Sanuk wrote:
I'm not saying lets go back to the Armstrong days, but things were certainly more lively shall we say.
I just hope that the Tour doesn't make changes in the attempt to "attract more viewers". When organizations do that it might work for a short time but the people interested in bike racing will always watch the Tour and those who aren't, will only watch if there is a new gimmick. They should keep the traditions alive and not try to cater to people. The IOC have been desperately trying to do that by introducing new sports to get a bigger audience but it hasn't really worked. They just end up not satisfying anyone.
Feels like niche sports that attract small(ish) but passionate audiences are becoming ever more valuable in our attention-driven economy. My two cents would be that the Tour organizers should embrace their traditions and avoid gimmicks (like the ill-fated Giro descender prize) but lean into a race that delivers more of what core cycling fans want to see. The worst grand tours are three weeks of following wheels followed by one decisive time trial. I certainly don't have it figured out, but the organizers should try as much as possible to create a race that rewards attacking over wheel-following.
I think we all learned this year (if we didn't already know) that while closer time gaps are helpful, they do not make a GC race interesting by themselves. I'm interested to see how the Vuelta shakes out this year, with a relatively long and flat individual time trial balanced by lots of difficult mountaintop finishes. Worst case scenario, someone (read: Froome) crushes the ITT and just follows wheels in the mountains to win. Best case scenario, the time gaps from the ITT lead the better-climbing GC contenders to take big risks and make early attacks in the mountains.
One "non-traditional" move that I am in favor of (along with, I think, many cycling fans) would be the inclusion of more short mountain stages, especially when they follow up a big epic day when the riders are already tired.
It's also true that it's the nature of grand tours (like seven game series in basketball or baseball) that they don't always come down to a single decisive moment. Not every tour will be an epic contest that is decided by one massive attack or a couple of seconds in a time trial. That's part of what makes it so special when we do get an awesome showdown.