One thing I would like to see, but we'll never see it (due to UCI rules), is a Team Time Trial on the Champs-Elysses. Would completely magnify the importance in keeping all nine of your riders in the race all the way to Paris if possible.
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That is crazy and unfair.SetonHallPirate said:One thing I would like to see, but we'll never see it (due to UCI rules), is a Team Time Trial on the Champs-Elysses. Would completely magnify the importance in keeping all nine of your riders in the race all the way to Paris if possible.
El Pistolero said:7 man teams for starters. Shorter stages to compensate, but the queen stages would still be 200km+.
Flat stages would be not longer than 150km. I'd either ditch the silly prologue or put bonus seconds back in the race. I don't want to spend another week looking at Cancellara in yellow, it happens every freaking year. And one serious mountain stage in the first week. Preferably on a Sunday. 3km rule would not count on stages with an uphill finish longer than a km.
Bonus seconds would be on offer on mountains/hills in the same way KoM points are distributed. 20 seconds if you cross a HC/1st category mountain first, 18 for second, 16 for third, etc
Time bonus would be halved for second category mountains and again for third category. No time bonus on fourth category hills unless it's the finish.
El Pistolero said:Bonus seconds would be on offer on mountains/hills in the same way KoM points are distributed. 20 seconds if you cross a HC/1st category mountain first, 18 for second, 16 for third, etc
LaFleur said:I would agree with some of those rules like detour for the GC men and less teams and so on. But giving the same time to all crashers in the 25km? That's a bit much aint it? Next time the crash could very well happen 30km from the finish and people would want to move it again.. 50km? Why not give the same time to every finisher in every stage then? No matter what happens.
I think the rules are just fine as they are right now, the riders make the race, not the rules.
Franklin said:Actually there is a point in extending the range. The problems usually start when the pace goes up due to the sprinttrains closing the gap on the escapees. Normally the pace goes up in the last 25ish KM (closing the gap earlier is silly as there will be new escapees).
There is a "fairness" issue here... do we want to keep on punishing riders for crashing? Is this punishment making the peloton even more nervous and causing more crashes?
What sport just goes on when people are lying bleeding at the game-court? Even boxing stops for wound treatment.
Dutchsmurf said:I see lots of insane ideas in this thread. Makes me wonder if people are watching the same race as I am. Cobbles or Amstel Gold like stages in the first week? They tried cobbles a couple years ago and I can't say it was a success. The peleton is even more nervous now than it was back then. Cobbles or small roads over lots of hills is just asking for crashes all over the place.
Dutchsmurf said:Smaller teams won't do anything to limit the crashes. There will still be 100+ people wanting to be in the first 20 positions.
Shorter stages make no difference for crashes or anything either. They are trained profs, they are more than capable of doing 200km every day. I don't see why this is even suggested by some.
Libertine Seguros said:However, what the cobbles and hills do, is ensure the bunch isn't 180 strong at the time.
$%#*&@~~~~~Dekker_Tifosi said:What would you do to make the tour more interesting..hmm, a fall by Wiggins, Evans and other not-fallen contenders would make the race interesting again