[email hidden] (Isidor Gunsberg) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:...
Armstrong does have a point--the TdF organizers ought not give an
incentive for a team of riders to coast.
The problem is that there may actually a disincentive for even the
fast teams to ride hard because they are limited in the amount they
can expand their lead over even the teams which place close behind in
placing, even if not close in time.
According to the rules (you can disregard what the OLN guys have been
saying) a team could win the TTT by a minute but would only be given a
20 second advantge over second place.
Contrary to the erroneous "maximum loss of 2:30" information that is
floating around, the rule does not simply provide for a maxiumum loss
of 2:30, it provides a sliding scale to minimize the effect of time
and more or less equalizes all the teams by assigning an arbitrary
time based upon placing.
Of course under the current rules a team's *placing* is very important
so there is still incentive to be better than other teams, even if
only slightly so.
Summary of rules at
http://www.letour.fr/2004/us/reglement.html
Full rules at:
http://www.letour.fr/2004/docs/reglement_us.pdf
Here's the full TTT rule
Article 24 – Team time trials
(art. 2.6.023 to 2.6.024)
Teams start their team time trial at 5 minute intervals in the reverse
order of the team ranking established following the 3rd stage. As
soon as the 1st team starts, training is forbidden along the route; a
separate warm-up area is provided. The stage ranking is established
for each of the teams based on the finishing time of the 5th rider in
each team (to the nearest hundredth of a second). An identical time is
given to all teammates who arrive within this same time, even if they
actually finish quicker.
The procedure for establishing the general individual time ranking is
as follows:
[Here is the inmportant part]
Times for all riders are calculated according to the gap between them
and the 5th man of the winning team (scratch time).
If this gap is less than that given in the table below, then the
actual time recorded by the timekeepers will be taken.
If the gap is more than that given in the table below, then the rider
will receive the time of the winning team plus the additional number
of seconds indicated in the table below according to the place of
their team.
20'' for the 2nd team
30'' for the 3rd team
40'' for the 4th team
50'' for the 5th team
1' for the 6th team
1'10 for the 7th team
1'20 for the 8th team
1'30 for the 9th team
1'40 for the 10th team
1'50 for the 11th team
2'00 for the 12th team
2'10 for the 13th team
2'20 for the 14th team
2'30 for the 15th team
2'35 for the 16th team
2'40 for the 17th team
2'45 for the 18th team
2'50 for the 19th team
2'55 for the 20th team
3'00 for the 21st team
Riders who arrive on their own after the 5th rider in their team will
be credited for the general ranking with the actual time they took to
complete the stage. However, riders finishing outside of the permitted
finishing times (coefficient 6) will be disqualified.
As far as the general team ranking is concerned, the actual time of
the 5th man in each team will be the time recorded for this ranking.
In the event that a team no longer has at least five riders, those
remaining must finish the stage within the permitted finishing time
cited in article 22 (coefficient 6). The time recorded for the general
ranking will be the finishing time of the last rider in that team.
Riders from the same team are forbidden from pushing or pulling each
other along.
Food and drink will be supplied by the team staff from the sports
director's car at the back of the group, once they have reached the
designated feeding area.
DR
