Quick question about le TdF
#2
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It's the stage before stage 1. It's typically a short time trial.
Yes it counts. Whoever wins it wears the leaders jersey during the 1st stage.
Yes it counts. Whoever wins it wears the leaders jersey during the 1st stage.
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Don can answer this better, but I can't think of a current race where the prologue is something other than a short TT.
I seem to recall a couple tours with a short crit type race as a prologue.
Here's a good definition of a prologue: A short race or time trial that is held on the beginning day of a stage race, such as in the Tour de France.
And believe it or not, there are prologue specialists.
I seem to recall a couple tours with a short crit type race as a prologue.
Here's a good definition of a prologue: A short race or time trial that is held on the beginning day of a stage race, such as in the Tour de France.
And believe it or not, there are prologue specialists.
Last edited by Laggard; 06-03-04 at 11:19 AM.
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Originally Posted by Devil
Laggard - you said it's "typically a short time trial". Just curious, has it ever been anything else?
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This year during the giro or the tour of romandie or something, phil and paul were talking about a prologue being a <10km time trial. I think it was 10k because somewhere had an opening time trial of 13 km or something and they were saying how it was technically too long to be called a prologue. I think the top prologue man right now is Brad McGee, the Aussie on the fdjeux team.
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Originally Posted by Panoramic
So prologue specialists are generally good at sprints I assume, yes?
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Originally Posted by Devil
Some of them. But you won't see McGee outsprinting Petacchi any time soon!
He won a TDF stage in a bunch sprint... can't say he is that bad.
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Originally Posted by brent_dube
McGee is still a good sprinter.
He won a TDF stage in a bunch sprint... can't say he is that bad.
He won a TDF stage in a bunch sprint... can't say he is that bad.
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The idea behind doing a TT prologue is to give you a specific leader, as opposed to a mass-start where you could have a mass finish in which case the top people will all have the same time, you still have a winner of the stage to wear the jersey, but it doesn't look like much of a race when your top 10 riders are all 0:00 behind the leader, plus then you have a bunch of stages before some kind of decisive stage (mountain or TT) to seperate the pack.
It's more of a marketing thing for both the tour and the teams.
Andrew
It's more of a marketing thing for both the tour and the teams.
Andrew
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I think that the main thing is that it would make for a much too crazy race if it started with flat stages. 200 riders all with a chance to grab the leaders jersey through time bonuses probably would make things quite dangerous.