Bonus Seconds

Grand Tour stages all offer bonus seconds at various places out on the course as well as big bonuses on the finish line for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. I've never really understood why a three week race would need to employee such a gimic as bonus seconds. In some cases, like last year's Vuelta, if the bonus seconds weren't there, the guy that won, wouldn't have. It's hard to blame him for winning because of the bonus seconds. He's simply just operating under the rules that he's given, but do we really need them? What are they really for? To encourage racing? For guys to sprint for 2nd and 3rd places on stage 14 of 21? I'm not so sure they serve a positive purpose to the race.

Today's stage of the Giro ended in a perfect example of why bonus seconds are dumb. Pellizoti won the stage on his own so he swept up the 1st place bonus seconds, 20 seconds I think it was. A group of 3 came in behind Pellizoti and that group contained two guys that bonus seconds are very important too in this race, Di Luca (second on GC at like :40ish seconds) and Menchov (1st place). The other member of this group was Garzelli, who is winning the KOM competition but is no where close to being a GC threat.

The bonus seconds are important for Di Luca because he realizes Menchov is a much better Time Trialist and would like to take as much time back as possible before that TT in Rome to have a chance to win the over all. Menchov bascially wants bonus seconds for the same reasons, except he'd rather have a bigger cushion if Di Luca storms off on a climb and he can't respond. Those bonus seconds would help to limit his losses if that were to happen.

When those three came up to the line there was indeed a sprint for 2nd place, but it was between Di Luca and Garzelli, not Menchov. Garzelli sprinted all the way to line and took 2nd place and the bonus seconds that go alone with it, maybe :12. Di Luca was clearly not happy with this and glared at Garzelli as he was left to only take back :8 or so on Menchov. Later, when Garzelli was on the winner's podium collecting another green jersey (mountain jersey in Italy, not sprint jersey like in France) he was booed by the Italian fans. He was booed because he decided to race his bike all the way to line and not sit up and give Di Luca those extra :4 seconds as a gift.

Cycling is full of unspoken rules and riders on different teams making deals with each other all the time. Often guys from the same country will join forces in breaks to try and attack the rest of the bunch. I guess the idea is if at least I get beat it's still a victory for the mother land? Because of the nature of cycling I can see why Di Luca might be a bit frustrated with Garzelli. Those seconds didn't mean a damn thing to him, but they would have helped Di Luca in his bid to get the maglia rosa back in italian hands. And, obvoiusly, since Garzelli is Italian that should be his goal too?

It's hard for me to fault Garzelli for simply racing his bike. That's what he's paid to do and even though a 2nd place is really nothing more than a line in a future listing of palamares, he's still a competitive guy and wants to beat whoever he can. It's not like he was sprinting for 40th. But, because of the bonus seconds on the line the aspect of racing is thrown out and Garzelli is villionized because he didn't hand Di Luca those extra :04. Just do away with the bonus seconds and then it won't matter either way. Then that sprint to the line is simply one of pride and might make it worth more in the end anyway.