Do you mean the long standing RULES that that were changed right before the Tour,that appear to target the top rider in the world.

If you check your history, the team time trial is not always a part of every tour. The fact that they are using Alpes d'huez as a time trial favors Mayo over Armstrong and his strong team. I think the organizers have a right to "toughen" the tour to make sure that a six time winner is well deserving.
It is similar to the USGA making an open course much more difficult than a typical course to ensure that the winner is a true champion...at least in the eyes of the USGA.

What the change allows is the other top riders can sit back and conserve energy knowing they will be saved from losing the actual time they were beat by.That's real fair right?

I'm all for LA, but have to disagree on the reason for the rule change, mgmargate. As it was, top riders on top teams benefitted from the strength of their teams, whereas a top rider on a weak team was disadvantaged. The rule change mitigates that disadvantage, which I think is fair, since the race is won by an individual, not a team.

Beachbum:So does that mean that all previous Tours were unfair?

Goodness. The tour reintroduced the team time trial during the reign of Armstrong and US Postal has always dominated it since then. Exactly as the tour introduced this event, the team time trial could be dropped if anyone really wanted to hurt Armstrong. But as a matter of fact, Armstrong didn't win the Tour in the last years because of winning the team time trial nor will he win or lose it this year because of it.

<i>does that mean that all previous Tours were unfair?</i>

No, it means those Tours were different. It's called the Tour de <b>France</b>. So they get to make the rules. I've listened to Lance talk about the rule change. I've listened to Chris Carmichael, and the other coachs talking about the rule change. They have all dealt with it. We need to as well!

There are so many factors that impact a team; technology, team development, and crashes! Can't we just enjoy this spectacle without paranoid politics entering into it?

I wouldn't say &quot;unfair&quot; and I certainly wouldn't discount any of LA's previous wins. In fact, he may have been disadvantaged by a weak time in earlier races. My point is that, in a race with an individual winner, other than maybe from strategy, no single rider should benefit from the relative strength of his &quot;team.&quot;

Er, that should be, &quot;...disadvantaged by a weak team in earlier races.&quot;

Hans:Postal has not dominated during Lances run.They only won the time trial starting 2 years ago.Before that the trials were dominated by the Stronger teams ie:not Postal.They didn't change the rules then to help Lance and other riders on Weaker teams.

Is it possible that this time it's a vast Left Wing conspiracy?Instead of the other way around.