The opening half of the Tour de France has catered to various riding styles with a mix of stages including four sprint days, opportunities for puncheurs, and a time trial. The route designer aimed to avoid a repetition of last year's excessive sprinter stages. Despite some monotonous flat sprint stages during weekends, the overall balance has succeeded in engaging viewers. Geographic constraints influenced the route design, particularly in scheduling tough mountain stages, which could not be implemented as desired this year.
We knew we had nine days on the flats, and we had to find something to avoid too many bunch sprints. Last year, there were eight or nine stages for sprinters. We evaluated that, and it was too many.
Sprints are even more monotonous than before, because the peloton blocks. Teams don't want to attack anymore because they know it's pointless. Now there are five or six opportunities for the sprinters, and I think that's a good thing.
France's geography is the main influence in how the race looks, however, and so that couldn't be avoided this time around.
It could have been better, because we prefer the tough mountain stages on the weekend, but that didn't work out this time.
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