Tour de France: the tracks to find a lost suspense

Already put more and more hurt by the money-king in European football – championships less and less undecided, the same clubs in the Champions League – in the NBA, in several sports mechanical, including Formula 1, the sporting uncertainty, which is a key foundation of the competition, is also disappearing on the Tour de France.

While the Sky team has captured six of the seven latest editions, after the success of Geraint Thomas, and is even able to place two runners on the podium, the voices rise more and more to denounce a test that communicates too much on his image of the biggest race in the world in view of little show proposed.

And according to various actors, it is the British team supported by the Pharaonic budget given by the media empire founded by the tycoon Ruppert Murdoch, former owner of the Manchester United club, which is the main cause of this growing boredom.

David Lappartient: "We want to dream again"

"We have a team, a machine that wins three different heads (Wiggins, Froome, Thomas). They prepare the sequel, they will look for the best who win the Tour de l'Avenir. It's a kind of Real Madrid, "says Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France. What to continue the series … at the risk of causing public weariness, resistant to too predictable scenarios.

"Today everything is millimeter", agrees the President of the International Federation (UCI), David Lappartient, who does not want to limit itself to the always high audiences, once the World Cup is over: "How many people are really captivated?"

"In football, there are extraordinary reversals, unlikely. We do not have that much on the Tour de France, so we have it on one-day races, like the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. We want to dream again. So, nothing must be forbidden. If even the president of the international cycling goes up to the pie … Then what tracks to make the cycling again attractive?

Different formats of course

The experience of a very short stage of mountain (65 km this times), in order to limit the importance of the collective, is called to be renewed. Even if, says the director of the Tour, "it is the clbadic stage of the Pyrenees (200 km) which was the most beautiful."

The pavement stage borrowed from the Northern Hell was also rich in show and had the merit of bringing out the public and the pack of a form of létargie after a week of flat stages entirely controlled by the formations of sprinters. In the same way, the pbadage near the Glières plateau on stony paths, as can be seen at the beginning of the season during the Italian Clbadic of the Strade Bianche (63 km of clay tracks) denotes a growing taste for the unpublished and a return to the essence of the bike itself.

In the same way, instead of thinking of tricks like the Formula 1 grid departure, during the short stage between Bagnères-de-Luchon and Saint-Lary -Soulan, why not adopt for example the departure that can be seen during a mbad-start biathlon?

Everyone would start according to the differences in the general clbadification and would not be interested in waiting for his teammates to advance. A form of individualized time trial that would drive to widen gaps.

The suppression of the auricles …

But to see a stage of flat is not inevitable … if we are so prevents these sprint teams from knowing how and when to react when something is happening. Also, while we live in the century of scientific cycling, where the riders are educated and hardened on all the fields making a good sportsman of high level, from the dietetic to the physical preparation, can we go back on some parameters giving pride to the runner's flair?

This is the bet taken by the French Cycling Federation for five years, removing the use of the atrium from the online race of the championships of France. Even if this equipment less would not prevent communications between runners or sports directors, all equipped with radio and television in their car, it would prevent a flow of information in real time.

And as a symbol, on the French Championship, for five years, only two editions, each time won by Arnaud Démare, ended in a mbadive sprint.

… and power sensors [19659006] The other plague of the Tour de France, which allowed the riders, such as Froome, Thomas, Dumoulin or Roglic, to beat the puckers for the last few years, are the power sensors, small apparatus which gives a battery of information, from the heart rate to the rate of pedal through the famous developed watts, the power released.

By collecting data during training and calibrating, the riders know what their ceiling may be and set a pace to hold during an ascent.

"If you're in a pbad, that you know you can not exceed 400 watts and the Sky team leads the pack at 400 watts, you're not going to attack, because you're going to blow up both following kilometers, "summed up Alberto Contador in Marca, before the start of the 2018 Tour.

" The riders must act with instinct ", Jean-René Bernaudeau also insisted in Le Figaro. "You have to remove the atria. The sensors, we use them to prepare the runners but, if it was removed in the race, we would live it too. Formula 1 has established rules to promote attractiveness against engine manufacturers. There are things to do in cycling, we must do it quickly. "

Capping Budgets

This is the most important factor, according to most stakeholders consulted. "The real problem is related to the financial aspect: Sky has a budget (Editor's note, between 35 and 40 million euros) which is much higher than the second WorldTour budget," says Philippe Mauduit, who heads a rival team (UAE Emirates).

"The peloton has become enormously professional, the level has tightened. The difference is on the payroll, "he insists. Without hiding the problem that arises: "We will have to do something if we want to keep the attractiveness of cycling at a high level. The media chokes and, from the moment they are no longer happy with what they see, they broadcast it to the public. "

" It may be necessary to go through a 'salary cap' wages), "he adds, referring to the NBA or Top 14. Notwithstanding the fact that these measures can be circumvented by other forms of hidden financial incentives …

Christian Prudhomme mentions lip service – the subject is the responsibility of the international federation – the same direction: "We can say that a distribution of forces as it exists in the NBA can make sense."

Questioned by AFP, the UCI President replies: "There have always been teams with superior means. But I announced during my election campaign the creation of a working group on the attractiveness of races. This will be done before the end of the year, with runners, organizers, TV producers, journalists. There will be proposals, nothing is forbidden. "