Heretical thought: two week GTs?

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Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    RichN95 wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Tour de suisse was already 10 days. Wouldn't look that different to that.
    Yeah, but it's ten days of not very much. A two week GT would be all killer, no filler. Can you really look at a Giro or Vuelta course and not find five stages you could manage without? There's plenty of stages which are just like other stages.

    Point of GTs is that there's a little something for everyone, no?

    Maybe not. Maybe I'm just taking that as received wisdom. You all know I prefer races where more than 30% of the riders are actually racing FTW.
    _
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    RichN95 wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Tour de suisse was already 10 days. Wouldn't look that different to that.
    Yeah, but it's ten days of not very much. A two week GT would be all killer, no filler. Can you really look at a Giro or Vuelta course and not find five stages you could manage without? There's plenty of stages which are just like other stages.

    Point of GTs is that there's a little something for everyone, no?
    Yeah, but you can lose a sprinter stage or two, a bumpy stage and MTF (there are about ten in the Vuelta). A lot of stages are just getting from A to B just to save a transfer. Cut out a week and riders will be more agreeable to longer transfers.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    Although it's not a decisive argument, the geography and size of all three countries lend themselves to 3 weeks. A 2 week TdF would look a bit like the Tour of Britain or Germany, a Tour of just some bits of France. Nothing to do with the quality of the racing
  • thomthom
    thomthom Posts: 3,574
    Wait, 2 weeks rather than 3 weeks = 6-7 stages fewer of live cycling..?

    What are we even debating here!
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,821
    The third week is where a GT is won, as it tests the body in ways that only 2 other races can.

    Keep the third week, it's essential to make a GT a GT
  • philbar72
    philbar72 Posts: 2,229
    For me it is vital all 3 are 3 weeks long. That’s what makes them grand, no?

    Most of the winning moves come in the last week of most of the grand tours. I don’t see it happening this TDF, but as a general rule, yes 3 weeks should be kept on.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,311
    thegibdog wrote:
    I voted yes. I think it'd be preferable to have the best GT riders at all the season's GTs, and I think that could happen if thy were two weeks long. .

    But that's no guarantee... the winner of the Tour what motivation will find to ride the Vuelta? They will still try to target one big tour and use the other as a warm up... do you really want to see Froome riding the Giro looking at his stats on the computer?
    left the forum March 2023
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    I think we should even have fourth Grand Tour in December or January, perhaps converting the Tour Down Under?
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,651
    philbar72 wrote:
    For me it is vital all 3 are 3 weeks long. That’s what makes them grand, no?

    Most of the winning moves come in the last week of most of the grand tours. I don’t see it happening this TDF, but as a general rule, yes 3 weeks should be kept on.

    Is that true though? The last 3 Tours including this one looked done and dusted before the third week. If there are winning moves in the third week, isn't that largely due to parcours, that the queen stage is left until late on in the race, to drag out the excitement ?
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  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,651
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    thegibdog wrote:
    I voted yes. I think it'd be preferable to have the best GT riders at all the season's GTs, and I think that could happen if thy were two weeks long. .

    But that's no guarantee... the winner of the Tour what motivation will find to ride the Vuelta? They will still try to target one big tour and use the other as a warm up... do you really want to see Froome riding the Giro looking at his stats on the computer?

    The motivation is that it becomes feasible. They'd be too far apart for them to be used as performance tuning a la dauphine, so if you're riding them then it's to win. You'd also remove the requirement to chuck all your eggs in one basket (the only way you can currently win a GT, pretty much), so you can contest all three. At the start of the season you'd be down to ride all three GTs, as that gives you the best chance of winning at least one of them. So your training is based around peaking at three separate times in the season, instead of one. That's entirely feasible. If you win the giro you still do the other two, because you could pick up a double. Same if you win the Tour.
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