Why another TTT? Why do we have to watch teams fall apart when there newbies and 2 pound climbers loose contact? Why does it have to be 41 miles? Why not 15 so everyone finishes together? Why confusing stupid rules about limiting time lost?
Why? Why? Why?
Only b/c I like looking at all the cool TT stuff!
It’s a great spectacle, and a chance for teams with no strong leader to move up the GC, or it was before they brought in the stupid ruling which limited the time that teams could lose reguardless of how far behind the leaders they finished.
Forces teams to balance thier rosters with big powerful TT/flatland specialists and small climbers. Otherwise Euskatel would sit in all the time and attack when they go vertical.
Cycling is, at its core, a team sport. It is only fitting that in the sport’s greatest spectacle there is some discipline that directly challenges the team as a whole. The TTT does that. Everyone always throws up the cannard that it hurts the teams with the little climbers. That is the choice that team managers take when they look at the route and then assemble their teams. The route for next year’s race is now known. Any team that fears it may lose too much time for their gc contender in the TTT is free to add some roulers to the team. Teams like Kelme and Euskatel that have always been stacked with little climbers take the gamble that, with that team composition, they can stand to make gains in the mountains greater than the losses they make take in the TTT or on the flat stages.
Sure USPS and Once and a few others always do well in the TTT. They see it as an opportunity to make time on their rivals. They value it highly enough to forsake a climber or two to take some big boys that can hammer in that TTT. USPS could have stacked their teams with eight flyweight climbers to help Lance when the road goes up, but they have always chosen to maximize their total advantage over the course of the whole race rather than shoot for the moon in some sections of the race and pray that they don’t fall back to Earth in the other areas. Every team is free to recruit riders to fill whatever hole they have. And don’t get into the whole other issue of team budgets. That again falls into the objectives the sponsors set and how prepared they are to commit the resources to actually achieve them through action and not blind hope.
Every team faces the same route and every team has to decide how to best structure the team it takes to best suit their objectives. It is up to the team managers to best solve the puzzle that is the TdF route. Obviously some do it better than others!!
Hear, Hear! I particularly like the mention of ONCE in the same paragraph as the phrase “blind hope”, classy! 
The TTT was bar far the best viewing for an in person spectator, though not suggesting that was the motivation.
Why another TTT? Why do we have to watch teams fall apart when there newbies and 2 pound climbers loose contact? Why does it have to be 41 miles? Why not 15 so everyone finishes together? Why confusing stupid rules about limiting time lost?
Why? Why? Why?
Because this is a bike race, not a parade.
Because the TDF is a competition which epitimizes team efforts.
Because in sport there are winners and there are losers.
Because the rules are fair, each team can choose to build their tour team to be competitive.
Because road racing is strategic and if a team doesn’t employ solid tactics along with proper conditioning, they will lose.
Because learning to ride together is a vital skill that every team should learn.
Because everry time trial is a race of truth…either you can hang or you cannot. There is no faking it.
in my opinion anything they can do to elimate the long boring stages where everyone finishes together is better =)
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What you been smoking? Did you see any big orange rider go forward on any stage or hill in this yearsTDF? My fave Basque team sucked in France and didn’t look much better in Spain. Between Hawaii going down big Friday, the Canes today and the Raider Nation in shambles ,there is always next year for my orange riders. Won’t even tell who I am rooting for Pres. G
The orange guy?
“The Orange Guy?”
Think jerseys and then absorb this: My fave Basque team sucked in France and didn’t look much better in Spain.
Got it yet?
yea, flyweights like Landis and Hincapie…
-SD
After rereading my post I guess I should have splained myself better. Euskaltel-Euskadi is the biggest budget Spanish team from the Basque area of Spain. It is a little like Northern Ireland where the locals have been know to throw a bomb or two in political strife. It is a very culturally proud region and drop dead scenic to look at there.
The team only has Basque riders and are sponsored by the telephone company. They wear orange everything and have some of the brightest kits in the pro peloton. If you watch major tours they also have a huge following of orange spectators on the mountain stages.
This year the big daddy rider of the team Mayo got dropped in an early crash in the TDF and pretty much sucked the rest of the race. Later diagnosed with Mono. Usually the team climbs like monkeys, but looked to be going backward on the major climbs in the Tour and what is really bad they looked worse in the Vuelta(Tour of Spain}
Because they are pretty much a bunch of climbers the TTT is a pretty scary event as they lack the big horsepower riders of the Posties and the German team. As well as CSC, Phonax and a few others.
Big orange was a reference to all the team like the Blue Train is a reference to the USPS team. So the Big orange rider in my refrence was more like the lack of any orange jersey peaking their nose out at the front of any hill, rather one large proportioned rider in the peloton.
Sorry if my first post wasn’t clear. G
If the Tour wants to cap the loses why don’t they just make it shorter like 35-40K? The more rules you have, the more you take away from any sport!
Dave from VA
Finaly some sees my point!
I’d have to agree with some of the earlier posts. I love the hills, enjoyed the indy TT’s and liked the TTT. The long, “sprinter stages” were boring.
I actually enjoyed watching USPS, Phonak, etc. work together to overcome some of the mishaps (Tyler’s flat, etc.).
in my opinion anything they can do to elimate the long boring stages where everyone finishes together is better =)
Like the first two weeks of last years tour? Thats was quite boring. Maybe they should shorten the flat stages to last 20k where everyone gets ready for the sprint.
If you are saying the rules are stupid, I totally agree but don’t get too upset about it. When all was said and done, the top 5 last year would have been the same under the stupid new rules or under the old rules. In fact, the top 5 would have been the same if there had been no TTT at all. I haven’t gone through and done the math for numbers 5-10 but I think they would have come down the same as well. Know why? Because you have to be a really good rider to win the tour and there are not a lot of really good riders on really bad teams. Plus, when a bad TTT team has a guy who they think is a GC threat, they pull their shit together and put in a decent TTT performance (see, EE this year who finished 8th and only gave up 2:30 to USPS and less than 1:30 to everyone else). It is good to have a long TTT to put a little bit of separation between the good teams and the great teams but that’s all it’s really for and all it’s really ever been for, IMO.