Originally Posted by
marley mission
i really got into the tour this year and enjoyed it very much - i still dont understand why they dont 'race' the last stage - i also dont like that the final 'race' stage is the time trial - but being a newb to the sport - who am i to say - just some newb observations
The last stage is too flat for any significant time to be gained by the GC contenders on one another. Now the organizers could change that up, but then you'd lose the Paris sprint finish there on the CE. For some additional knowledge, look up the LeMond/Fignon finish results, I believe the last year they didn't use the current format.
They've had individual time trial stages placed earlier in the race as well, but (to me anyway) it settles the race too early. The GC contenders would get sorted too early, and the leader's team made the race ho-hum. Maybe it was just LA and his teams that made it that way. Probably were more interesting pre-LA, but we didn't really get good coverage here in the US before him.
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Last edited by Ex Pres; 07-25-11 at 11:06 AM.