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What would happen if ...

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I'd love to draw teams for one race.

Pot 1: Roglic, Pogacar, van Aert, Carapaz, Valverde, Alaphilippe, van der Poel, Bernal, Bennett
Pot 2: Vlasov, Porte, Démare, Schachmann, Fuglsang, Caruso, Yates, Almeida, Sagan
Pot 3: Woods, Gaudu, G Martin, Ewan, Landa, Mas, S Yates, Carthy, Philipsen
Pot 4: Ulissi, Nizzolo, Merlier, van Avermaet, López, G Bennett, Thomas, D Martin
Pot 5: Sénéchal, Asgreen, Chaves, Mollema, Pedersen, Ackermann, Küng, Evenepoel, Bilbao
Pot 6: Stuyven, Matthews, I Izagirre, Wellens, Colbrelli, Quintana, Soler, Kragh Andersen, Ganna
Pot 7: Hirschi, Hayter, Kwiatkowski, Vingegaard, Aranburu, Laporte, Kuss, Ballerini, Urán
Isn't the idea that pots are more or less containing riders of more or less the same "role/stature/level"? Because i can see a lot of teams getting screwed over big time with the names you put into your pot. A team with Ganna (7) and Evenepoel (6) could completely demolish a team with Bennett (1) and Démare (2) for instance. Regardless of the other riders that get drawn.
 
Isn't the idea that pots are more or less containing riders of more or less the same "role/stature/level"? Because i can see a lot of teams getting screwed over big time with the names you put into your pot. A team with Ganna (7) and Evenepoel (6) could completely demolish a team with Bennett (1) and Démare (2) for instance. Regardless of the other riders that get drawn.

The teams would be pretty random, since I simply put the riders into the pots depending on their PCS points. It would probably be highly unfair to some and only good for fun :)
 
I guess it wouldn't be super interesting most of the because what are the options?
  • a long solo with a winner known long before the finish
  • a 2-men sprint for the line
  • 95km of nothing happens and the strongest rider in the last 5 kms takes the win.
Not very inspiring options.

...

I don't know for sure. My bet is that it would be fun to watch for the first time but as a regular feature it would quickly get boring. It could produce the occasional classic under right circumstances but on a bad day it would be thoroughly uninspiring and perhaps there would be many of those "bad days" should this become a regular feature.

Thanks for the analysis. :)

I think it's hard to predict how it will turn out. If one team is expected to have the strongest finisher, then the other team has to do something to prevent that kind of finish. So in most cases we should rule out a typical sprint finish, shouldn't we? And the solo break away - well, if a guy sits out there in front we're certain that one team will be working perfectly together to catch him (normally a solo rider will profit from bad cooperation in the peloton). Of course, chasing down several break aways will be tough, so many attacks could be a way of tiring out the opposing team.
 
It would come down to who has the stronger team.

A solo break from quite far would be a very common occurence IMO. The stronger team would just attack repeatedly until the weaker team is broken and no longer capable of bringing another attacker brack. At this point the guy in front just has a clear path for victory and there's not much tension left.
 

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