Originally Posted by
seypat
16th place made up 18 minutes today. If..........he were to do it on the next stage, he would take over the overall lead. I'm trying to figure out at what time gap the GC group lets a rider go. Unless they are protecting a higher rider, I would be trying to get all of my riders that are 15-25 minutes behind the yellow into the break. Team Sky would be forced to defend their position on 2 fronts.
GC positions 2-10+ are far more concerned about not letting a
#16 GC rider overtake them and will work to rein in a break with a real GC threat in it. Sky can sit back and let the other teams do all the work there. All the other teams could be overtaken while Froome still held a three minute lead. So it'll (practically) never happen. That break will never be allowed. And as stated above, the rest of the attempted break will oppose a GC rider joining, because it crushes the chance for the break to succeed.
Cycling is is a great daily exercise of game theory. Teams don't devote energy to efforts with no payoffs.