DAN MARTIN
UAE EMIRATES
Much has been made of the shrinking of team sizes in races, in the name of safer racing and to bring more open tactics as teams will have more difficulty controlling things. Here I am, halfway through my first WorldTour race of the year, ParisNice, and the change is definitely noticeable. Those 22 fewer riders in the peloton feels like a big difference. Whether the race is safer I’m not so sure, but it makes it much easier to move around.
The biggest impact it’s had, however, is when you lose a rider. Unfortunately my team-mate Rui Costa crashed on stage 1 and could barely pedal come stage 2, which meant we were down to six riders. It made for a lot of room in the team bus and a sparsely populated dinner table. With Alexander Kristoff also suffering from an illness by stage 3, a 5.5 man team felt very small indeed.
It does raise the question of how tactics in the grand tours will be affected, especially with such a flat, potentially perilous, opening 10 days to the Tour. Some teams could quickly be down one, two or perhaps more riders. It is the same for every team though, and could lead to an even more open and aggressive race in the final week, as not only will there be fewer riders but a higher workload spread between the domestiques on each squad. Obviously nobody wants races to be decided by misfortune, and smaller teams will feel the impact of crashes or illness on their collective strength more.
The move was controversial as many riders were left without a contract, too, as some teams cut their numbers with fewer cumulative race days requiring fewer riders, while the same was the case with staff. But I believe the change has had a positive effect on racing, and though sometimes I like predictability, anything that leads to aggressive tactics and proper racing appeals to the cycling fan in me, as well as potentially suiting my style. In the end it will be the same riders fighting out for victory.