4 ways to make the Tour more exciting

[greg52]

1) Reduce the number of teams in the peloton from 20 to 10.

If I could run cycling, the following teams would NOT be invited back to the Tour next year:

Silence-Lotto (Cadel can find somewhere else to ride, this team sucks)
Agritubel
Bouygues Telecom
Cofidis
Milram
Francaise Des Jeux
Lampre (Cuegno can find somewhere else to ride)
Quick-step (Boonen can find another team as well)
Credit Agricole (Thor do the same)
What is left of Barloworld
What is left of Saunier-Duval

Why wouldn't I invite them back? Hmm...Because they don't win ANYTHING?

With a smaller peloton you can know the bunch better. You can see the GC contenders more. You can see the battles between the teams more. You can get to know each team personally. You can see what you REALLY want to see, not endless waves of pedaling rubes that don't win ****...stage after stage. Here is who I would invite to be in my peloton next year:

CSC-Saxobank
Ag2r
Gerolsteiner
Liquigas
Astana
Casse d'Epargne
Garmin-Chipotle
Columbia
Rabobank
Euskaltel-Euskadi

You cannot tell me that the aforementioned group would not be better than the group this year. You people actually like watching the hacks on Agritubel, Barloworld, etc. take up camera space?

2) Every Tour from now on must have a TTT and a MTT in exchange for two of those pointless flat stages.

There needs to be more variety in the Tour, UNLESS some GC contender actually makes serious moves on the flat stages.

Imagine if (God forbid) out of nowhere one day Cadel just rips the cranks of the bike and attacks like hell on a flat stage and sends everyone on a mad dash after him or lose major time in the GC. Too many of these flat stages just have the ultra-conservative peloton dopily trodding along to finish within 5 seconds of each other.

3) Every rider is tested after every stage.

If you want to get rid of doping, this is one of the only ways to do it. I don't care how much money or time it takes. Get it done.

The current setup where they test every once and a while...NO. This horrible system allows doped riders like Contador, Rasmussen, A.Schleck, and others to ride more often than what they should be allowed. With testing everyday, the **** stops. The more samples they can take, the more chances they have to bust the idiots. Common sense.

4) Versus should build up the KoM, Green, and White jersey competitions more than they do right now. It's not all about the Yellow Jersey.

The average joe is watching a stage of the TdF. A few leadout riders are heavily attacking through a center of a town. They pass a white line, Liggett rambles a little bit, and some standings are briefly flashed on the screen. What the hell just happened?

Versus does a horrible job building up the other 3 jerseys. They don't talk about points much. They don't talk about the areas where you can get these points. They don't talk about the contenders for these jerseys. Unless you are a hardcore fan who knows the maps of each stage, you don't have a clue when the point locations for these jerseys are coming up.

For the record, I have Cycle Sport, VN, and other Tour guides always opened to the day of the stage on my coffee table with all the maps and stuff, but I'm talking about the average joe fan.

 

[Malkmus]

No. Triple the amount of teams and reduce the size of each team to 6. This increases the size of the bunch but reduces the ability for teams to chase all day long. Take this bigger bunch through every small street you they can find so that there are lots of crashes. A third of the race should be on cobbles and in foul weather. That would be fun.

You can also run the race as a miss and out. The team with the two lowest placed riders at the end of each stage looses its highest placed rider.

 

[thoughtforfood]

No. Triple the amount of teams and reduce the size of each team to 6. This increases the size of the bunch but reduces the ability for teams to chase all day long. Take this bigger bunch through every small street you they can find so that there are lots of crashes. A third of the race should be on cobbles and in foul weather. That would be fun.

You can also run the race as a miss and out. The team with the two lowest placed riders at the end of each stage looses its highest placed rider.

I think it would be really cool if they just said "here is the start city, and that is the end city, now go"

Or they could line the final climb with an 8 foot high wall, and release a ravenous pack of wolves after the riders go by, maybe have to release in stages with each pack that comes through, and if you are alone, you are assigned maybe 2 or 3 ravenous wolves...I am still vetting the idea so stick with the thread as I evlove it.

Maybe they could require those frame pumps again as the only allowable method of changing a flat. You could also use the pump in any manner you choose, like the Cinzano guys in Breaking Away, but then you would be screwed if you flatted.

Or you could allow fans to use super soakers on the riders

I think that it would also be cool to have a TTT where only one guy was allowed to pull the entire route.

Those are just some of the things I think would make the tour more interesting, but I haven't really put my dementia to task, so I will post some other ideas on down the line.

 

[Capt.Injury]

1) Reduce the number of teams in the peloton from 20 to 10.

If I could run cycling, the following teams would NOT be invited back to the Tour next year:

Silence-Lotto (Cadel can find somewhere else to ride, this team sucks)
Agritubel
Bouygues Telecom
Cofidis
Milram
Francaise Des Jeux
Lampre (Cuegno can find somewhere else to ride)
Quick-step (Boonen can find another team as well)
Credit Agricole (Thor do the same)
What is left of Barloworld
What is left of Saunier-Duval

Why wouldn't I invite them back? Hmm...Because they don't win ANYTHING?

With a smaller peloton you can know the bunch better. You can see the GC contenders more. You can see the battles between the teams more. You can get to know each team personally. You can see what you REALLY want to see, not endless waves of pedaling rubes that don't win ****...stage after stage. Here is who I would invite to be in my peloton next year:

CSC-Saxobank
Ag2r
Gerolsteiner
Liquigas
Astana
Casse d'Epargne
Garmin-Chipotle
Columbia
Rabobank
Euskaltel-Euskadi

You cannot tell me that the aforementioned group would not be better than the group this year. You people actually like watching the hacks on Agritubel, Barloworld, etc. take up camera space?

2) Every Tour from now on must have a TTT and a MTT in exchange for two of those pointless flat stages.

There needs to be more variety in the Tour, UNLESS some GC contender actually makes serious moves on the flat stages.

Imagine if (God forbid) out of nowhere one day Cadel just rips the cranks of the bike and attacks like hell on a flat stage and sends everyone on a mad dash after him or lose major time in the GC. Too many of these flat stages just have the ultra-conservative peloton dopily trodding along to finish within 5 seconds of each other.

3) Every rider is tested after every stage.

If you want to get rid of doping, this is one of the only ways to do it. I don't care how much money or time it takes. Get it done.

The current setup where they test every once and a while...NO. This horrible system allows doped riders like Contador, Rasmussen, A.Schleck, and others to ride more often than what they should be allowed. With testing everyday, the **** stops. The more samples they can take, the more chances they have to bust the idiots. Common sense.

4) Versus should build up the KoM, Green, and White jersey competitions more than they do right now. It's not all about the Yellow Jersey.

The average joe is watching a stage of the TdF. A few leadout riders are heavily attacking through a center of a town. They pass a white line, Liggett rambles a little bit, and some standings are briefly flashed on the screen. What the hell just happened?

Versus does a horrible job building up the other 3 jerseys. They don't talk about points much. They don't talk about the areas where you can get these points. They don't talk about the contenders for these jerseys. Unless you are a hardcore fan who knows the maps of each stage, you don't have a clue when the point locations for these jerseys are coming up.

For the record, I have Cycle Sport, VN, and other Tour guides always opened to the day of the stage on my coffee table with all the maps and stuff, but I'm talking about the average joe fan.

Ok you want an interesting TDF, but you want to bring back Liquigas who was almost not found for most of the race, but don't allow Cofidis back who were in teh breakaway in just about every stage, and won 2 stages. Need teams to be willing to be aggressive?

I think having time bonuses on mountain top finishes only , would force the contenders to attack towards the end of these stages, instead of just worrying about following the other contenders.

 

[stevebaby]

Fill the bidons with vodka.

 

[slovakguy]

Fill the bidons with vodka.

i see we have the same training regime

 

[thoughtforfood]

Fill the bidons with vodka.

Or LSD....

 

[Trev_S]

The funny thing with most of the people saying the tour was boring etc.
What do they really want?

On one hand they crucify the robotic dopers and on the other they criticise riders for no longer being the said robots who can attack endlessly all tour.

The course was changed this year with no prologue, less sprint stages (& most of those were spread out), more stages to suit breakaways, good mountain stages, less TT miles & no time bonus's.

Oh yeah, more than likely less dopers.
Which is what everybody wants isn't it? but then you have to expect the racing to be different. Riders will get tired, perhaps they can't attack like you'd want them to because they can't and if they do, they're knackered the next day.




Questions.
At what time through this years tour could you pick the end results?
(and I mean, the event was as good as won, barring mishap)
How often could you pick the stage winner, on crucial stages?
When was the last time the tour had the top 10 covered by 9mins? (certainly not in the last 14yrs I checked at least)


I think most people are stuck in the Armstrong era, robots on bikes, attacks that stuck, riders not getting tired and strangely enough you virtually knew the end result of the tour by stage 4 or 5. (so how is that exciting?)
The racing was Armstrong v's Ullrich or Armstrong v's Beloki.
Their was barely 2 riders within 9mins of Armstrong most of the time.


Below is a list on the amount of riders who were within 9mins of the winners time.
2008 - 9 riders
2007 - 4 riders
2006 - 6 riders
2005 - 2 riders
2004 - 3 riders
2003 - 4 riders
2002 - 2 riders
2001 - 1 rider
2000 - 1 rider
1999 - 1 rider
1998 - 2 riders
1997 - 1 rider
1996 - 4 riders
1995 - 3 riders


In my opinion this year was clearly the best TDF I have watched.
It was a race all the way to Paris, not to stage 4 or 5 TT or TT.

I love the TTT but it doesn't bode well in the tour for the GC race, it's a great spectacle though.


To make it better, as someone mentioned perhaps add another team or 2 and reduce the team member numbers. Instead 9 make it 6 and get rid of the radios make the riders think a little more on the road rather than wait for team car instructions over the radio.
Only radio allowed for riders is an official course radio.

 

[JAPANic]

With the boring sprint stages they could do 40km sprint stages in the morning followed by a 80km to 140km mountain stage an hour later. (or after lunch....no feed stops).

2 stages in one day.

 

[Runitout]

With the boring sprint stages they could do 40km sprint stages in the morning followed by a 80km to 140km mountain stage an hour later. (or after lunch....no feed stops).

2 stages in one day.

The riders would mutiny before doing split stages again - and I don't blame them. They are awful awful awful. You spend so much time warming down properly, having to do the hold/cold shower business, stretching, relaxing, warming up, psyching up - you're stressed for hours. Race once a day, that's it.

They tried to reintroduce them in the Giro and the riders forced a backtrack.

 

[Cobblestones]

No. Triple the amount of teams and reduce the size of each team to 6. This increases the size of the bunch but reduces the ability for teams to chase all day long. Take this bigger bunch through every small street you they can find so that there are lots of crashes. A third of the race should be on cobbles and in foul weather. That would be fun.

You can also run the race as a miss and out. The team with the two lowest placed riders at the end of each stage looses its highest placed rider.

Bulls. There should be wild bulls on the road. And make it a contact sport.

Cycle-wrestling with bulls!!

 

[tonyzackery]

Remove the radios...go back to chalk boards giving the splits to the break...

 

[Grater]

Nah, we make it like this.

Saturday - Prologue to open the tour.

Sunday - Stage 1 is a sprinters stage
Monday - Stage 2 is a sprinters stage
Tuesday - Stage 3 is a sprinters stage
Wednesday - Stage 4 is a sprinters stage
Thursday - Stage 5 - is a 53km time trial
Friday - Stage 6 is a sprinters stage
Saturday - Stage 7 is a medium mountain stage
Sunday - Stage 8 is the first Pyrenees stage
Monday - Stage 9 is the second Pyrenees stage
Tuesday - Rest Day
Wednesday - Stage 10 is the third Pyrenees stage
Thursday - Stage 11 is a TTT
Friday - Stage 12 is a transitional stage
Saturday - Stage 13 is a transitional stage
Sunday - Stage 14 is a flat stage
Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - Stage 15 - the first Alp Stage
Wednesday - Stage 16 - the second Alp Stage
Thursday - Stage 17 - the third Alp stage
Friday - Stage 18 - medium mountain stage
Saturday - Stage 19 - Uphill Time Trial
Sunday - Stage 20 - Paris

The last week including an uphill Time trial is very tough on the main GC contenders. The first week includes a Prologue and a 46km time trial to open up the GC standings. The end of the first week touching the second week hits the Pyrenees with a team time trial a few days later. The last week is gruelling. That will make a more interesting tour. None of this 2 stages for a rest between the last huge Alp stage and a time trial. Make the time trial come straight away - uphill. Then they can relax to Paris.

 

[classic1]

Having a TTT halfway through the race is stupid.

My four part plan involves the following

More naked women
More beer
More violence
More swearing

It works in the kind of movies I like, so why not the Tour?

 

[poulidor]

The caravan should give tomatoes and rotten eggs to the crowd along the road
and then McQuaid and Verdruggen should be in a UCI cabriolet paid with their bribes at the end of the caravan.

 

[Andrija]

Or LSD....

Like good old Hofmann.

 

[limerickman]

Interesting views.........especially those about naked women in the TDF.

On a serious note, it amazes me that 2008 TDF could be viewed as "boring".

For the displays of Mark Cavendish alone - TDF 2008 was great viewing.
I thought the changes in the format of the TDF made 2008 more interesting.
The dropping of the prologue was a good move and the fact that week 1 had less sprinters stage than previous years, made week 1 more interesting than in previous years.
It's obvious that the ASO have taken a leaf from the Giro in that respect.

Then include the fact that 2008 TDF GC was not finalised until the day before the final stage in to Paris, I think that we had a great 2008 TDF.

Personally I would like to see a return to the really old days of the TDF.
Back then riders had to start/finish in the same clothing, for example.
Given that stages began at 12.00 midnight in some cases, riders had to have the right clothing to be warm enough at night, but to be cool enough under a hot summers sun.
If a rider was caught getting some more clothing during a stage or was caught trying to discrad clothing, they would be booted off the TDF.
I'd love to see a return to the ultralong stages of the 1900-1920's : when riders rode 400+ kms per stage.
Picking up on that theme : the TDF should possibely look at the re-introduction of night stages.

 

[whiteboytrash]

I'd offer time bonuses from 1 down to 20. 20 seconds for 1st and 1 second decrements down to place 20. Then you'll get riders fighting for position all the way to the line. Also if there is a breakaway taking up the first 10 spots the favourites will still race for the time bonuses. The bonuses are not big enough to create significant gaps but enhance racing.

 

[adamastor]

Bulls. There should be wild bulls on the road. And make it a contact sport.

Cycle-wrestling with bulls!!

Actually, no joke, at present, there some 40 of them running wild somewhere near Camargue. They ran out of their enclosure.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/29/france.wildlife

 

[adamastor]

I have followed dictatorship by guys like Hinault, Indurain, Armstrong, so please please give me back the kind of TDF we had this year.

Fact, there was nobody, who stood out of the bunch. I hear everybody complaining about how boring Cadel was, I'm not a fan, I don't even find him a great rider, but couldn't you see he did 100% of what he could do???

"Why didn't he attack inj the Alps, why didn't he..., jesus, he COULDN'T !

Now you can change the rules of the TDF the way you like, if there is a strong team with a strong rider, everybody else is dead. Whatever you do.

You want to make the green jersey more interesting? WTF? Nobody from the public really cares about other jerseys other than the yellow. And stage victories, I repeat victories at the end of the stage, nobody cares about points given DURING the stage, apart from riders themselves.

Don't know how many of you come from the States, but why always complicate the rules, where you need to be a statistics expert to find out who won.

Here's my suggestion:

Put them all on 22kg heavy bikes, no gears, let them ride 500km per day, nobody is allowed to get help in repairing the bike, oh yes, and only cobblestone roads allowed please. Oh, but we had that already 100 years ago. Oh yes, please, give me back the good ol' days.

I say bravo to the organisation this year: they did a lot of changes ( no prologue, no TTT, shorter stages, no bonus seconds, etc)

And next year it will be different again: with a 15km time trial/prologue to start with, no Alpe d'Huez, and probably going clockwise this time with the Pyrenees at the end of week 1. Vive le Tour.

Regards