Is the Tour de France getting boring?

Or, are bicycle races at a professional level generally getting dull? For sure, bicycle racing at category level is exciting when you are participating, or when you have a friend in the race.

I considered myself as a true cycling fan, I watch races even a regular fan probably have never heard of, like the Volta ao Algarve or the Coppi e Bartali. But fact is, bicycle road races are never raced at the gun, especially a three week race like the Tour. Here’s why:

The dynamics is usually like this in a typical Tour stage: There is a neutral start of as much as 30km before the actual race flag is brought down. Right there, a flurry of attacks will commence and the pace will be high. The attacks and decelerations will be repeated many times until the right combination of riders are in the breakaway. These riders are usually of no threat to the overall leadership. However, if a Nairo Quintana or an Alberto Contador is in the break, then the break will be chased down by Chris Froome’s teammates.

The peloton settles down and a steady and comfortable pace is set. It’s usually the team with Yellow Jersey ambitions who keeps the gap reasonable enough to close it when needed. This goes on for the next few hours. In rare instances, the breakaway will beat the peloton but in most cases, the peloton has this uncanny ability to give just enough rope for the breakaway and catch them in the last few meters of a race.

The real racing starts usually when the TV goes “live” and this happens during the last 60-90 minutes of a stage. This is when the chasing starts in earnest. The intention is not to catch the breakaway until the very last moment, otherwise, catching it like 30km from the line will mean a new set of fresh riders forming a new breakaway and that’s counterintuitive.

In other words, the best time to really sit and watch a race is during the last hour, or with 45km to go. So what happens between kilometer 0 and the last 45km is really nothing much. And in a 4-5 hours of bicycle racing, spelled as b-o-r-i-n-g!

A few reasons have been cited, like the peloton’s abilities are now more balanced, since less cyclists are now using performance enhancing drugs. This equality has led to lesser and lesser “heroic” attacks and ergo, less drama on the road. A sporting narrative needs drama to captivate the fans and without it, fans will stay away from the sport. Instead of hundred kilometers (and maybe two hours of exciting racing) of solo breakaway, what we see now are races where the rivals are still together in the final kilometers and attacks only happen in the last few kilometers. That’s why prior to the penultimate stage of this years Tour, only 27sec separated the top three riders. If you think it was compelling, you’re wrong!