I think partly what you're missing is that there is no race without qualifying and with 250 riders entered its going to take a long time and be strung out. There is a prize for the fastest qualifying overall already. Adding prizes for each group won't make it anymore interesting to watch as it is still time a time trail, team or individual. Those people 'just pootling along' were actually the fastest guys. I wish I had done really slow laps so that my fast ones would have been better.
I think partly what you're missing is that there is no race without qualifying and with 250 riders entered its going to take a long time and be strung out. There is a prize for the fastest qualifying overall already. Adding prizes for each group won't make it anymore interesting to watch as it is still time a time trail, team or individual. Those people 'just pootling along' were actually the fastest guys. I wish I had done really slow laps so that my fast ones would have been better.