Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad, former professional turned pundit Dirk De Wolf didn\u2019t hold back in his criticism. \u201cTwenty-six kilometres is far too little for our Remco,\u201d he said. \u201cIn our day, Grand Tours had more than a hundred kilometres of time trialling. Now these stages barely last twenty or thirty minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Wolf lamented the shift in focus away from balance and towards pure spectacle. \u201cThey say they want to keep things exciting until the end, but that\u2019s nonsense,\u201d he added. \u201cThe riders make the race, not the route. If you truly want several contenders, you have to include more time-trial kilometres. That\u2019s how you create a real battle between styles \u2014 the climbers against the specialists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s national coach Serge Pauwels<\/a> also shared his concern, noting that while the course still offers some opportunities for Evenepoel, it plays even more to Pogacar\u2019s strengths. \u201cThis parcours suits Remco, but it\u2019s still even better for Pogacar,\u201d Pauwels explained. \u201cWhere can Remco make the difference now? Only in the time trial \u2013 and that\u2019s far too limited.\u201dFormer Lotto team manager Marc Sergeant<\/a> echoed Pauwels\u2019 sentiments, calling the design a \u201cmissed opportunity\u201d for the race organisers to add more tactical variety. \u201cThe Tour has everything else \u2013 a team time trial in Barcelona, early stages in the Pyrenees, and the double climb of Alpe d\u2019Huez \u2013 but it lacks a long, flat test against the clock,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n For the Belgian experts, the pattern is clear: the modern Tour de France has prioritised visual drama and mountain spectacle over balance and fairness between rider types. While few doubt Pogacar\u2019s brilliance, many feel the organisers have once again leaned too heavily towards the climbers.<\/p>\n As De Wolf concluded, a longer time trial could have transformed the general classification dynamic entirely. \u201cA Remco at his best could take minutes on everyone else,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when you\u2019d really have a fight on your hands \u2013 a true contest between the mountain goats and the power riders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking to Het Nieuwsblad, former professional turned pundit Dirk De Wolf didn\u2019t hold back in his criticism. \u201cTwenty-six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-241939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}