Why are there so few Mountain Top finishes on this years tour?

Pisco Sour

Correct me if I'm wrong but there seems to be 5 big mountain stages on this years tour (a stage containing at the minimum a first category climb). Of these 5 only 2 of these stages are mountain top finishes.

I've watched the tour since 1997 and this seems to be the lowest number of mountain top finishes I can remember.

Why are there so few this year?

Why do the tour prefer descent finishes? Personally I think a descent finish is useless. More often than not any gain made on the final climb is nullified on the final descent and so very little time is gained or lost between the leaders. You also very rarely see any attacks on the descents.

I fully expect all the leaders to finish together tomorrow after a long 60k descent which would be very dissappointing. A monster HC Climb at the finish tomorrow could have been a nice tour decider.

Hermy

I wouldn't mind the descent finishes so much if the finish line was actually at the bottom of the descent.

NickDrake

tomo is ruined by a massive downwhill and a load of flat

TinyExplosions

It's possibly to do with the logistics of finishing a stage at the top of a mountain -there needs to be space and facilities for all the broadcasters and all that kind of thing... also it could be to try even it up from being a race for pure climbers -the descents allow people who are good at it (like Sanchez etc) to put time on people, thereby keeping it closer?

Otherwise, why not just have multiple mountain TT's to decide it. It's all about balance (though they may have got it a little wrong this year)

ednwireland

theres the matter of this on thurs



which sort of means you dont want two finises on the tourmalet, going up it twice in celebration of 100 years

anyway they only had 3 as well last year 4 in 08


and loading it with mountain top finishes stretches out the overall and means bigger time gaps and they dont want the race over by the end of the second week

IM0

Also if you look at how the stages play out it fits the idea of having the tour simmer on which I think was prudhomme's idea in the first place. Its only one less mtn top finish to be fair v's other years also, and look how good the sideshow turned out when schleck and bert took time o the climb and descended to keep it :eek: - Refreshing racing :cool:

DirkVoodoo

I think they also want the spectacle of more break away victories, maybe making the tour more competitive for the unsung domestiques and non-GC guys.

Lumen

The tour is a team event. Sticking a descent after a big climb means the team need to get support all the way up and over with their GC man, or stick people ahead in the break to jump on as he goes through.

Look at yesterday - we got to see Schleck descending better than he ever has (apparently) in order to limit the losses. It would have been less interesting if it had all finished at the top.

Dodge

I still think there are more than last year (from memory, not looking it up). Seem to remember last year as very flat

velopeloton

A mountain top finish is much more difficult for the race organisation logistics and for the police to ensure public safety, over 1 million people will be on the Tourmalet this week. The city of Pau has fantastic infrastructure which is why it is a favourite with the Tour. It is up to the riders to race and make it interesting, there is no reasons as to why the gc riders could not attack on the Soulor and take time on their rivals today. Mountain top finishes are still relatively new to the tour only becoming common in the late 70's & early 80's, for the first 80 years they were not a factor.

ROK ON

Too many mountain top finishes can get pretty boring. The excitement dies about 2/3rds of the way into the stage when so many are dropped that it becomes a foregone conclusion.
The tour needs unpredictability and I think the organisers have got this one right.