2004 Tour de France: Who Wins King of the Mountains?

gntlmn

A lot of fans don't consider the winner of the King of the Mountains to be the best climber in the Tour, but somebody's got to win KOM. Who will it be this year? Is it going to be Virenque again? Mayo? Heras?

Stevedvg

I think Iban Mayo's going to do the business in the mountains. Seeing as he's so far adrift he'll more than likely want to prove a point or two by winning a few mountain stages.

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DeRosa_AV

Virenque will amass points by going for all the climbs and will be determined to get the outright KoM record.

gntlmn

OLN commentators peg Virenque to open the gap early on in the Pyrenees and then try to defend that lead to get the King of the Mountains. I wonder how this will work between him and Mayo on that first day, which would be this Friday. This is going to be an exciting Tour in the mountains this year.

I am guessing that Mayo will try to open a gap on Friday too. He cannot afford to wait for Tour contenders to set the pace. He has too much time to recover. So, in a sense, if Mayo is still eying the GC, then he and Virenque may have goal congruence on Friday. Mayo would be wise to offer the stage to Virenque in the end if they can both blow open a wide enough gap on the others. This would put Virenque in contention for KOM and Mayo in contention for GC. I doubt that Mayo will recover the entire gap in one day though. He would have to hope for this duo to keep reaping similar rewards throughout the rest of the Pyrenees and Alps. Then again, given Mayo's weakness in the final TT, and the large gap he must recover, Mayo may just forget about GC and go for the KOM. So I'm not so sure that a Mayo/Virenque duo would work as a team.

tcklyde

Make that open the gap on Wednesday. Pretty sweet solo victory and first on all the KOMs on the Tour's longest stage!

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gntlmn

I should have seen that one coming--Bastille Day. All was well for Virenque and France today--Voeckler with the yellow jersey, Virenque with the huge stage win.

Ok. Now look and see how the numbers will tally. This is an excerpt from http://www.angelfire.com/realm/cvcc...dy/polkadot.htm

Calculation 2004
The direction of the Tour de France rates all the climbs in the Tour de France and devides them in categories; five to be exact: from Hors Catégorie (toughest mountains) down to first, second, third and fourth category, for the 'easy' climbs.

Circumstances regarded in the categorial division are length of the climb, altitude, average and maximum gradients. For the points per rider per category, see the table below.

A rider has to fulfil the Tour completely in order to be ranked in the final King of the Mountains classification.

HC Points 1st Cat Points 2nd Pts 3rd Pts 4th Pts
1 20 1 15 1 10 1 4 1 3
2 18 2 13 2 9 2 3 2 2
3 16 3 11 3 8 3 2 3 1
4 14 4 9 4 7 4 1
5 12 5 8 5 6
6 10 6 7 6 5
7 8 7 6
8 7 8 5
9 6
10 5

From 2004 on, in the case of an uphill stage finish of HC, first or second category, the points for the mountain classification will be doubled.

I'm sorry about the display on the points. It doesn't post the way it displays in the edit box. If this is confusing, go to the link above. It's a lot easier to follow on the original text.

Stevedvg

Yeh! It was sweet - Virenque rode his ass off . I really though Iban Mayo was going to have a whack at the KOM but he really didn't feature at all - I saw him trying to thread his way through the peloton at one point - I don't know if he was caught up in a crash or something but it was weird to see him floundering at the back...

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mattp71

I think commentators mentioned at some point that mayo flatted, or went to change wheels perhaps to a lighter set..don't know. But that is why he was at the back.

stig73

What was the argument for the new rules in the polkadottcontest?

gntlmn

Do you mean the greater rewards for the tougher climbs? I guess it means that it will then be tougher to win unless you are a pure climber. The pure climbers have the advantage on the steepest climbs but not necessarily the not so steep. Wind resistance comes into play for not so steep mountains as opposed to mainly wattage per kg in the steepest climbs.

stig73

I was thinking about the doubble score on the final climbing in category HC, 1 and 2.

gntlmn

Ok. That's what I thought. I think the reasons are as I stated. Maybe there are others I haven't mentioned.