The race rules state they have to use a bike that meets mass start racing regulations. I guess that prevents tri bars and TT specific frames but not aero frames/wheels etc

amusing that Prudhomme slated Velon’s Hammer Series only to then rip it off. He did joke about how many UCI exemptions Hammer had to get, dunno if one of those was for their ‘chase’ to be done on TT bikes contrary to mass-start rules?

Although the nights I’ve had to watch the highlights it’s looked fairly benign

This for me. Watching the whole race live there’s loads of action, developments and nuance that get missed in the highlights (which I’m sure is the same for many sports).

How is this going to work?

I think the point of it is to find out. No one really knows, it’s experimental. It could be a great or it could be a mess.

IMO Even with the narrow leads it’s been the most tedious tour in 27 years of watching/following

Barguil, Uran and also Landa have been my favourite riders this year. The commissaires are probably at the bottom of my list 🙂

I don’t think it has been the best race in terms of choice of stages, although the last few have been a lot better.

I think this is what they are making the women do on La Course

With the whole two stages (less than 100km total) that the women are allowed to ride?

IMO Even with the narrow leads it’s been the most tedious tour in 27 years of watching/following

Difficult to know how you’d sort that out. You could either see the narrow time gaps as being a cause of tension, intrigue and suspense. Or you could say that it’s resulted in some really negative defensive riding. Typically you’d have a big TT in the middle of the race (like in this year’s Giro) to split the stronger TT guys from the climbers and set things up for the big mountains and get the climbers attacking. Problem is you’ve got Froome who’d smash a long TT and then defend comfortably against the pure climbers.

She’s also the Dutch TT champ, and won the TT in the Giro

In addition to that, who is going to want to smash it to catch up with Deignan, and then help one of the top sprinters to the line?

Typically you’d have a big TT in the middle of the race (like in this year’s Giro) to split the stronger TT guys from the climbers and set things up for the big mountains and get the climbers attacking. Problem is you’ve got Froome who’d smash a long TT and then defend comfortably against the pure climbers.

It was punch counter punch in the Giro, le tour has just had the life slowly strangled out of it, Sky are the Jose Mourinho of world cycling and you have to say the Giro got fun once sky were no longer in the gc race.