sspielman
05-11-2005, 01:07 PM
I have been outspoken in my criticism of the Pro Tour. In summary, I don't think that it is good for the future of bike racing. However, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. From the racing so far in this year's Giro, it is a revived race! I think that with the current points structure, it is impossible to downplay ANY grand tour. Here is my reasoning: There are 20 pro-tour teams. All of them are REQUIRED to do all the grand tours. In the past, a team may consider its race to be successful with a stage victory and a top 10 finish on GC. With the Pro Tour, that is only an AVERAGE tour. So, for a smaller team like Euskaltel or Bouygues Telecom there are some tough decisions to make. Both have had spring campaigns relatively free from results. Euskaltel obviously got a wakeup call and beefed up their Giro lineup with Zubeldia and Gonzales....Bouygues Telecom sent a largely inexperienced young team. I would love to hear the rationale behind these strategies. The end results seems to be that there will be alot of scrambling among the bottom 5-7 teams to avoid being dropped as a pro tour team. I think that this is what we are seeing at the Giro. The pressure to post a good performance is greater than ever.