In three stages finishes of the Tour de France this year, both the sprint and general classification teams have jostled for position leading to riders such as Peter Sagan to call for a change in rules. On the majority of designated sprint stages, riders who crash or are caught up in a crash inside the final three kilometres are given the same time as the stage winner, which gives the GC riders a 'virtual' finish line. However the sprint teams still battle for stage victory while the likes of Chris Froome and Alberto Contador try to avoid splits in the peloton and time losses.
Mark Cavendish has won both field sprints of the 2016 Tour to date, and in doing so the Dimension Data rider has also tied Bernard Hinault's haul of 28 wins. He gave his frank assessment of the current state of play after the photo finish in Angers was ruled in his favour.
"To be fair, it's not really the last three kilometre rule. It's the mentality of the riders," Cavendish said.
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"I think the mentality has changed a little. Not all the GC guys, but in past they'd ride at the back, then it evolved and splits happened and so they didn't want to be caught behind splits. Now there are some riders who want to be actively ahead of a split, hoping they will be up there and get a few seconds. It's not anything to do with the course, it's more of a rider thing."
Of the main GC contenders, Froome, for example, has placed 25th and 22nd in the two field sprints, while Movistar's Nairo Quintana has been 30th and 23rd. Neither Team Sky, Movistar nor Astana, who have Fabio Aru and Vincenzo Nibali for the GC, have brought sprinters to the Tour, but in order to secure the safety of their GC riders, they place many numbers at the front in the finale, when space is already at a premium.
"I saw the comments that Peter made yesterday and he's got a point," Cavendish said in reference to Sagan's call for the UCI to neutralise the final three kilometres of the sprint stages.
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