Red Rick
Moderator
Except overall speeds of mountain stages aren't down and there's not really a big noticable difference between fast ridden stages and slow ridden stages in terms of climbing performance.Nibali would be better attacking far out before climbs.May not work but better go down fighting
I was having a word with a pro friend of mine and he said the way the stages are ridden has made the final climbs so fast .
He said cycling is no longer an endurance sport like it used to be
Now they ride very medium pace until last climbs and go eye balls out
Before they let breaks go up to 10 minutes and then rode faster for longer to catch so tiring out alot of riders who dropped out the back before they could do their short final sprints . The riding now suits riders like Roglic better
I am sure he must have the numbers to demonstrate this
It means endurance versus final speed has shifted
Nibali doenst have a team for attacking further out but its the only way to change from 'sprinting' to 'middle distance' cycling