Originally Posted by
Lemond1985
With hindsight, it was a terribly unfair way to judge the race. To do something this sloppy and capricious, when there the most technical rules in the race about a million other things, that are designed to go overboard in ensuring the race is absolutely fair, makes a mockery of the entire Tour de France, IMO, and brings it to the level of reality TV, professional wrestling, a rigged political election, or something very different than a legitimate sporting event where the best rider wins.
I will have a very tough time taking the sport very seriously after this incident. I bet not even Bernal feels as though he won the race fair and square, this result is not really fair to anyone, and in my opinion deserves an "asterisk" next to it with a footnote explaining how the winner was determined.
Unfair to whom?
The way it played out Saturday, it's pretty clear, the alterations didn't change the winner or the podium. Bernal was the strongest rider. Thomas couldn't, and wouldn't attack Bernal. And no one from Bora or Lotto had the gas to attack Bernal/Thomas.
The only significant change from shortening the Stages was keeping Aliphillipe in the top 5. Had both stages been run as scheduled, highly likely Aliphillipe would have lost more time, possibly out of the top 10.
So the only one who could reasonably *****, Aliphillipe, actually benefited from the change.