Improving the Tour

[FishFright]

A year of eating the same diet as me and doing the same amount of exercise should do the trick; might take a bit longer.

Fray Bentos as title sponsor !

 

[bruce1530]

You could allow them to take performance-enhancing drugs. Oh, wait....

 

[bruce1530]

At the start, all bikes are supplied in kit form. You can use as many tools as you want to assemble them, but you’ve then got to carry all of those tools with you all day.

 

[bruce1530]

When they near the Swiss border, there should be a water section, where all of the participants must cross Lake Geneva on a Pedalo.

 

[mjr]

Boringly, change the red numbers from yesterday's combativity winner to the leader in the baroudeur classification (kms in breaks). Would that lead to more De Gendt style serial escapologists?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Make the competition GC only - drop the sideshows.

For every stage set a challenging cut off time - anyone finishing outside of it is out. This will get rid of the absurdity of the cycle & chat transitional stages as well as the final day anti-climax.

Get rid of the TT's - it should simply be a race from start to finish where everybody is competing at the same time and under the same conditions.

 

[nickyboy]

Alcohol needs to be involved

A shot every 10km, another shot at top of each categorised climb. Anyone throws up and they're ejected from the race.

Pretty soon the race will only involve riders with my physique. These 55kg skinny climbers have no chance

Actually, serious suggestion: budget caps. It isn't good for long term development of the sport to have one team dominating. Discourages other sponsors and if Sky then pulled out, where would probably cycling be?

 

[StuAff]

Sky is undoubtedly the richest team, certainly isn't helpful to have one team so powerful, but how much richer than the others is unclear because a lot of teams keep their accounts private. Agreed, a budget cap (properly enforced) would be a good idea though.

 

[Beebo]

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-team-largest-budget-262275

There are some other teams with big budgets.
Sky aren’t head and shoulders above everyone else.

Tour de France team budgets (estimated)
Team Sky – €35m
Katusha – €32m
BMC – €28m
Tinkoff – €25m
Astana – €20m
Etixx-Quick Step – €18m
Movistar – €15m
Lotto-Soudal – €14m
LottoNL-Jumbo – €14m
Dimension Data – €13.5m
Orica-BikeExchange – €13m
Giant-Alpecin – €12.5m
Trek-Segafredo – €12m
Ag2r La Mondiale – €12m
Cofidis – €11m
IAM Cycling – €10.5m
FDJ – €10m
Cannondale – €10m
Lampre-Merida – €7m
Direct Energie – €6m
Bora-Argon 18 – €4.5m
Fortuneo-Vital Concept – €3.5m
Read more at https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...eam-largest-budget-262275#LCUlzm6w1AHv7tD3.99

Edit. Sagan’s wages must be the whole of Boras budget. So I call BS.

 

[smutchin]

Sagan’s wages must be the whole of Boras budget. So I call BS.

I haven’t looked at it myself but something tells me you might want to check the date on the article you got that info from.

 

[brommers]

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-team-largest-budget-262275

There are some other teams with big budgets.
Sky aren’t head and shoulders above everyone else.

Tour de France team budgets (estimated)
Team Sky – €35m
Katusha – €32m
BMC – €28m
Tinkoff – €25m
Astana – €20m
Etixx-Quick Step – €18m
Movistar – €15m
Lotto-Soudal – €14m
LottoNL-Jumbo – €14m
Dimension Data – €13.5m
Orica-BikeExchange – €13m
Giant-Alpecin – €12.5m
Trek-Segafredo – €12m
Ag2r La Mondiale – €12m
Cofidis – €11m
IAM Cycling – €10.5m
FDJ – €10m
Cannondale – €10m
Lampre-Merida – €7m
Direct Energie – €6m
Bora-Argon 18 – €4.5m
Fortuneo-Vital Concept – €3.5m
Read more at https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...eam-largest-budget-262275#LCUlzm6w1AHv7tD3.99

Edit. Sagan’s wages must be the whole of Boras budget. So I call BS.

Half of these teams either don't exist anymore or have different sponsors

 

[ozboz]

I haven’t looked at it myself but something tells me you might want to check the date on the article you got that info from.

I noticed that , Fotuneo had a different partner this time ,
And as a matter of interest had BH bikes instead of Look ,

 

[Bollo]

At the risk of being serious I agree with the budget cap idea with a big caveat: I know nothing about how pro cycling finance works and it may actually be a crap idea for all I know. Still, in the spirit of this thread, who cares?

INRNG usually has a piece or two on the finances of the various teams that are sometimes worth wading through. One of the things I remember from an article of theirs is that it's not always a level playing field in terms of reporting. For example Sky are a registered UK company so are required to submit reasonably detailed public accounts that include the salary bill, while teams like Astana, Katusha and Bahrain Merida not so much.

The Gruan has this article that delivers less than it promises, but it seems that the salary cap has supporters in France. I'm sure those opinions are completely evidence-based and nowt to do with being Gallic bitters. They also point a finger at ASO for being more interested in the money than the sport.
Pas de merde, Cherloque!

Prudhomme mutters something about power meters.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ench-media-call-salary-cap-team-sky-dominance

 

[400bhp]

So let's have your suggestions for fixing the broken Tour. Please don't think too hard about possible unfortunate consequences of your proposed changes. Be bold.

Move it to Italy

 

[rich p]

Lapartient has been spouting bollox again I see.
He's an embarrassment and SDB calling him a provincial mayor is about right.