How to improve the Tour

[Dogtrousers]

A thread for ideas (sensible and half-baked) for making the Tour better. More gravel/cobbles! No gravel/cobbles! More/less TT-ing. How to rejig the mountains classification so it isn't a bizarre irrelevance (good luck with that). Magic TT kilometres! More bonus seconds. Fewer bonus seconds! More/fewer points for intermediate sprints! Keep the Montmatre climb/don't keep it. Something like the "Intergiro" at half way. Be honest and take the GC at the end of stage 20 and just fart around for fun in Paris. Formula one style grid starts! (OK, maybe not that).

I wonder what the future holds for the points competition. It seems to be getting undermined with mutterings from the organisers that "if you won't play properly we'll take the sprint stages away from you", and the introduction of the Montmatre lump. Now, after years of Cav worship, I like the green jersey competition and the sprint stages. Sure they don't lend themselves too well to all-day TV coverage, but I do love a good sprint, especially when there's the jeopardy of a knackered breakaway rider or two who might just make it to the line first.

I think it's especially important while we have a dominant Pog that all the competitions stay alive and interesting. Even the mountains jersey. Maybe.

 

[fossyant]

Wheelie comp ?

 

[No Ta Doctor]

[Devil's advocate]I think we should do away with the mountain jersey and force the French to ride for GC or stages. Opting out of proper competitions and still getting loads of TV time is why French cycling is in such a mess. [/Devil's advocate]

There's little that can save the KoM, as anyone who's a good enough rider to be winning MTFs from the lead group is a GC rider already (perhaps one that needs some time on a TT bike).


As for additions: A team time trial on a beer bike please.

 

[Lanterne Rogue]

Back to the future with some split stages. 20km sprint, lunch, afternoon stage. Do it on both flat stages (the trains have already gone deep, so might struggle to contain a fresh-legged break in the afternoon) and on mountain days (which might solve some of the GC issues with the polka dots)

 

[TakeTheHighRoad]

The first week this year reinforces my belief that a Tour de France full of Medium mountain stages would be an experiment that's worth trying

 

[bikingdad90]

How about a cake stop half way through, the longer you take to eat your cake and coffee the more points you get and maybe formalise the lantern rouge competition.

 

[fossyant]

Bike changes need to be done like this.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sag...ate=ive&vld=cid:dde43157,vid:y3nu5PkoyLc,st:0

 

[Aravis]

Remember that Christian Prudhomme reads this thread. Probably.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Reduce the weighting of final climb KOM points.
Reduce the weighting of green jersey points on climb finishes.
More intermediate sprints per stage.
Introduce KOM and sprint points allocated by clearly defined banner segment times, as well as continuing to give points by position.
Introduce some sort of accumilater bonus for KOM and sprint points in a stage, if a rider continues to score points on successive sprints/climbs,
A team TT with mixed terrain, that will take 120min+ to complete.

 

[Pross]

The first week this year reinforces my belief that a Tour de France full of Medium mountain stages would be an experiment that's worth trying

This. The biggest mountain stages are so often a let down (although we did have a couple of decent ones this year).

 

[Dorset Boy]

I quite like the idea of the KoM being based on the actual climbing time - they manage to give a time to everyone on the etape for the clims, with 16,000 participants, so surely could do it for 190 tour riders. Then perhaps some bonus seconds options too.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

I quite like the idea of the KoM being based on the actual climbing time - they manage to give a time to everyone on the etape for the clims, with 16,000 participants, so surely could do it for 190 tour riders. Then perhaps some bonus seconds options too.

I was thinking the same, then I thought, how does it actually work as a spectacle? And it doesn't. There's no sprinting for the line, just TTing up, it's pretty much impossible to know or convey who's winning until you've crunched a load of data

 

[Dogtrousers]

I was thinking the same, then I thought, how does it actually work as a spectacle? And it doesn't. There's no sprinting for the line, just TTing up, it's pretty much impossible to know or convey who's winning until you've crunched a load of data

I'm sure they could come up with some super graphics. Those rider labels they have could show time. It would be utterly incomprehensible

 

[MichaelW2]

With added Numberwang.

 

[Domus]

No TT bikes, only one car per team. No stupid transfers, start in the same place the previous stage finishes. Riders can only collect points for one jersey stated at the start of the tour.