Three sprints within the eighth stage. The fourth (perhaps, because the route isn't particularly fast) in the nineteenth, the fifth in Madrid on the final day. The sprinters at the Return they might feel like unwanted guests. After reading the words of Thierry Gouvenou, route director of the Tour de France, one wonders whether the ones who design the races are people who are involved in cycling or rather video game authors.
“I think the sprinters’ teams,” the Frenchman said in July, speaking about the monotonous stages with their final sprints, “aren’t doing themselves any favors. In the future we will not be able to have this kind of show anymore, there will be no more quick stages in the futureLast year we had eight or nine, some very monotonous. This year we had about five or six. And that will be the usual pattern in the future."
The Pogacar exception
The cycling that people like is the one with uphill battles. Pogacar and his challengers were able to put together magnificent duelsHowever, as Moreno Moser often repeats during Eurosport reports: Tadej's cycling is not normal. Let's enjoy it, but we are aware of the fact that it is un'exception. The Vuelta itself is in fact highlighting that, apart from the arrival of Limone Piemonte e yesterday'sEven mountain stages where the leaders aren't battling it out can be soporific. Nor do they have the adrenaline rush of a sprint.
We are working so hard to push the riders to the highest performances that we may soon realize that we have exaggeratedHigh altitude in February, high altitude in April, high altitude in July, and then high altitude again in August. But first, the retreats in December and January. Six retreats a year, four at high altitude, some even five: a considerable loadYou don't have to be a physiologist to understand that at a certain point even the hill stops bearing fruit and that, on the other hand, from a psychological point of view, the consequences risk being serious. Do we want to bet that in many unexpected crises there is a refusal to work?
The richness of the menu
Race planners should include every possible specialty in their menu. How should they do it? newspapers that habitually report the exploits of a single champion or of a single sport. And then, when that disappears, they find they have nothing else to say. To those who reply that the public only wants to read about certain topics, we reply that the public must be accustomed to variety.
Like at the restaurant. Even if the main course is the one that makes you sell the most, it is wrong not to include anything else in the menuBecause the main course might turn out badly. Because the ingredients might suddenly be missing. Because the public's tastes might change.
So with climbers and sprinters. It makes sense and it is sustainable in terms of safety and health Expect a supernatural show every day? If riders prefer a less explosive approach to sprinting, the remedy is not to bring the sprinters or consider that on certain days it is useful for them to take a breather?
Myopia and its consequences
We discussed on Saturday the dynamics of the sprint between Viviani and Philipsen. In those last two kilometers there would be a whole world to tellInstead, those organizing the race complain about the lack of attacks in the preceding kilometers and trivialize the sprint, almost as if those seconds of power, adrenaline, technique, and tactics have nothing to say.
The Pogacar effect will fade in a few years. It is to be hoped that in the meantime the various attempts to replicate it do not produce irreparable damage..Forcing young guys to raise the bar without ever reaching the necessary level, but exhausting themselves in the process. Trying to intercept precocious talents who suddenly find themselves having to deal with inadequacy and depressionCycling is a world of a thousand nuances. A narrow definition is shortsighted and doesn't lead us far. It's fine for the public to demand it, but it's not good for those tasked with managing it to be complicit.
