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feature
10 ways to make the Tour de France even better — no weight limits, eliminations stages, tandems + more
The Tour de France is the biggest event in cycling, but does that actually make it the best? We're not going to even going to attempt to answer that, but here are 10 things that we think would make it even better!
We'll add a caveat that some of our suggestions should be taken with a fine pinch of salt and aren't entirely serious or realistic - but if anyone from the ASO is reading this and happens to think tandem racing would be a great addition for 2024, we won't be complaining. Of course, let us know which of our bright ideas you agree or disagree with and add your own in the comments...
1. Ditch that UCI weight limit
> 74% of road.cc readers say the UCI's 6.8kg weight limit should be lowered or scrapped
First and foremost in our fantasy Tour de France, we’re going ahead and ditching the UCI minimum bike weight rule. We completely get that when descending at 100kph plus it might be a bad idea to have a million holes drilled in your frame, but materials and technology have come on a long way since the year 2000 when the 6.8kg weight limit was first introduced.
Thee days, Tour de France bikes show less innovation in terms of weight saving, focussing more on aerodynamics. After all, some of the top-end disc brake aero bikes can happily meet the weight limit even with semi-deep wheels fitted.
We reckon that you could easily drop a kilogram off the weight of the average bike in the WorldTour peloton without making the bikes less safe than they were two decades ago, while giving us, the fans, some weight weenie bikes and tech to dribble over.
2. An elimination stage on the Roubaix Velodrome
Zac Williams/SWpix.com
The Roubaix stage raised plenty of eyebrows when it returned for stage 5 of last year's Tour. Because of the high risk of crashes, the GC riders in particular always seem displeased with its inclusion... but don’t worry! We’re not planning on using much of the famous cobbled route, just the last 400 meters or so…
> 10 tech trends to copy off the Tour de France pros
Why not combine one of the most exciting races to watch for spectators with the very best road cyclists in the world? Yep, we propose an elimination race.
It might have to be in waves of riders rather than all 190 at once, but the idea is that riders battle it out lap after lap until there’s just one competitor still pedalling. Stick some hefty time bonuses on the line and that should be more than enough incentive for the pros to get their elbows out and give us a real spectacle!
3. Uniform bikes and equipment
> Saddles of the peloton: which models do Tour de France riders use to stay comfortable?
Next up, we’re going to stick all the riders on the same equipment - maybe the Shimano neutral service bikes just for a laugh. To be honest we don’t expect it to make the racing any better, and the same riders would probably still come out on top, but it would be an interesting experiment.
It might just mess with the heads of the riders as well. What will they spend hours deliberating over if it isn’t the marginal gains of their equipment?
4. Time-handicapped starts
ASO/Pauline Ballet
In the current set-up of a Grand Tour, the first hour or so of each stage is often a procession until a satisfactory break is allowed up the road. So, how about we set the leader of the general classification off first, then it’s everyone else's job to chase them down?
We've seen something in a similar vein to this before, when stage 17 of the 2018 Tour de France, a 65km mountain epic in the Pyrenees won by Nairo Quintana, featured a 'grid-style' start. In reality this didn't make much of a difference, with Geraint Thomas starting marginally ahead (because he was in the yellow jersey) and other top GC riders starting just behind, and their teammates starting a little bit further back. They all merged fairly quickly before the fireworks started.
But... how about starting the riders at the actual real time deficits according to where they are in the general classification? It would probably mean Grand Tours would no longer feature pure sprinters like Mark Cavendish, but could completely change things in the GC and bring a whole new element of team tactics.
Do you wait for your team, then team time trial the remaining 100km or so? Or, do you go lone wolf to hold off the ever-increasing masses? Either way, we reckon it would stop the super-strong domestiques from sitting up, deliberately losing time and saving themselves for the mountains (we're looking at you Sepp Kuss) because this way everyone's GC position would be more important. If you start the day half an hour back from your leader, it would be very difficult to get back on to provide support.
5. Tandem time trials
Zac Williams/SWpix.com
Just imagine the average speeds! Time trial stages get a lot of abuse for their tedious nature, so we’ve come up with a plan to rectify that. How about tandem TTs?
Not only will riders be navigating the terrain with twice as many watts, but they’ll also be putting their cornering performance into the hands of the rider on the front.
> How to improve your power-to-weight ratio
Actually, why not have them swap over positions halfway around the stage? That way both riders will get to put their lives in someone else's hands, and we can laugh at blundered changes from the comfort of the sofa...
6. A Zwift stage
> Zwift Racing: Top tips for placing higher in virtual competitions
I got told I had to put this one in just because it’ll wind people up! In all seriousness though, like it or not, Zwift racing and other esports competitions are now a big part of modern cycling and show no signs of going anywhere.
So, would a Zwift stage of the Tour de France help to blur the lines between the metaverse and real life-iverse even more? After all, nearly all the pros seem to switch to indoor training for at least some of their riding during the winter anyway.
7. Allow drone camera shots
We’re not for a moment saying that the camerawork by the helicopters and motorbikes isn’t good at the Tour de France - we just think it could be better.
