I don't know about you, but I have never paid any attention at all to the "which team is leading the Team Classification" in major races.
It just doesn't seem relevant: I know it contributes to the UCI points-plus-several-esoteric-factors decision in which teams get Pro-Team status the following year, but I just can't get too excited about it.
In previous years, the leading team would wear yellow numbers on their backs.
This year, the UCI have decreed that they must wear yellow helmets, and apparently instructed all the teams to bring along a set of their own helmets, coloured yellow ("the colour of baby ducks" as we all know) in case they lead the classification.
Which does make you wonder if some of the smaller teams - the ones with small budgets and, without wishing to be nasty, not a chance in the world of leading the classification - would just bring along a can of spray paint?
Well, Fabian won the TT (Yay! Go, Fabu!) so he is in the jellow jersey, and he is wearing a yellow hat as well. Sky won the Team Classification - which is calculated on the top three riders of each team - so they have been lumbered with wearing their yellow helmets.
I haven't seen footage of Stage 1 yet (LLB has recorded it for me) but I understand that already, the fans are complaining about it, especially with the confusion between Fabian and team Sky, (ooh, what a rumour that would be!) in the helicopter shots.
Meanwhile, back in Luxemboug:
Andy, with glum face : "Pfff."
Jil: "Aw, come on, cheer up, next year you will be in it."
Andy, still looking glum: "Pffff."
YAY!! The Tour is here at long last!!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what was with Team Sky all wearing yellow helmets. I thought maybe it was all in anticipation of Bradley Wiggins winning the Yellow Jersey, ha ha, so thanks for clearing that up Coug! I do wish though, that they'd go back to the yellow number system, much less confusing and yes, more economical for teams with smaller budgets (should they lead that classification).
Bris. Gal
And after today's racing (Monday) the Shack are only 4 seconds behind Sky in the team classification.
ReplyDeleteWhich means that tomorrow, they might be the ones in the yellow helmets!
Coug
I think I read that RANT didn't want to do the yellow helmets, they thought it was more appropriate to do that on the last day in Paris. They seemed to think it was a suggestion, not an order, as it wasn't in the rules. I thought they were being sticks-in-the-mud. I quite like the yellow helmets, anything to help pick out riders in a quick glance. I first took interest in the team classification last year, especially when Garmin-Whoever-They-Were-Then took a life size cardboard cut-out of Dave Z up on the podium with them, since he had crashed out.
Deleteemjay