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| *Vultures Knob>>>Cycling |
Why dont people challenge the leader on the last day of the tour de france? |
Why dont people challenge the leader on the last day of the tour de france? Well actually Forget the "armchair experts". The pace is simply too quick to get away more than a few seconds. Then they have to beat the sprinters home for the time bonuses. The leader can be challenged on the last stage. Have a read of this transcript of interview with Cadel Evans. It pretty much answers this question. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/tran... ANDREW DENTON: Two questions that people, many people, viewers of the show have asked me to ask the first is that tradition, or is it the rule, that on the last day of the Tour you can鈥檛 challenge the leader of the race. Is that true? And if it鈥檚 true, why would you accept it? CADEL EVANS: No it鈥檚 not true. We had plans to what we were going to do for the final in the last hope that maybe it鈥檚 possible to take some time, 23 seconds is a big ask. The thing for the last day is it鈥檚 such an opportunity, it鈥檚 such a prestigious stage to win for the sprinters that three, four, five teams, whoever have the best sprinters in the race, everyone on that team is committed to their sprinter and making it a bunch sprint, so they ride pretty fast around that little lap on the Champs-Elys茅es near the end, trust me. ANDREW DENTON: So if you could have taken the leader, Contador, on that final day, you certainly would have. CADEL EVANS: Oh absolutely, absolutely. We had a plan, and I had one of my team mates that okay at one kilometre to go, take me there and I go under the flamme rouge, the red banner, that indicates one kilometre to go in the race, but I didn鈥檛 even see him.5 I don鈥檛 think he could even get to the front and so they were doing more than 70 kilometres an hour around there, you can鈥檛, it鈥檚 difficult to go away by yourself when there鈥檚 one or two teams riding all together at that speed. ______________________ WOW a down thumb Someone must really hate the truth. (Do they have a better link?) Do you mean challenging them to a steroid downing contest? it's just kind of tradition that the last stage is just a celebration of the yellow jersey winner. its a very flat stage anyway and would be quite hard for a breakaway to succeed in losing the peleton. It's something of a gentleman's agreement. Race etiquette, borne from a hundred years of cycling. The team of the presumed winner would chase down any serious attack by a challenger. The last stage is also the place where the green points jersey is often determined, and the last chance for the rest of the field to steal a stage. The yellow jersey has enough of the spot light, and the final stage is a way to share some glory on the final day. because they are too stuffed after covering all those kilometre"s or mile's Tradition. After 3 weeks, they figure the guy in the lead has earned it, so the podium finishers don't challenge one another, although some lower place finshers will sprint for time bonuses and try to move theselves up a few spots. Also the points, or green jersey is still up for grabs sometimes, so the sprinters will fight it out on the last day. In most cases the overall leader has a large enough lead. That not enough time can be gained to overcome the gap. Plus it is a very prestigous stage that all the sprinters want to win. So they will have the team work to pull any breakaways back into the peloton. And once on the Champs... The speed is so high maes it that much more difficult to bridge a survivable attack to gain needed time. |
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