Le Tour is so damn boring…
Saturday, July 21st, 2007In general, I think this is a better year than the last dozen. It’s wide open, some of the hopefuls are taking genuine chances; a conspiracy of accidents, weather and rider aggressiveness has managed to upset the apple cart of usual snorepie w/yawn sauce that is the tour.
But still, I’m falling asleep before the finale on most stages. Then I read something that points up just how formulaic and scripted the race has become. Certain stages are for the climbers, but not contested until the final climb. Certain stages are for the sprinters, and they’re expected to be a slumber party until the ubiquitous long break is caught in the finale.
This is from cyclingnews.com the other day (emphasis mine):
What should have been a transitional stage, one for the break to succeed or the sprinters to come to the fore, turned into a fierce battle for the riders in the green and yellow jersey classifications thanks to the Astana team tactics on the day…moving up one step didn’t seem worthy of that sort of an effort. It took a while for Moreau to move back up, and at first, it didn’t seem like his team was too concerned, but they ended up having to burn plenty of matches on what should have been a peaceful stage.
I thought this was written about a bike race. Why did Astana have to depart from the script we all depend on to interpret the event? To be candid, I don’t care why Team Astana dialed it up in the crosswinds of the Camargue, whether it was grudge or whatever. But the tour needs a good deal more of this gambling in the saddle. And maybe shorter stages? Whattayathink?
