Gently...
The mix of constituent parts of Grand Tours (Mountain Top Finishes, Time Trials, Sprints) has varied over the centuries and sometimes/often been "designed" to favour a home rider. In his day Anquetil was the world's best TT rider and, surprise surprise, the TdF in his era used to include a lot of TTs. Anquetil won 5 Tours.
The TdF once used to devote the first week to sprinter's teams - so Mario Cipollini once won four sprint stages on consecutive days - but in recent years the balance has shifted strongly towards the overall winner being a climber and the TT element being minimalised. And the popularity of the "Team Time Trial" has waxed and waned.
If France suddenly developed the best TT rider in the world you can be sure that the mountains element in a Tour would become minimal and there would be Time Trials every other day!
With the TdF it is always important to remember Le Tour is not about sport - but money: and desperation to find another French winner.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
So once Brexit is done and dusted I presume the possibilities of another British rider winning plummet to zero, similar to the Eurovision song contest?
Don't roll with a pig in poo. You get covered in poo and the pig likes it.
Thank you Graham...
It does seem to the outsider that it will generally always swing in favour of a strong mountain cyclist, due to the time gaps that can be attained (in a similar way that gaps in fell races are usually far larger than flat races).
Not necessarily. Miguel Indurain was tall and heavy and so struggled to get over mountains and won hardly any stages but he won 5 consecutive Tours because he was almost unbeatable in Time Trials. Light mountain climbers are often rubbish at Time Trials (they just don't have the muscle) and cannot get back the time a strong Time Trial rider can gain.
There have been Tours with maybe five Time Trials and long ones at that and that is how Anquetil destroyed his opposition.
The Indurain years are regarded as the dullest era in Tour history since WW2. However they immediately preceded the EPO years when Riis and then Ullrich, Pantani and Armstrong started winning - by being good climbers.
In recent years to win the Tour you have to be more of an all-rounder and the balance has swung to favouring climbers but you still have to be able to Time Trial well - as we saw today, although "hill top" finish Time Trials are somewhat unusual.
I didn't really care who won the Tour - as long as it wasn't Ineos - and I hope 2020
has seen the end of the fear other teams have had for the Sky/Ineos machine.
Last edited by Graham Breeze; 19-09-2020 at 08:06 PM.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Indurain pre-EPO Graham? I thought he was more the start
Poacher turned game-keeper
I think Sky bought one very good rider - Froome - but just like US Postal in the Armstrong era he also had by far the richest/best team supporting him. Froome was never simply the "best rider" and if he had not been riding for Sky he might never have won a single Tour.
But that is the nature of the sport. When Hinault realised LeMond was a better rider his team, La Vie Claire, bought him to support Hinault so he could get his 5th win with the promise to support LeMond in future years.
Of course Hinault reneged on that promise but then Hinault was French.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Well there is the suggestion but he has never admitted it and he left the sport the year after his final TdF victory so he may have got out just in time whereas a lot of other Spanish riders were caught. And Spain had the laxest attitudes with regard to drugs etc for a long time.
This is a fun list:
https://cyclingtips.com/2018/04/comm...ved-and-hated/
Last edited by Graham Breeze; 19-09-2020 at 08:52 PM.
"...as dry as the Atacama desert".
Funnily enough, Indurain is the name that immediately spring to mind for me when thinking of TdF and brings back the most nostalgia and fondness... Going back to childhood and the Channel 4 highlights programme.
Same with F1 and Mansell/Patrese/Senna/Alesi/Berger.... And pretty much the entirety of 90's European football...