doesnt seem like the french are giving Lance any breaks for #6.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031023/ap_on_sp_ot/cyc_tour_de_france_changes_2
that things should remain as they are simply because LA is winning?
There is a saying…when in Rome…if and when the UCI cyclists show up for the “tour of Arkansas” then you make the rules up any way you want but for now its in France, run by the French and as a result they can run it anyway they want.
…under the same rules. The best all around cyclist will win.
bubba
There is one rule change that will help the contenders on crap teams: they changing it so if you finish with the rest of the team in the TTT you can only lose a maximum of 2:30.
Then so be it, I say.
Having watched numerous Tours de France where contenders were eliminated early on because of the team time trial, I think this is a good change. Don’t get me wrong, I like the team time trial, but I watched the 1993 tour from my couch in France and it would have been an incredible race if Tony Romiger had not lost 4-5 minutes to Big Mig in the team time trial. The individual time trials weed out the climbers enough to keep a specialist (unless they take drugs i.e., 1988 or 1998) from winning the tour.
As for stacking the tour against Lance, let’s not forget that Spain, Italy and France have always done it. The Tour of Spain is always hilly. When Moser and Saronni won the Giro in the early 80’s the race was flat as a pancake. When Pantani rolled around the mountain passes appeared out of nowhere.
And let’s not forget 1985 when the French gave Bernard Hinault (or possibly Fignon, they could not have known he would be injured) the longest time trial (something like 72K or 45 miles) that had been seen in the tour for decades. Besides the prologue that year there were three different individual time trials. Coincidence? I think not.
Mostly, though the Tour does a good job each year of creating an interesting race. They could have stacked the deck against Indurain when Richard Virenque was trying to win (drug) himself to the top of the podium and they didn’t do it. If Lance is the strongest, smartest rider with a good team beside him, then he will win. If not, then someone else will. You just can’t fake your way to a Tour de France win.
I like the TTT rule change too, it never has been my favorite event since the best rider should win in my book and the situation is made worse by decimated team budgets these days. They are also changing the points for the KOM to boost the finish climb importance and help weed out the faux climbers who have racked up points on long breaks that are caught before the finish.
Messing with courses has been a tradition forever. I remember the Giro organizers canceled a mountain stage for a non-existent avalanche and allowed a TV helicopter to blow Moser along the road in a TT to get him the overall win (over Fignon I think it was). The internationalization of hte sport has made today’s events quite pristine in comparison to the old days.
If those frenchmen were henchmen, then the hills and TT’s would be gone. Uphill tt has Lance winning all over it.
marko
I think there should be a 100 mile TT with a couple of mountain stages in it. Who’d win then ?