One of the things I like that Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has done is the elimination of the stupid and worthless ultra short Prologue TT that was used to set the GC.
By opening with a medium long road race through rolling hills on a potentially windy course team play comes out strong at the beginning. It sort of throws the Yellow Jersey up for grabs and means that it can change hands a few times before the road tilts up.
Then with a 54K TT before the final day it puts the pressure to perform on the shoulders of the leader. I think it makes for asphalt drama.
...and speaking of drama, let's not forget those cobbles
