the current Sky squad being able to exert a suffocating amount of control so as to prevent genuine threats from attacking until late enough that their leader is generally sufficiently able to mark them.
It's also no coincidence that the one stage we got real racing from distance from notable names was the only GC-relevant stage when it wasn't Sky but instead Astana, having lost one key climbing helper to injury and with another racing injured, who were responsible for pacing the péloton.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram