Make it more challenging?<br /><br />Only the top couple of hundred full time professional cyclists in the world even attempt this race and still tons of them drop out. This race is part of the reason for the drug culture that pervades the sport, the human body was never made for this sort of punishment and people have to resort to drugs to do this. If you think about the hardest races in the world of sport the TDF is right up there, I would thing that only the long solo yacht races and the more extreme eco challenges are tougher, and these are more specifically extreme endurance events than direct racing events (most of the competitors in these don't see their fellow competitors at any place other than the start and the finish)<br /><br />I wouldn't say it needs to be more challenging, rather I think it needs to be more competitive. Something other than hills needs to be developed to break up the bunches, either that or the size of the teams allowed should be made smaller, force it into a more individual race.<br /><br />Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, I just sit here from the position of a cyclist who is dreading their first double century, and these guys do fast double and triple centuries day after day for 3 weeks.