Young Rider Jersey - Is 25 too old?

[Anonymous]

Watching the tv this evening and with Andy Schleck in white, the freind i was watching with who has never watched the tour before asked who the guy in white was, I said Andy Schleck and his reply was "ive heard of him, hes been around years, why is he classed as young"

Personally, i think 25 is too old to be in white, i think it should be nearer 23 and under..

Thoughts.

 

[hrotha]

Andy's been around since 2007 and this is his last year to count as "young" by white jersey standards. Most riders turn pro at 22-23 and few ride the Tour that young. I'd say 25 is fine.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

It would be nice if they dropped the age. These days the jersey is dominated by those rare young guys who become serious GT contenders really early in their careers. Dropping the age would be a good way to give younger lesser known stars a chance to shine.

 

[hrotha]

It would be nice if they dropped the age. These days the jersey is dominated by those rare young guys who become serious GT contenders really early in their careers. Dropping the age would be a good way to give younger lesser known stars a chance to shine.

Not really. Contador won it in 2007 and Andy last year (and probably this year too). Before that, you don't find a white jersey winner in the top 10 until Sevilla in 2001 (7th) and Mancebo in 2000 (9th). Andy won it in 2008, but then he was 12th.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_rider_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France
Looking at that list, I'd say it's working as intended for the most part.

 

[Anonymous]

As reference

if it was 24 and under: leader would be Robert Gesink
if it was 23 and under: leader would be Cyril Gautier

 

[Anonymous]

Not really. Contador won it in 2007 and Andy last year (and probably this year too). Before that, you don't find a white jersey winner in the top 10 until Sevilla in 2001 (7th) and Mancebo in 2000 (9th). Andy won it in 2008, but then he was 12th.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_rider_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France
Looking at that list, I'd say it's working as intended for the most part.

and andy in 2008 was 23, thats about where i think the cutoff point should be. he came 12th, now move into the adult catagory.

Another option would be the introduction of a jersey for the best placed rider riding his first tour. (i cant be bothered to find out who would hold it)
edit: best placed tour debutant is also cyril gautier

 

[Mambo95]

and andy in 2008 was 23, thats about where i think the cutoff point should be. he came 12th, now move into the adult catagory.

Another option would be the introduction of a jersey for the best placed rider riding his first tour. (i cant be bothered to find out who would hold it)
edit: best placed tour debutant is also cyril gautier

If it was 23 and under, there would only currently be eight riders eligible, and only three of them are in the top 100.

The best debutant's a good idea though.

 

[ingsve]

It should definately not go younger. As it is this year there are only 34 rides (left right now) that qualify for white and of those only 3 have a genuine shot at winning it. If the age was dropped to 23 then you wouldn't have much more than 15 riders each year competing for it and most years it wouldn't even be any question about who would win it. There is little competition for the jersey as it is so if they would drop the age they might as well just get rid of it altogether.

 

[Greenflame]

23 and under would encourage teams to send very young riders into the tour and force them to compete at the highest level possible in the sport. That just isn't healthy for those young riders, it's even potentially very dangerous for them. I think it's fine this way. The debutants idea is a fine alternative, but would completely change the idea: 29 year old riders who have won 2 giro's could compete, which isn't the goal of a young riders jersey. Then it should be the best placed debutant under 25, which means only very few riders would compete.

It might seem weird to have Andy win white three times in a row, but that's an exception as pointed out earlier in this thread. I think the jersey is fine this way, and wouldn't want to see it changed.

 

[Cobblestones]

It should definately not go younger. As it is this year there are only 34 rides (left right now) that qualify for white and of those only 3 have a genuine shot at winning it. If the age was dropped to 23 then you wouldn't have much more than 15 riders each year competing for it and most years it wouldn't even be any question about who would win it. There is little competition for the jersey as it is so if they would drop the age they might as well just get rid of it altogether.

Right. Every now and then, there'll be a rider who wins it multiple times. Schlecklet, Ullrich... That's not too often to really start thinking about lowering the age. Alternatively, one could retire riders from the white jersey competition who already won it once.

 

[Anonymous]

Right. Every now and then, there'll be a rider who wins it multiple times. Schlecklet, Ullrich... That's not too often to really start thinking about lowering the age. Alternatively, one could retire riders from the white jersey competition who already won it once.

thats another idea. say that you can only win it once.

 

[Moondance]

To me 25 seems fine. The fact that there currently are three bona fide GC contenders who are also white jersey eligible (Schleck, Gesink, Kreuziger) doesn't say to me that the age limit is to high, rather that these three guys are so incredibly good at a relatively young age. Within the grand scheme of the Tour (the best race, field wise, of the year with almost all the best stage racers present) I think being only 25 and having only 3 years or so of cycling with the big boys still puts riders at a serious disadvantage.

