Tour de France 2024: Bardet wins brutal first stage as Cavendish struggles in heat – as it happened
Tour de France due to IOC restrictions on team sizes. I would say that a stage win or podium places in the Tour are far more influential for future contracts and therefore salary expectations than an Olympic medal.
This is what I was getting at earlier when I referred to the race as a bit of a crapshoot. Small teams and parcours designed around local landmarks can lead to races where winners can come from anywhere, so not exactly consistent with who is having a good season.
Tour de France (podium, or stage wins), but also the Giro, and certainly all the monuments. The sport is admirably self-contained, always with a nod to the history of these illustrious races.
That’s how I’d view it too and I imagine most hardcore cycling fans would feel the same. Although track cycling of course is vastly different.
Tour de France win (prestigious stage or overall rankings) trumps that.
Who remembers Olympic gold? Who remembers Tour de France?
Also fairly few riders are qualified for the Olympics.
get in touch.
Great question from Andrew Benton via email:
Do you think the riders will take fewer risks this year? I imagine a fair number will be representing their countries at the Olympics, and would be loath to risk missing their chance because of injury, whatever team orders say.
A look at the list of medallists for the road race going back to Sydney is quite baffling – Jan Ullrich, Paolo Bettini, Samuel Sánchez, Alexander Vinokourov, Greg Van Avermaet and Richard Carapaz – it’s probably an illustration of the varied courses set out by Olympic hosts. I’ve never been convinced it’s that big a draw for riders, just because it’s a bit of a crapshoot. I suppose the big question for me is who leads the Slovenian team?
Source: theguardian.com
