Tour de France 2013

I disagree. Here's why:

1) there were more sprinters winning stages this year, hence the stage finishes not playing as large of a roll (unlike in recent races). This makes more exciting sprints.

2) the other sprinters could try and win some intermediate points. Remember when Thor fucked off up the mountains to make up the points Cav had lost (and moaned about having given Thor the Green) a few years ago? That was fucking rad. That's what Sagan did. I didn't get to see the Ventoux push, but Sagan pushing for those points must have been awesome! And in the early stages Cav didn't even seem to be bothered with the intermediate points. That's less exciting.

3) sprinting devalued? Against what? Green is, imo, the most prestigious jersey after yellow and it wasn't such a big deal this year because it had been decided before white and polka dot.

1) I'm not sure I understand your point - if the jersey was just for final sprints, it wouldn't have made it any less exciting. Just more representative.

2) What was rad back then (yes, that was cool by the way) - just made for boring shit this year, Griepel hoovering up a sprint with Sagan on his wheel and Cav not really bothering. Just looks stupid. Intermediate sprints also make it harder for breakaways to stick earlier in those stages, which makes reeling them in at the end (more) inevitable.

3) This is exactly what I'm talking about - pure sprinters are completely devalued by it. It's just a wheelsucker/"tactical riding" jersey.