Who would win if TDF was raced as TT ???

[will10]

Hmm, might be interesting to try this in Cycling Manager

How many PCMs ago is it since there was that classics tour with all the World Cup races as a stage race? I remember changing them to all being ITTs, was awesome

 

[Angliru]

Lance Armstrong

Kinda weird idea though. Like asking who would win the team pursuit at the olympics if they rode on horses.

But to answer the question, there would probably only be 1 or 2 finishers. A large portion of the field would be elliminated on the first full stage for finishing outside the time, and everyone else would be eliminated by the end of the first three days in the mountains. Contador would then have to ride about 2000km on his own for the last ten days.

Based on this past Tour it depends on who is in this large group and how large it is. The race officials may just let them continue with some type of time/points penalty (ala Cavendish and his fellow stragglers). Or even more likely rules would be altered drastically to adapt to the extraordinary circumstances that this event would be. They would have to increase the number of race officials on the road significantly to even attempt to keep watch on the likely incidents of riders hitching rides on their various team cars. It would be quite a mess.

Since there's no drafting in this scenario it would be comparable to riding solo anyway, maybe minus the carrot of having someone in view up the road to chase as motivation.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

How many PCMs ago is it since there was that classics tour with all the World Cup races as a stage race? I remember changing them to all being ITTs, was awesome

Yes, I asked PlakkerNL in CyM4 (2004) as a birthday present to change all world cups to ITT's.
He did so.

It had most interesting results

 

[sultanofhyd]

I'm sorry but when did Evans become this super TT-ing unstoppable engine on the flat that can make up all the time he loses to Contador in the mountains?

Contador likes 40-50km TTs, agreed, but Cadel never won any 100km TTs either.

 

[Descender]

On a standard route like last year's, right now, Tony Martin by a large margin.

Count the flat kms and then the high mountain kms... no contest.

 

[Midnightfright]

On a standard route like last year's, right now, Tony Martin by a large margin.

Count the flat kms and then the high mountain kms... no contest.

I can see your thinking but the its hard to say really either way. The question is how much time would u expect for him to gain on an average flat stage and how much time would you expect him to lose to say Contador, Evans, Wiggans and Samu?

 

[uphillstruggle]

Nobody has said Jens Voigt yet? Remember who drags them all through all those stages for what percentage of the time? Sure your current GT winners are up there in the last 1/6 to 1/8 th of the race but as you can see there are still 5/6 and 7/8 th's of the race to be dealt with. Its really who ever has the best endurance TT or not. Its basically RAAM or the old Tour format. Then we'd have to watch out for riders hitching a ride or having some kid pump their tires

Top end pretty much becomes irrelevant in a race like this, I think the results would surprise. We just have no idea who are the best 200km TTr's in the peloton.

 

[ferryman]

Frandy ride tandem and make top 30

 

[Jukebox]

Tour de 7 hour training rides?

 

[Bike Boy]

It's a fun thought to play with but also very far beyond any kind of realism. Perhaps in the spirit of Henri Desgrange or whatever but it will result in freaking borring racing. It would turn the most important bike race in world into something utterly unimportant, hence Contador wouldn't participate and therefor wouldn't win. Maybe Armstrong would go for it...

 

[Midnightfright]

My money is still on nick nuyens.

 

[Angliru]

My money is still on nick nuyens.

Well according to Fabian Cancellara, Nuyens "is not a winner" so that eliminates him from the running.

 

[Woody22]

Contador wins this, hands down.

Hitch is right.

After November he will have 2 years to train for it.

 

[Midnightfright]

Well according to Fabian Cancellara, Nuyens "is not a winner" so that eliminates him from the running.

I will admit i have a soft spot for nick seen as he is the spitting image of my brother who come ti think of it isn't a winner or the bike either. The similarities are neverending?

 

[Walkman]

Now thats trolling.

Evans could beat Contador? Yeah right.

Do we even need to bring out times up mountains or tt results, or which rider has been able to attack 100k out on a stage, ride 60% of it into the wind and still have the strengh to attack 14k from the end and podium the stage?

That while totaly off form.

The only thing more dominant than Contador in real gts would be Contador in these hypothetical gts. Even if you gave Evans 10 of his 2 minute head starts he still wouldnt come close.

Personaly i believe this would suit my man Samu perfectly as well and he could come 2nd. No crashes and ttts to eliminate him, and he is an amazing tter descender and climber. Hes a rider who paces himself to perfection.

On Plateau everytime other riders attacked he gently maintained the same pace until he caught them, then dropped them all.

Andy Schleck would also do very well assuming this is done on real bikes not tt ones.

Nibali as well.

But everyone 20 minutes + back on Contador.