That Kreuziger and to a greater extent Schleck have been high up in the GC for the last three Tours now (and Gesink this year) is fantastic and only good for the sport. Schleck will, without fuck-ups, win his third white this year, perhaps the yellow along with it, like Contador did in 2007. Next year the white jersey will be, likely, a two way battle between Kreuziger and Gesink, both of whom will be even more serious podium candidates than they are today with 11 stages left to go. I think the fact that behind those great young guns there is no clear successor goes to show that it is a serious challenge to be high up in the TdF at 25 (or younger).

Who would be the early favorite for the 2012 white jersey? Robert Kiserlovski, Bauke Mollema, Peter Sagan.... Cyril Gautier maybe? Arbitrarily changing the age limit because there has been a wealth of great U25s at the Tour the last 4 years is stupid. Give these guys the credit they deserve despite their age, and move along IMO.

 

[Mambo95]

Who would be the early favorite for the 2012 white jersey? Robert Kiserlovski, Bauke Mollema, Peter Sagan.... Cyril Gautier maybe? Arbitrarily changing the age limit because there has been a wealth of great U25s at the Tour the last 4 years is stupid. Give these guys the credit they deserve despite their age, and move along IMO.

Tejay van Garderen would be my pick at the moment.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Plus Mollema is from 1986 and therefore in 2012 too old.

Maybe Kruijswijck by then...

 

[Moondance]

Plus Mollema is from 1986 and therefore in 2012 too old.

Maybe Kruijswijck by then...

Hmmm.... In that case Kiserlovski would be ineligble too.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Urán.......

edit: sorry, what on earth was I thinking? Isso will kill me!

We all know that the best young rider jersey will be won at all GTs for the next four years by Ángel Madrazo. He'll even win it at the Vuelta, and they don't have one!

 

[Zerak-Tul]

Only 3 riders have won it more than once afaik (Ullrich, Pantani and now baby Schleck). I think it's fine as it is, people like these are clearly the exception and not the rule. Riders that young and that talented don't come along every day.

 

[BroDeal]

The entire white jersey "competition" should be eliminated. It simply goes to the young rider who is trying to place as high on GC as possible, not because he wants the white jersey but because the higher the placing, the fatter his next contract. Does anyone go into the Tour hoping they can win the white jersey? Or do they go into the Tour hoping they can place in the top ten so they will get paid three times as much the next season?

They should bring back the combined jersey.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Right. Every now and then, there'll be a rider who wins it multiple times. Schlecklet, Ullrich... That's not too often to really start thinking about lowering the age. Alternatively, one could retire riders from the white jersey competition who already won it once.

Awesome idea. It would eliminate the times when a young rider becomes dominant at an early age. (Schleck, Contador...)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The entire white jersey "competition" should be eliminated. It simply goes to the young rider who is trying to place as high on GC as possible, not because he wants the white jersey but because the higher the placing, the fatter his next contract. Does anyone go into the Tour hoping they can win the white jersey? Or do they go into the Tour hoping they can place in the top ten so they will get paid three times as much the next season?

They should bring back the combined jersey.

While I agree and love the combiné, that worked best when you also had the red jersey for intermediate sprints, because when it's just points, mountains and GC you're left with the yellow jersey winning the combiné more often than not. The combinada jersey at the Vuelta seems to be a second-placed jersey, since it's usually worn by somebody in 2nd or 3rd for the leader in the competition who's also winning overall.

 

[Cooper]

I think they should increase the age to 26, maybe even 27, given that most riders don't start riding until their mid-20's but once you have participated in at least 2 Tours you are no longer eligible regardless of age. That will eliminate a guy like AS and rightfully so but will still keep a decent sized group eligible.

 

[danyela]

25 is good, but if you drop it, no younger than 24.

I think the main issue is that recently we have seen very exceptional younger riders so it seems as though they are cleaning up everything. Realistically, if it was U23 you would only get a few riders in it, most of them on their tour debut and so would not be riding for gc at all. At least how it is now, you have some good young riders who have to progressed onto actually competing for the gc themselves i.e. if it was U23 you wouldn't have much of a competition because no team is going to let one of their young, inexperienced tour riders go out and race for themselves.

Eliminating them after they've won is a good idea.

 

[Ramira]

I think u-25 is fine, yeah Schlek is an exception in that he was amazing two years ago and every now and again there might be a tour winner in the white (like Ullrich) but you also want a white jersey winner who can be in the top-10 and who can hang on in the mountains with the best rather then a 23 year old kid who crosses a mountain finish as 117th or something. Remember that generally a 23 year old cyclist is still an amateur so there won't exactly be many of them in the tour.