Originally Posted by fly:yes/land:no

well, i would image 40 guys or so were riding all out. 10 of them were trying to just make it under the time cut. that would mean there were 30ish true all out efforts in the top 50, and some guys that were just trying to crank in a time under the cut. in addition, there were stages before and after that race.

obviously, that number was thrown out to give people the impression that these guys could do well in a grand tour. they can't. at least, yet. my guess is that they would be out in the first stage just because they don't know how to ride. however, to those that understand the difficulty of churning out that time without ever having biked on a road bike before should respect their engines. i have no doubts that, given a year or two to get used to riding road bikes in packs/strategy, these guys could be monsters on climbing races.