During the broadcast of stage of 1 of Paris-Nice, the commentators made a point of clarifying that because it was over 8km, the TT was a regular stage, not a prologue. Is there any real difference? Does a prologue win not qualify as a stage win on a rider’s palmares? I haven’t been able to locate an answer, so please enlighten me.
No real difference. I’ve heard the 8K line before, but it seems arbitrary. Perhaps there is some historical perspective that makes it non-arbitrary (in cycling, there usually is…).
However, to answer your question…no real difference.
It can matter in that a prologue does NOT count as a day of racing. Certain levels of races are only allowed to have a certain number of “stages”. Since the prologue (under 8km I guess) is NOT a stage they get an extra day of racing for free. i.e. if 7 days is the limit, you can make it an 8 day race if you have a prologue.