The new TTT rules are enough to make my head hurt. I think everyone is getting a grasp on the effect of the limits between the winning team and the non-winning teams. But what about the effects of the limits between the non-winning teams? I tried to figure it out and this is what I think I found:
In relation to the leader, all teams (except for USPS) benefitted from the new TTT rules. However, in relation to other teams, some teams benefitted and some were hurt by the rules. For example, although Saeco had virtually the same TTT time as Euskaltel-Euskadi (+ .21 seconds), by virtue of their placing they were awarded the winner’s time +1:30 whereas EE was awarded the winner’s time +1:20. Thereby, an actual TTT time difference of .21 seconds turns into a 10 second difference. That is probably the most dramatic difference (I didn’t analyze every time relationship between teams).
T-Mobile finished 11.8 seconds behind Phonak but because they finished 2 places behind Phonak their awarded time is 20 seconds greater than Phonak’s. That means Ulrich loses 20 seconds to Hamilton even though his team finished less than 12 seconds behind Hamilton’s.
I think it was obvious to everyone that the new rules would limit the time lost to the winner of the TTT but I didn’t expect it to increase the time lost in some respects.
Am I getting this correctly?
Russ