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Location: Lancaster County, PA
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There's more pressure on more riders to ride at the front all the time. Especially with courses designed to introduce possible time gaps even on non-mountain stages. 20 years ago, lead out trains weren't nearly as fast and didn't start from so far out, and even a relatively few years ago, only one or two teams tried to control the run-ins. It's not only true of the last 5 or 10 K - there's no US Postal to dictate the racing earlier in the stages. Then there's the obvious increase in traffic obstacles - roundabouts, etc. I'm not saying any of these - or even any combination - are the real reason(s), but they're all plausible, IMO.