If you haven’t yet seen the drone shots coming from recent mountain bike races or the content on Red Bull, then we think you’re missing out. Drones are more than capable of keeping up on the climbs, and probably most descents as well. They could get excellent tracking shots to bring us closer to the action, without dragging riders along like the motorbikes sometimes get accused of doing.
The safety concerns are a bit difficult to understand. Pro drone pilots are nothing short of phenomenal, and while there’s as always the potential for issues, is it really any more risky than having a few hundred kilos of metal hurtling beside the peloton?
8. Get rid of the transfer day stages
Zac Williams/SWpix.com
Most of the staff at road.cc have been watching the Tour de France for years and years, and the same thing does seem to happen year in, year out. Certain riders are allowed to break away for around a hundred miles, are held at arm's length, and then are reeled in by the still-fresh peloton.
> 2023 Tour de France bikes — your definitive guide
We vote to scrap these predictable transfer stages and replace them with shorter ones, such as criteriums or stages that would take no longer than 90 minutes. This is an area that the Tour de France could seriously learn something from the women’s Tour de France Femmes. Arguably, racing in the Femmes in its current guise is more consistently electrifying and unpredictable.
9. An actual race on the Champs Elysees
Andrew Sides via Flickr
We get it, the Tour de France is steeped in history and tradition, and sometimes it’s hard to change that. However, there’s only 400m of the final stage worth watching, and that’s right at the end. How about we scrap the champagne sipping, team photos and yellow bikes until after the race has actually ended?
> The unwritten rules of the Tour de France
Sometimes the Tour can come down to just a few seconds' difference. Imagine the excitement if one year, the second-place rider got a break with his team and they did an all-out team time trial to the finish? Now that’s something we’d like to watch!
10. Town sign sprints
> How to make your bike faster
Our final idea is to introduce a firm favourite of the cafe ride, the town sign sprint. We know what you’re going to say - there are already intermediate sprints in the Tour de France. Well, yes, but the riders know where they are!
In a 'proper' town sign sprint, you shouldn’t really know it’s upon you until it’s well…upon you. Therefore, we suggest going around with random town signs that the riders can earn points at for finishing first. This will make riders much keener to be at the front rather than hiding away for the entire race, and could lead to some much more realistic sprints in wrong gears, with a gilet over one shoulder or riders being caught out while sipping their drink.
What would you do to make the Tour de France better? Let us know in the comments below (crazy and more realistic ideas are welcome)...
Jamie has been riding bikes since a tender age but really caught the bug for racing and reviewing whilst studying towards a master's in Mechanical engineering at Swansea University. Having graduated, he decided he really quite liked working with bikes and is now a full-time addition to the road.cc team. When not writing about tech news or working on the Youtube channel, you can still find him racing local crits trying to cling on to his cat 2 licence...and missing every break going...
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From the article above.
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23 comments
I used to be all in favour of ditching the weight limit, but I'm not so sure anymore. It's a disadvantage to taller riders and I think will lead to some of the really unhealthy weight loss that's been seen in the past.
Also, it'll be an excuse for more and more expensive equipment that's even further removed from what everyday cyclists are riding and gives an even greater advantage to teams with the biggest budgets or who can attract the best sponsors.
I think relaxing the rules around tube profile ratios has been good, but can go further, it'll likely create more of a distinction again between aero bikes and all rounder/climbing bikes.
I'm all in favour of drone footage and more on the bike footage being required, with every rider having a camera or 'dummy' camera if there's a limit to the number of feeds that can be accomodated.
Was it Paris - Nice that had the team TT where the time was from the first team member across the line rather than fifth? I thought that was good.
1: Dangeous
2: Isn't Tour de France a road race?
3: How do you think now? Collides with 1=Skipp weight limt.
4: Wow! So if leader is 5 min. ahead of a bunch of riders, you think this is fair?
5: What have you been smoking?
6: Isn't Tour de France a road race? But it would be nice to see what happens in a +160 mile Zwift stage though. I don't think any of the athletes should be to impressed.
7: No Comment. But who can guarantee that these drones doesn't end up in the bunch causing havok?
8: Don't Understand.
9: Have you seen the last stage?
--------------- 8< ---------------
How about we scrap the champagne sipping, team photos and yellow bikes until after the race has actually ended?
--------------- 8< ---------------
This occurs before they enter Paris. I think 40-55 Km is just enough. Or do you whant ~25 laps ~170 Km?
10: Wow! This can be as dangerous as it gets! How much time measure equipment should be used? Road signs every 10 Km? Why not add bonus seconds while you are at it.
For 2024, they should have combined the Tour with the Olympics having it end on the final day of the Olympics in Paris - riding as national teams and not pro teams of course.
So many issues. 2 major events clashing - traffic in Paris is insane at the best of times. This would be a nightmare.
Another issue is the rules are different in tbe olympics to UCI races. No team radios. Sponsors would be non too happy with mixed riders/ bikes . Limited exposure to their brands - in the biggest showcase stage! That would just draw more money away from the sport which it's not exactly flush with.
