WINNING MARGINS
Stage race wins are decided by tight margins these days. Although Chris Froome has been trouncing the opposition at the Tour in the last few years, his margins of victory have been unusually high compared to other WorldTour stage races – even the other two Grand Tours.
In 2016, out of the 13 stage races in the WorldTour, all but three of them were decided by less than a minute, from Vincenzo Nibali’s 52-second win at the Giro d’Italia, ahead of Esteban Chaves, down to Greg Van Avermaet’s one-second defeat of Peter Sagan at Tirreno.
The exception to the rule last year was the Tour of Poland, where Tim Wellens was about the only rider not adversely affected by a terrible rainstorm, and rode away to win by 4:22, the largest margin between first and second in any WT stage race last year.