Is the Tour de France too long?

All Change!

Are 200km+ stages as much a part of the Tour as these scenes?

Change in cycling is always difficult to implement. The idea that the Tour de France could use the cobbled sections, that make Paris-Roubaix such a stunning race, has been grudgingly accepted, although the days leading up to stage 4 will be filled with riders stating that cobbles have no place in the Tour de France. Of course they do, the Tour de France has become a race where the winner is the best rider over the mountains and time trials but it's only convention that makes that the case. Why are cobbles derided for being too dangerous, whereas mountains, and their accompanying dangerous descents, fully encouraged and supported?
Of course, I know the answer. The descents are an unfortunate part of the climbs, and the Tour de France is sold on its climbs. The beauty of the climbs and the coverage of exhausted riders hauling themselves through a cauldron of rabid fans is the defining image of any tour. There are two major mountain ranges in France but just one small area where you can find cobbled roads so it makes sense to only include them periodically.
The one change that the Tour de France does seem to be embracing is the change to shorten the race. But is the shortening of stages making the race less epic?

Hashtag Epic
Tomorrow (15/5/2015) in the Giro d'Italia there will be a 263km rolling stage - what exactly is the point of that? Is a 263km stage more exciting for a the spectator? Well no, we only ever see the last 100km normally so whether there has been 30km or 163km previously is largely irrelevant. Is it better for the cyclists? Of course not, you're already asking them to ride 3 weeks around the hills of Italy why throw in a stage which is the length of the Tour of Flanders in the first week?

The average stage length and stages over 200km have
been reducing over the last 10 years

The fact is this, cycling is hard, it's really really hard and that is one of the reasons why it is so popular. I certainly don't think that any of the grand tours should be reduced from 3 weeks, as is being suggested by the UCI, but I do think that race designers have to consider the needs of riders before they consider the requirements of TV broadcasters. The consensus around the cycling fraternity is that part of the reason why the Ardennes classics have been less than classic is because they are so long and so difficult that people aren't willing to chance an attack earlier than the final climb because they know they only have one major effort to give. Now, I think that to suggest that the classics are shortened would be sacrilege, but why not shorten the average stage length of a grand tour? Why do riders still have to hop on their bike for a 200km+ flogging which is of no benefit to anyone? As you can see from the above graph the average stage length has generally been decreasing over the last 10 years as has the number of stages over 200km. Is that going hand in hand with better racing? Well, it's difficult to say. Anecdotally, the best stage in the last 10 years is arguably the stage to Alpe d'Huez in 2011 which was 109.5km, arguably that was also the best Tour de France in the last 10 years.

What exactly is the point of this stage?

As with most things in cycling, it was the Giro who were the earliest adopters of change. Their 83km stage to Blockhaus in 2009 was one of the first of this kind of "punchy" stage in a grand tour. Even still, these stages aren't in every tour and we still have the trudges that I've mentioned above.

Challenge
It's very easy to criticise race directors for creating races which are too difficult, and arguably fuelling doping. But how easy is it to create a race which is hard enough to warrant grand tour status but averages less than 160km per stage, has no stages over 200km and has no excessive transfers? Over the next 2 weeks I will propose a Tour de France which fits all the above criteria. To keep it close enough to reality I will be planning the 2018 Tour, which as far as I'm aware hasn't begun to be planned yet. Once it's finished I'll let you decide whether it's achieved all of the above conditions.