Postpublished at 15:11 British Summer Time 16 July 2017
Rob Hayles
Former GB cyclist at the Tour de France
And just like that, Daniel's query is answered...
You have to have the sprint stages and they are generally the longer ones. They can be quite dull, it has to be said, until the closing stages, but you have to have those in place. However, if you were to put the intermediate sprints closer to the start I think that would encourage more racing. Also if they increased the points available there that also could entice some more competition too.