Have one 'no support' stage, with no race radio, no feed stations, no spare bikes, and no team cars or mechanical assistance. Riders have to carry with them all the food, drink and spares they'll need for the stage.
L'Audax de France
This would be cool.
I'd really love to see *reliability* become part of the equipment "arms race". That'd be a lot more relevant than shaving 100g off, or 1.27W more aero.
Completely agree - a less extreme way of acheiving this than my earlier suggestion would be to only allow new bikes, wheels etc. to be provided from the neutral service vehicles, rather than from team cars.
I applaud the intention but given the massive disadvantage inherent in taking a neutral service bike that would be pretty harsh on anyone who needed a new bike after a crash that wasn't their fault.
Only one?
Why not one each week or even more? I'd like to see fewer vehicles around the race and this is one way of achieving that.
I think the 6.8 kg weight limit is fine. Allowing bikes to weigh 4.5 / 5kg won't make the race any more interesting, it'll just mean more carbon stuff gets sold to gullible weenies.
As others have said, the absence of support means equipment has to be more reliable but I'm sure that can be done without the bikes weighing any more. But I'd allow roadside feeds - perhaps an obligatory foot down so no speeding through feed zones - and some degree of neutral support. I'd not want to see riders eliminated from the whole because of an unforeseen incident (tacks or a crash) or that they can't carry enough food for the whole stage.
Not sure how tandem TTs would work but it would surely be entertaining! More TTTs would be good, get teams to split into 2 teams of 4 riders and 3 of each team have to finish together. All must ride the same standard road bikes, tyres and clothing that they use for the whole race (with round handlebars and max 40mm rim depth, no radios and no silly helmets). One TTT to be short and sprinty, the other longer and lumpy, but not too hilly. And no powermeters or HRM, they have to ride using only RPE.
How about an Enduro MTB style stage where there are timed sections and untimed connecting sections in between?
https://road.cc/content/news/morton-aims-beat-tdf-peloton-paris-riding-s...
I don't understand who will benefit from lowering the weight limits other than bike manufacturers that will find a new excuse to poke the weaker's consumer instincts and try selling "new superlight frames", instead of focusing on developing quality cheaper commuter bikes to flood the roads with them on every country. It is mad that with all this bike diversity, there are minimal out of the box drop bar commuting bikes.
My opinion is that having recklessly driven cars next to pelotoon is too dangerous and passes an entirely wrong message regarding green transport. Drone coverage could be beneficial in eliminating motorcycles and you can make a drone with prop guards very safe compared to a 400kg motorcycle and two riders combo.
Indeed. It'd be nice to see the GTs test the endurance of equipment, as well as riders. Much more real world cycling relevance, and would help with sustainability.
It's not just the propellors. It's the physical drone itself. If it touches someone/something and crashes onto the road, there's a chance it will take out a following rider.
I still think it's less risky than motorbikes, considering some of the high profile incidents that have happened over the years, and there was one on one of the opening stages at the tour this year that could have easily been far worse.
Drones still have to conform to certain aviation rules, and the pilot must be within sight. There was a long article on Cycling Weekly that discussed the logistical issues of having drones, as there would be limited places that it would be logistically and financially feasable.
The UCI MTB World Series have fully utilized the use of drones, but they are on compact courses covering a very small area. The exception being XC Marathon due to those courses covering much more ground.
Due to their light weight and compact size drones are more susceptible to inclement weather than helicopters, and will also struggle at altitude.
As mentioned above, restrictions would require a huge fleet of drones for available footage, as the permitted operating range would allow you to get a few minutes of footage per drone. The laws are not going to change any time soon as drones can pose a risk to detectable air traffic; the heights at which drones can operate from can interfere with low flying helicopters and light aircraft. A moving pilot is not necessarily possible as control operations from a motorbike are believed to be more dangerous than camera operation, and do we really need more cars in the race convoy? There are too many as things are.
As climate change hits and summer temperatures in the south of France become unbearable, the TdF should introduce a couple of night-time stages with all riders obliged to have lights fitted to their bikes. I forsee stiff competition between light manufacturers to create the most lightweight, aero lighting systems.
I'd like to see a proper inner city centre style crit race. I know that would be a lot of riders so it should be only for the team leaders or the top 30 riders in the GC. The could race for bonus seconds. With many of the riders in the GC having a big TT advantage over others this might be a great leveller in tbe final week.
We all know most of the riders are no where near the UCI weight limit. The charade should be dropped and the limit raised to 7.8 kg so the industry has more leeway to innovate even heavier stuff.
Scrap race radios
Seconded. Then they might actually recrut cyclists again instead of VO2 max, W/kg machines...
I think they should allow 2 per team, one for your road captain and one for your GC leader/sprinter etc. Keeps the organisation of modern professional cycling, and avoids things like a GC leader being out of the tour on the first day for a puncture that nobody knew about, but means teams have to be organised and alert and react to situations more readily.