"play-offs" at the vuelta?

bipedal

This sounds like an interesting idea for spicing up the first week:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... apr18news2

Not sure about the drafting in of replacements though... would inevitably favour the bigger teams with more riders, which doesn't necessarily make for a good race

andyp

It sounds daft. Call me an old git but how does that liven up the race exactly? Does it also not give teams more reason to dope their riders up to the eyeballs?

iainf72

At least it would mean cycling was a "team sport" in WADA's eyes, if they could make substitions.

Rubbish idea.

If you want to make the Vuelta exciting, get rid of all the flat stages and do a week solid in the mountains.

LangerDan

The problem with the Vuelta (apart from the fact its on at the wrong end of the year) is that there is a lot of boring terrain in the middle. If Cordero (is it just me or does he look like Swiss Toni's dad) can guarantee a first week of decent racing across all types of terrain for the selection process, why doesn't he just PUT THOSE BLOODY STAGES IN THE VUELTA PROPER? (Sorry). Three weeks, each of which has a TT, a rest day and a mixture of flat and mountainy stages, would be a far better bet. (Shortening the Vuelta to two weeks would be better again)

Kléber

Trying to spice it up this way sounds stupid. Why don't they just go the whole hog and give riders a box of tacks, some slippery oil and smoke bombs and we can have Wacky Races?

More seriously, I think a two week tour would be better, quality over quantity but still plenty of time to visit the entire country and to have a variety of stages. Three weeks just means even diehard fans doze off during unimportant stages.

Part of the problem is the calendar, many riders deliberately go to Spain for those long flat stages, as it's good riding for the Worlds. They can sit in a lot but do structured workouts within each stage and test their form in the TT and mountain finishes.

micron

They were thinking about something similar to this maybe 5 years ago? Having 2 pelotons in the first week and then only certain teams to go through to the end. They couldn't make it work then so it seems it won't happen again.

I like the echelons but some of the flat stages could disappear and many would not be unhappy - maybe 2 weeks would be better like you say Kleber

GroupOfOne MkII

Didn't the Vuelta come up with a similarly wacky idea a couple of years ago?

Am sure it was similar and involved some sort of knock out system. Still at least they're thinking of new ideas, maybe they'll come up with a good idea one day.

victorponf

Horrible idea

Vuelta just need more a better mountains stage, and we have plenty of territory to do that, but Unipublic is a rubbish organicer

Kléber

More mountain stages just means more gaps between the GC leaders. Who ever is good on the first day in the mountains is likely to be good at the end of a week of climbing too. Maybe you could have a "Tour of the Mountains" and it would probably be a bit boring, same 10 guys in front.

timoid.

Surely there's some rolling country in Spain for semi-climbers and breakaway artists?

micron

the Vuelta is best when they have the short stages when everyone races hard from the start - maybe it needs more of those? But there must be some problems to get riders from a to b in such a big country so maybe by bike is just the most green way