How to improve the Tour

[Dogtrousers]

I went and watched the Caen TT this year. I'd never seen a TT before.

Not doing that again. My patience was tested. The 40 minutes it took to get out of the orchard that was being used as a parking area were pretty interesting in comparison. Yeah ... I know ... What did you expect?

 

[mjr]

I went and watched the Caen TT this year. I'd never seen a TT before.

Not doing that again. My patience was tested. The 40 minutes it took to get out of the orchard that was being used as a parking area were pretty interesting in comparison. Yeah ... I know ... What did you expect?

Did you stay for a stage before or after? That was half the reason I watched the end of the London ITT, as I was staying nearby to get to the next stage anyway.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Did you stay for a stage before or after? That was half the reason I watched the end of the London ITT, as I was staying nearby to get to the next stage anyway.

Yes, I rode (some of) the route of the Vire stage (that Healey won) ahead of the race - to much joshing and sarcastic cheering) then we pulled over near the finish to join the jollity and watch the caravan and the race come through.

The London TT years ago, I was on crutches and over-estimated how much distance I could cover. I ended up sitting on a bench in Green Park.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Steel and down tube levers obvs.

Levers? Why on earth are you putting levers on a fixie?

 

[AndyATB]

Make it less of a watts/ kg contest, and more of an 'all round' test of the riders. It currently isn't. Get rid of mountainous ITTs, which just favour the GC yet more. Instead, have a rolling ITT, and another one on either Gravel or Cobbles; that could be 'interesting'........but won't ever happen.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Has anyone mentioned the white jersey? We had a good one this year with Lipowitz, Onley and Vauquelin so maybe it ain't broke.

But we've also had a period of years with it simply belonging to Pog, and Remco only let go of it because he withdrew. So maybe it is broke.

The TdF Femmes white jersey is for riders 22 and under, rather than 25 which it is for the men. Maybe a case for lowering the age? Say 23?

Although I think that would have ruled out both Onley and Lipo as they take your age at the end of the year.

Or perhaps make riders eligible in only their first tour, or first two tours or something like that.

 

[Domus]

Has anyone mentioned the white jersey? We had a good one this year with Lipowitz, Onley and Vauquelin so maybe it ain't broke.

But we've also had a period of years with it simply belonging to Pog, and Remco only let go of it because he withdrew. So maybe it is broke.

The TdF Femmes white jersey is for riders 22 and under, rather than 25 which it is for the men. Maybe a case for lowering the age? Say 23?

Although I think that would have ruled out both Onley and Lipo as they take your age at the end of the year.

Or perhaps make riders eligible in only their first tour, or first two tours or something like that.

First Tour, brilliant idea

 

[Pross]

Do away with it being on accrued time and make it based on aggregate finish position instead so that every stage becomes a battle for those that want the GC. I reckon Pog would enjoy that as it suits how he likes to race.

 

[rualexander]

On flat sprint days, have a points sprint every 5km or so not just once or twice on the stage, similar to the track points race.

 

[Mike_P]

Could they make flat TTs optional in some way? Its only interesting for those that are interested in the GC position and the stage top 20, so maybe 70 or so riders. Have the opt outs roll round in a peloton first, and get given the time of the last finisher plus 20 minutes.

Or give the riders an option of a TT or a short sprint stage over the same route.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Do away with it being on accrued time and make it based on aggregate finish position instead so that every stage becomes a battle for those that want the GC. I reckon Pog would enjoy that as it suits how he likes to race.

That's kinda what the points competition does. From 1906-1912 that was how the Tour worked, sort of. You got 1 for first on stage, 2 for second etc, and fewest points won. I seem to remember they couldn't decide whether it was to be total time or points and swapped between the two. Eventually total time won out. The points classification is a kind of echo of this except they've monkeyed around with the number of points and added intermediate sprints.

 

[Aravis]

Has anyone mentioned the white jersey? We had a good one this year with Lipowitz, Onley and Vauquelin so maybe it ain't broke.

But we've also had a period of years with it simply belonging to Pog, and Remco only let go of it because he withdrew. So maybe it is broke.

The TdF Femmes white jersey is for riders 22 and under, rather than 25 which it is for the men. Maybe a case for lowering the age? Say 23?

Although I think that would have ruled out both Onley and Lipo as they take your age at the end of the year.

Or perhaps make riders eligible in only their first tour, or first two tours or something like that.

The white jersey has certainly had a chequered history.

The young rider classification began in 1975, adopting the white jersey from the combination classification which was "rested" for a few years. To be eligible you either had to be young enough OR in your first or second season as a pro. Not "and" as I might have guessed, but I kinda get the logic. The rider who broke the system was Klaus-Peter Thaler, a cyclo-crosser who became a road pro in his late 20s. In 1977 he became the oldest wearer of the white jersey, aged 28, although not of right; yellow jersey Dietrich Thurau was the actual holder.

It seems probable that Thaler was the reason for dropping the neo-pro part of the qualification, which from 1979 onward has been based on age only, apart from 1983 - 1986 when the competition was for Tour debutants. This temporary change may have been connected to the introduction in 1983 of an amateur team from Colombia - part of the deal perhaps.

The qualification age has changed from time to time in response to trends in peloton demographics.

So historically there are three qualification criteria, all with pros and cons, which could be used either alone or in combination. I don't think the Tour has found the best formula yet, so my suggestion to M. Prudhomme is to experiment by applying possible sets of criteria to the actual rider data from recent Tours, and see what works best. If he's too busy I'm happy to have a go myself.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I'm not sure we want to go back to the original intent.
IIRC, it was hoped to be designed hard enough that only one man would complete.

Now that would make it more interesting, as many stages as it takes to have one rider left. Each stage has to be done at a minimum speed, that increases each day

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Every kom climb, one lucky spectator get's given a paintball with 5 red paintballs that they can shoot at which ever rider they like. The rider finishing the race with the most paint splatters gets the kom points, extra points given for getting hit in the nether regions.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The white jersey has certainly had a chequered history.