Originally Posted by Kevindale

It's interesting that people often complain about the efficiency and strength of the Sky team in supporting their designated leader. They're clearly fantastic at it, and it does get boring seeing a line of 3-6 black-clad Sky riders leading the peloton, mile after mile, with one or two domestiques going deep into the stage in service of their leader.

OTOH, when I was watching the Binckbank Tour, Sagan had the GC well in hand till he flatted with no support (neutral or team car or teammate), and then in subsequent stages the other riders worked together to keep him from making up time or winning a stage. I read a lot of comments that he had no reason to complain - it was his team's fault, or even his fault for going with Bora-Hangrohe, and that he should go with a deep and strong team Sky-like team to get better results. Of course, if he did have that team, we'd hear that he wasn't really that good a rider, that it was all the team, that it was boring...

Anyway, stage 12 is shaping up for a nice race for the stage win by someone really hungry. As I write this they're 29 km out and about to hit the second big climb.

The sport has evolved to reward aggressive/organized team tactics. Or rather, it's always rewarded that, but Sky has dialed it in to an unprecedented degree, at least in the TdF, and in this year's Vuelta.