Ned Boulting
relays an idea
There is not enough imagination being deployed in cycling. I have, previously, expounded on the astonishing potential of the darts/cycling biathlon, in which small arrows must be thrown at tiny targets before the race can proceed, but I was being flippant. I do not really expect the peloton of the Tour de France to come to a standstill every time it completes another circuit of the Champs-Élysées so that the riders can puff on fag, take a swig of lager and then aim for double tops (though I believe that this would enhance the spectacle of the final stage of the Tour).
Nonetheless, I do think that there’s scope for introducing a new discipline into stage racing. And to that end, I hereby open my campaign for the introduction of the relay race. Now, such things do actually exist, and have been road tested, it should be noted. I well remember the Paralympic road race of 2012 at Brands Hatch Circuit, in which four riders from each nation were picked, from four different classifications. The fact that some riders were de facto slower than others, due to the nature of the equipment they were using and the degree of their classification, made for a fascinating race; because the order in which they went off was entirely at the discretion of each team. That produced a hugely entertaining race, whose lead fluctuated round by round, as huge leads were overhauled and massive advantages squandered.
We also saw an attempt to introduce this kind of drama into the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Harrogate with the inaugural mixed relay. It was a good idea, in principle. The men’s team would complete a lap before handing over to the women’s teams. However, someone invited the Dutch to compete, which killed the competition stone dead.
How about a relay stage at the Tour? Each rider from each team hands over to the next (the order in which they start is flexible), contributing to the aggregate time credited to each rider on GC (General Classification) at the end of the day. This takes some of the best elements of the individual time trial and the team time trial and combines them in a race of greater drama.
In the team time trial, not every rider has to complete the effort to the end. Most teams will opt to ‘sacrifice’ two or three riders with their early efforts. Not so with the relay. In the individual time trial, the ‘race of truth’, only about 20 per cent of the peloton are actually racing hard; the rest, quite understandably, are just conserving energy and getting round safely within the time delay, but without wasting energy, since they have nothing to gain either in terms of the GC, nor any hope of placing in the top 10 on the stage.
The relay incentivises each rider of every single team. Not only that, but, as I descried from my experience of watching the Paralympic race, it would have the huge added advantage of being wildly dynamic, with the lead of the race changing hands repeatedly as weaker and stronger riders are released.
I suggest that the first riders start from a grid and therefore set off as a group. But with the introduction of a few little ramps on the circuit, it might not take long before the group falls apart, and ‘weaker’ riders drop away. Add to that the prospect of drafting on the wheel of a stronger rider, forcing the move to stall, and you get a complex fusion of both the time trial and the regular road-race disciplines. It’d be like a permanently forming and re-forming day in the crosswinds as different groups are released. Actually, the more I think about it, the more it sounds like a commentator’s nightmare. It’s hard enough in a regular TT to figure out the live GC fluctuations. This would need a computer with the power of ‘deep thought’ to work out what on Earth was happening. It would be chaos, but highly entertaining chaos.
What I haven’t decided in the document I am drawing up for ASO’s perusal is how to effect the handover. A simple baton? This is the Tour de France, and it deserves something better. A small packet of Haribo? That’s it. The concept has been perfected.
“I do not expect the peloton to come to a standstill so that the riders can puff on fag and take a swig of lager...”