Road Bike Racing - 2004 TTT Twist

Read the last paragraph here:

Can this be right??? (http://www.newsday.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-cyc-tour-de-france-changes,0,1584699.story?coll=sns-ap-sports-headlines)

Also, the July 7 team time trial will be weighted so that no team can gain more than 2 minutes, 30 seconds, so as not to "give good riders in weaker teams too much disadvantage," Leblanc said.

Read the last paragraph here:

Can this be right??? (http://www.newsday.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-cyc-tour-de-france-changes,0,1584699.story?coll=sns-ap-sports-headlines)

Also, the July 7 team time trial will be weighted so that no team can gain more than 2 minutes, 30 seconds, so as not to "give good riders in weaker teams too much disadvantage," Leblanc said.

Yes it's correct. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand it is not fair that good riders in weak teams are punished due to something completely out of their control. On the other hand it could be argued that this is a team sport so too bad.

I'm much more in favor of the changes to the king of the mountain competition.

If a team is that weak that they will lose more than 2m30s in a TTT thats really a shame. For LeBlanc and the rest of the jokers at the ASO to play around with team and/or individual times is ridiculous. The way that I see things is you get what you get. The worst team in the 2003 TTT lost almost 5 minutes. In the top 10 the loss was less than 2 minutes. To me this is just another attempt by LeBlanc to boost French teams who are generally pretty bad at the TTT.
I guess this guys motto is something like "if we cannot beat them within the rules it must be time to change them".

Sure, this will justify his wanting a "french" rider to
win the yellow.
I'm surprized he hasn't come out and discuss weightings
for points/time and breakaways. Just think Dudu, or Didi, or juju can be way the hell back and still win the tour.
Brilliant! hey Samuel Dumoulin or Sebastien Hinault may even have a shot at it.
what a bunch of baulderdash.

Marty

A good example of this last year was Euskatel/Euskadi. They had two riders up there in the GC, despite riding a horrible TTT. In theory, I can see his point. In reality, a team like Postal has gone to great lengths to select enough good all around riders that they can compete regardless of the challenge.

I agree with you guys though....you need good climbers to get your leader through the mountains...if a team does not have enough good climbers, then should they limit their losses there, as well?

It's a race LeBlanc...somebody's got to lose. He's sounding like a soccer mom...let's give everyone a trophy.

I too have mixed feelings about the new TTT rule. However, I think I'm warming up to the idea, and Le Blanc's original intentions may back fire on him anyway. TTT is a beautiful spectacle, but all the high tech components of the race including a huge support staff and race radios do take away from the pure experience. Although modern day bike racing is very much a team sport, I'd like to see more talented riders on poorly financed teams get a chance all they way to the end.

Cheers

If the TTT is that much of an un-leveler for strong riders in weak teams, why not just get rid of it? Surely the point of the TTT is to show that cycling is a team sport, but if you take much of the competition out of the only real team-based part of cycling, what's the point?

If the TTT is that much of an un-leveler for strong riders in weak teams, why not just get rid of it? Surely the point of the TTT is to show that cycling is a team sport, but if you take much of the competition out of the only real team-based part of cycling, what's the point?

Right!! What is the point?!? The team is used on EVERY stage - not just the TTT, so why don't they just make all the stages this way? Perhaps the organizers should change the rule to read "no rider can lose more than 1 minute to Lance Armstrong on any one stage". Perhaps they can make that "rule change" next year?

It's also a bit too obvious that this "rule change" has happened the year after Postal finally won the TTT, and is the favorite to win again in 2004. Do you think that this rule would have been changed otherwise? No way! The cynic in me also thinks that this rule change was discussed and the decision was made before Lance's main rival, Jan Ulrich, decided to move back to a very strong team Telecom (now T-Mobile).

Hmmmmmm.

2'30" is a lot, it still has potential to make to make a huge difference in the GC...a good rider on a bad team will not be able to make that much up against other top riders...

2'30" is a lot, it still has potential to make to make a huge difference in the GC...a good rider on a bad team will not be able to make that much up against other top riders...

It depends. With a route like this, you could say 2'30" is a lot. If this was... say... the 2002 tour route, I would say that 2'30" doesn't mean much, as one day in the mountains could change things to a greater extent.