Same answer as to any question regarding the victor of hypothetical gts. Or the winner of real gts.

There is one guy who is possibly the greatest climber of all time and by far the best tter of all the GC contenders (baring maybe Wiggins).

So throw 50k 200k or 2000k of tts in there if you want. So long as there is mountain in the race for the man to drop Martin and Cancellara, the name is always going to be the same.

Good lord Hitch, you truly are delusional.

 

[Christian]

It depends on the parcours. If they did a cobble stage in the beginning plus one or two 250 km stages solely on highways, the likes of Cancellara, Grabsch and Martin could be able to hold off the climbers. They could form an alliance on the highway stage and race it as a TTT, then leave it up to the mountains to decide who is the strongest.

 

[Met de Versnelling]

Nah.

You're all wrong.

Chris Froome.

 

[Anonymous]

Ive been giving this a little more thought.

One of these guys would win

 

[The Hitch]

Good lord Hitch, you truly are delusional.

Anything else, or just the low blow without saying anything?

Im arguing that the guy who is undisputedly the greatest grand Tour rider of his generation would win this particular grand tour. Where is the delusion in that?

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Anything else, or just the low blow without saying anything?

Im arguing that the guy who is undisputedly the greatest grand Tour rider of his generation would win this particular grand tour. Where is the delusion in that?

It's a completely different event. Like saying Bolt is the best 'runner' so he'd probably win a marathon.

Contador is not an entirely unreasonable shout, but I strongly suspect his losses to Tony per km on a flat TT would only increase with length. As such I struggle to envisage him staying within 10 minutes of Tony over a 200km TT.

On all but the most Giro like mountain stages, I don't believe the relatively low ratio of mountain to flat would give him scope to do anything better than equal Tony on those stages (when Tony Martin is genuinely riding for the win, he can ride a solid tempo on mountains, even if it isn't earth shattering x-ref Paris Nice).

Contador's greatest strength is entirely worthless in this format - there's no prizes for explosiveness here - even on the climbs, a dull constant wattage grind up is the best policy - obviously he will do this much better than most, but reaching the bottom after a 150km flatish TT, I doubt he would put more than 5 minutes in to a motivated Martin on a 10-15km climb.

 

[The Hitch]

It's a completely different event. Like saying Bolt is the best 'runner' so he'd probably win a marathon.

Contador is not an entirely unreasonable shout, but I strongly suspect his losses to Tony per km on a flat TT would only increase with length. As such I struggle to envisage him staying within 10 minutes of Tony over a 200km TT.

On all but the most Giro like mountain stages, I don't believe the relatively low ratio of mountain to flat would give him scope to do anything better than equal Tony on those stages (when Tony Martin is genuinely riding for the win, he can ride a solid tempo on mountains, even if it isn't earth shattering x-ref Paris Nice).

Contador's greatest strength is entirely worthless in this format - there's no prizes for explosiveness here - even on the climbs, a dull constant wattage grind up is the best policy - obviously he will do this much better than most, but reaching the bottom after a 150km flatish TT, I doubt he would put more than 5 minutes in to a motivated Martin on a 10-15km climb.

In which case, why is only the guy saying that Contador would win, delusional.

Why aren't all those posters saying Evans, also delusional, considering Evans is a gt rider like Contador, just weaker in climbs and tts (stronger on sprints which means nothing here).

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

How could Martin ever win? Do you count the time he loses on 1 mountain, let stand a stage with 3 mountains??

 

[Midnightfright]

How could Martin ever win? Do you count the time he loses on 1 mountain, let stand a stage with 3 mountains??

I think the theory is he will be 2 hours up before any mountain stages. Even then riding solo in 3 mountain stages how much time would he lose to Contador?

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

In which case, why is only the guy saying that Contador would win, delusional.

Why aren't all those posters saying Evans, also delusional, considering Evans is a gt rider like Contador, just weaker in climbs and tts (stronger on sprints which means nothing here).

I haven't called you delusional. I just think you're wrong. I doubt Evans wins either, although his slightly larger build makes me feel less sure. Frankly Bertie's iffy 2010 TTs over 50km of flat is putting people off him. It just seems implausible for a 62kilo guy to put out the necessary wattage for 5 hours. He is precisely the type of rider who benefits most from a team, and a peloton, to take him to a climb fresh.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

How could Martin ever win? Do you count the time he loses on 1 mountain, let stand a stage with 3 mountains??

Martin;s time losses would be much much less if he was riding for something. He climbs adequately when he has a reason to try (e.g. Paris Nice).

Not earth shatteringly, but he wouldn't lose more than 5 mins to anyone on a climb, and given every climb would have a matching 100km TT, I suspect overall he would be a comfortable winner.