A different TdF?

N0bodyOfTheGoat

More intermediate sprints per stage for bonus seconds?

An accumulator bonus for being in the top (10?) for consecutive intermediate sprints on a stage?

Dare I suggest it, but bonuses for chosen Strava segments on each stage?

Lanterne_Rogue

iainf72 wrote:

Why not just the whole hog and introduce a handicapping system and be done with it?

Rather than trying to handicap it by tinkering with routes or teams etc?

"Handicapping system"

Is this what they were trying to implement with the descent yesterday, just that something got lost in translation?

N0bodyOfTheGoat

19 intermediate sprints per stage, not necessarily spread out equally (if fact, placing them tactically on the course for different gradients for the preceeding ~1km might be better, giving different types of rider a chance at selected sprints, could easily be integrated with existing KOM competition) plus the finish line.

Points for the top ~20 crossing each line, 4th to 20th get 17 through to 1 point respectively, but extra rewards for podium at each sprint (3rd 25; 2nd 35; 1st 50).

So maximum of 1000 points up for grabs each stage for any rider.

Classification based on points, not overall time.

darkhairedlord

time bonus with all points; KOM and sprints.

bigmat

Smaller teams would be good. Also I think they should relax the time limit, the last coupld of days have been extra crap due to the riders being knackered from the weekend. Why not let the sprinters / rouleurs take it properly easy so we then have a race on the following sprint stages? Would have no real impact on GC. On the other side of the coin, for full on sprint stages they should have a proper"safe zone" at the end of the stage, say the last 5km, where time is neutralised so those not contesting the sprint can properly get out of the way. Would hopefully reduce the impact of crashes at the end of stages on the GC battle (I appreciate that hasn't been much of an issue this year). There should be more intermediate sprints on long flat stages - nothing happens all day so why not chuck a couple of sprints in? The mountain stages always have a handful of ranking climbs. Otherwise, not much wrong that couldn't be fixed with a more imaginative parcours.

No_Ta_Doctor

I think the main issue for the Tour is that the strongest team have the strongest rider and they're capable of controlling the vast majority of the race. They've got riders that would be GC contenders and team captains elsewhere.

So: cut three riders from each team - no team can now exert the sort of control over the race that Sky do while keeping Froome out of the wind.
Add more lumpy stages for breakaways - with less control there's a bigger chance of the break staying away and a higher possibility of someone half dangerous grabbing a minute or two - or forcing a chase.
Mix up evil long mountain stages and evil short mountain stages for the combo of exhaustion and chaos.

DON'T: faff about with points, time bonuses etc.

No_Ta_Doctor

As a side note - the best racing so far this tour were the first couple of hours of stage 8. It was full on, with half the peloton trying to get in the break, Sky failing to control it, teams chasing, attacks going off.

maddog 2

smaller teams, definitely

I've never understood why you need such a massive peloton.

specialgueststar

next year is a different Tdf ! They haven't done the mountains yet ! This all seems a bit premature. There are sprint stages but there are three sprinters down (4 with Kristoff)

This is like saying why a test match should be a one day with a 20.20 style finish

andyrac

While this year has so far been less than stellar, I'd more or less leave things as they are; and think this years route is partly to blame. More sprinter friendly flat stages than we've seen for a while - and no cobbles/ 'classics' type stage to mix things up.

Other sports try and spice things up to create close competition (especially motorsport) and things can become artificial and almost WWE-Like.

Just accept that sometimes you have years when it is relatively boring.

ugo.santalucia

AndyRAC wrote:

While this year has so far been less than stellar, I'd more or less leave things as they are; and think this years route is partly to blame. More sprinter friendly flat stages than we've seen for a while - and no cobbles/ 'classics' type stage to mix things up.

Other sports try and spice things up to create close competition (especially motorsport) and things can become artificial and almost WWE-Like.

Just accept that sometimes you have years when it is relatively boring.

Sure, but since 1999 we have seen a lot of carbon copies... a strong team dominates the race. On most occasions only 1 GC contender has worn the yellow jersey throughout the race, on rare occasions we have seen two GC contenders wearing yellow in the same race!!

If we look how many times the yellow jersey has passed from one GC contender to another one in a mountain stage... can you remember any? Contador-Schleck maybe? Sastre in 2008 from Schleck senior maybe?