Since the 2016 Tour de France ended, I have seen numerous comments proclaiming that this year’s race for the Maillot Jaune was boring.
When a rider wins a race by over four minutes, it is an easy assumption to make that the man at the top had it easy.
However, this was far from a boring Tour.
You may be now asking yourself the question, well surely 2015 was a closer general classification fight, with Colombian Nairo Quintana finishing only one minute and 12 seconds off the dominant Chris Froome.
Fair point, the time gap is smaller. However, it is the way that both races evolved over the three weeks that is the key area of concern, not the end result in Paris.
First rest day GC congestion
At the end of Stage 9, the first rest day of the Tour, and at the completion of the Pyrenees, Chris Froome had a slender lead of only 16 seconds to fellow Brit Adam Yates, with key rival from 2015 Quintana only 23 seconds adrift.
This included Froome surprising his counterparts by descending away on the fairly uncomplicated descent off the Peyresourde to win Stage 8. If it was not for this move, we would have seen Yates in the leader’s jersey come the end of the Pyrenees.
In 2015, the first rest day occurred before the Pyrenees had even been climbed, however Froome still had a lead of over a minute to Alberto Contador, and nearly two on Quintana, mainly due to the cobbles of Stage 4. Froome went on to win the first Pyrenean battle, on Stage 10, taking a minute on Quintana to leave him over three minutes behind after the first mountain day.
The race was effectively over after the first key mountain stage of the Tour.
A year earlier, in 2014, both Contador and Froome had crashed out before the race’s first rest day, which allowed Vincenzo Nibali a two-and-a-half minute advantage over Richie Porte.
Only 2010 can rival this year’s Tour in being tight near the top after the first rest day, as Cadel Evans had a 20-second lead over Andy Schleck, with all the other contenders a further minute back.
In 2016, the final top ten finishers were all inside two minutes and 30 seconds by the first rest day. If you take out Richie Porte, who suffered from a late race puncture on Stage 2, that figure would drop to one minute and 16 seconds, with eventual tenth-place finisher Roman Kreuziger.
This year the top ten were covered by just over seven minutes from winner Froome. In 2015, 2013 and 2012, the gap to the tenth rider on GC in Paris was over 17 minutes, while in 2014 it was over 20 minutes.
2011 comes closest in the most recent history to having such a close top ten, with tenth place rider Pierre Roland just over ten minutes back.
Part 2 will examine how Team Sky’s tactics affected our perception of the race.
Andy
Guest
This tour was a good one. Froome won because he is the best but also because no one took any risks when they got behind. Froome could be one of the best riders ever and sky are just so organized and disciplined, just enjoy.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Scott, thanks for all your work with it. I got frustrated too by none of the GC contenders neither having the bottle nor the legs to have a decent crack at Froome, but found the trick was to invest my interest into stage by stage rather than the GC. This worked a treat, there were more than enough great efforts out the front each day to keep things interesting. In fact I often got frustrated with crosses back to the GC group where mostly not much was happening.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Whilst I'm not a cycling fan, I usually watch, but the last 3 or so, not so much. Froome gets in front, Froome wins. Dull.
Big Steve
Guest
Boring might not be the right word, instead of predictable. Froome really did make the race interesting with his decent and the break away with Sagan. The problem is he is so much stronger than the next rider the outcome is predicable. He wasn't even challenged in the race. If you ignore him and just watched the race with Porte, Bardet, NQ, yates, Molema, etc it was pretty interesting. The rain definitely added to the excitement. If Porte doesn't puncture and lose time early, it might have changed the race for spots 2 and 3 a little. He seemed to be pretty strong. But in the end team sky are so strong Froome never gets exposed.
tyrone
Guest
"This included Froome surprising his counterparts by descending away on the fairly uncomplicated descent off the Peyresourde to win Stage 8. If it was not for this move, we would have seen Yates in the leader’s jersey come the end of the Pyrenees." Don't forget if the motor bike had not crashed with Froome then he would have won by a lot more. I did not find it a boring race, all cycling is good. I think the problem is that if Froome does not have a tour ending crash then he will win. The course is set up for his style of riding. It is a race for second and this is never as exciting.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Honestly, the last week was a little tedious. It was almost a case of, 'someone might attack 2km out from the finish and gain 20 seconds - great if it's a close race, but it wasn't. Risks had to be taken. In saying that, I wouldn't call the whole Tour boring - Froome rode on impulse on the downhill, dominated the time trials and deserved to win the race. I enjoyed the Giro a lot more this year, and am looking forward to the Vuelta - put it that way.
Simoc
Guest
I haven't seen comments about the race being boring. It was the best Tour de France I have watched. So much better than year after year when the time trial decided the race (with Indurain), and other tours where the result came down to a single stage which was defended.And as we noticed with many catrastophy is always close at hand. I'm presuming this boring brigade don't like Froome, the boring tall poppy syndrome losers.