Didn't realize there was that big of a difference between 1st 2nd and 3rd in terms of prize money. That might partially explain why a rider in 2nd doesn't try and make a move on the last stage - they would risk blowing up and moving down to 3rd
The thing you probably need to know about cycling is that everyone crossing the line in the same group gets the same time regardless of if they were first or 100th.
The difference in energy required to ride on the front of a small break away vs in the middle of a peloton can be as high as 50% on a flat stage.
Given that, realistically what would happen if you attack on the last flat day is that the peloton would just follow you and wait for you to tire yourself out.
The domestiques on the front of the peloton can we swapped over time to give them a rest so that the peloton never slows and in fact increase its speed over time.
This is why the sprinter's teams almost always catch the breakaways and why the beakaways are allowed to go up the road in the first place.
Sometimes the peloton gets the sums wrong or doesn't factor in the affects of the wind and the break succeeds but not very often. By the last day of the Tour the leader can have minutes on second place so the chances of them making that up in a break are pretty small.
Aerodynamic inefficiencies and tradeoffs are one of the things that make cycling such an interesting spectator sport for TV.
The article discusses this at the bottom a bit but prize money at any pro bike race is treated like a team bonus and shared. The article does say it’s all about sponsor exposure - from final podium place/stage win/jersey - the riders make more money in exhibition races post TdF where the top riders (based on TdF yellow/polka dot/green) are paid appearance fees.
Exhibition "races" only in the very broad sense. The post-tour criteriums are almost as fake as pro wrestling- the riders have agreed beforehand who is going to "break away" and cross the line first, though occasionally one of the local amateur riders they have in there to make up the numbers will decide to have a go:
In terms of the economics of these races, they are much better spectator events as they take the form of laps around the centre of a small city. The audiences still doesn't pay, but it's much easier to go watch- so the city will pay the race organiser, both to put their city on the map and for the economic benefit of all the food and drinks the spectators buy, often from stalls or trucks that have paid the city for a license...
Highly unlikely. Firstly, the last flat stage is a procession and the leader is accepted as winner by convention. Secondly, it’s highly unlikely that the second place rider on the general classification could even get time on the leader. The last stage is typically flat and has nothing that could be used to force a separation (climbs, wind, etc), plus the leader has a full team at his disposal to chase such an attack down.
If the last stage was mountainous or a time trial, perhaps. But it hasn’t been in a long time (or ever?)
Also, I don’t think a guaranteed banking of the second place cheque would ever prevent a rider from going for first. These guys want to win, not make a few extra euros.
A very very small chance, but not no chance. It's very unlikely but in theory it is possible that by the start of the last stage the GC difference between place 1 and 2 is a couple of seconds. And the last 50km around Champs Elysees are so hectic that anything could happen. A flat tire 10-5km from the line could be enough to lose those precious seconds.
Another possibility could be an organized coup by the 2nd place team, then it essentially becomes a team time trial between 2nd and 1st place teams, while the rest of the peloton is battling for the sprint victory. Unlikely but not impossible.
It wouldn't be a TTT between two teams it would 2nd place team vs the field including all the sprinters' teams. No team can beat a beat a focused peloton on a flat stage.
No way. If 2nd place team tried to do that, all of them would become pariahs of cycling immediately.
Flat tire or some massive crash in the last km or so might happen, of course, but I think it never did (or at least never influenced overall podium standings).
