Tour takes T20 route to keep fans awake

TIRED of watching cycling races where nothing ever seems to happen?

The Tour de France thinks it has some solutions to liven up the action: shorter mountain stages, intermediate bonus sprints and a Formula Onelike grid start.

“Spectators are becoming more and more demanding and they want to see real excitement,” said Luca Guercilena, general manager of the Trek-Segafredo team. “Endurance is a big part of cycling but if we’re able to mix the strain of longer stages with shorter legs that allow space for more attacks, a good mix could be the winner.”

While mountain stages in the Tour are traditionally more than 150km or longer, this year’s Tour features two legs that are relative sprints by comparison.

Stage 11 last week was a 108.5km leg from Albertville to the La Rosiere ski resort. Stage 17 last night also promised to be unpredictable at just 65km over three gruelling climbs, including an uphill finish.

With Sky dominating the Tour in recent years and easily chasing down any attacks, the shorter stages should lessen the British team’s ability to maintain control.

One of the downsides of shorter mountain stages is that muscular sprinters have a tough time keeping up with the leaner climbers.

Sprinting standouts Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel each failed to make the time cut in Stage 11 and were eliminated from the Tour. But the Tour has tried to provide more opportunities for sprinters too, by adding intermediate time bonuses in the first nine stages of the 2018 race.

Another innovation, a grid start, was tested in Stage 17, the short mountain leg.

The top 20 riders in the standings started first, with the yellow jersey wearer in pole position, while lower-ranked riders were forced to begin in four more groups further behind.

Geraint Thomas entered last night’s stage with a 1 minute 39 second advantage over teammate Chris Froome, the four-time champion.