Tour de France - Stage 5 - July 12

Tour website ^ | 7/12/07 | Aeronaut

[Steve_Seattle]

Vino had a setback today - crashed and lost about a minute to the peloton. Kloden also crashed but didn't lose time, but may have a coccyx injury.

Which leads to my beef about the TDF: there are too many long flat stages where all the action takes place in the last two minutes, and where overall leaders run the risk of injury (as per Valverde last year). I say shorten the TTD to 10 days, with a prologue, 2 time trials, a team time trial, 3 flat stages, and 3 mountain stages.

Start the race on a Friday and finish on Sunday a week later. No rest days. The current format allows for too much time before the real contenders emerge; the first week is usually pretty ho-hum.

[lainie]

Rats!

Well, I’d have to chew on your ideas. Part of the TDF is knowing it’s really long ..and that much of it could be categorized as boring.. but therefore, gives more opportunity for strategizing. Like the other day, when the yellow jersey had to actually race for his position. That kind of thing almost never happens, right? Also, it really is a tour. The tour is touring France, and I’ve always liked that.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Way to go Vladimir Gusev, wearing the white jersey all race so far for Discovery Channel. Also nice to see Discovery in second in the team classification.

I'll be thinking of the tour as I take my 50+ mile ride through the mountains of Appalachia this Sunday!