Tour de France director intends to reduce number of sprint stages into future: "They disappointed us a little bit and we won't include that many in the future!"
Cycling
Joining a breakaway in flat transition stages had become sort of a suicide mission in recent years which only the smaller teams were interested in taking on - either for sponsor visibility, or to get a headstart into regularity classifications (such as the re-introduced Intergiro competition at the 2024 Giro d'Italia).
However this year not even the wild card teams were often interested in wasting their energy in front of the peloton, despite teams like TotalEnergies were lacking a real sprinter or a GC leader. As the race took off with two hard stages in Italy, there wasn't a leader's jersey in the stake on transition days, which likely put off most of the adventurers.
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A result? We have seen way too many stages where a breakaway never even formed, with the peloton cruising through the stage at a local commute pace. Naturally, not many fans were willing to glue themselves to the TV on such days, which was probably noticed in the numbers too.
Race director and architect of the course, Thierry Gouvenou, has a strong opinion on the matter. After seeing the spectacular racing in mountains, his resolution is to bring more harder, and presumably more entertaining stages. At least as long as teams refuse to put on a show on flat days themselves: "I think that we'll try to grow the number of stages like these. The sprinters stages disappointed us a little bit and we won't include that many in the future!," he told Radio Sports.
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Are you MrMauMau 2.0? Nothing you are saying is really relevant. Vaguely connected, but irrelevant. The conversation is whether Schreiber impeded Brand or not.
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - He is boring
leedorney08-11-2026 - To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Uwielbiam patrzeć, jak wyjeżdża na czoło peletonu i zaczyna się rzeź...
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026
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