Has any rival team ever deliberately try and put the green jersey leader out of time on a hard mountain stage? Or is this considered poor form/sportsmanship?
You could crash into them I guess, but that would seem fairly obviously poor form!
Other than that, you could try to drop them from the peloton on an early climb, but then you would need to drive hard for a long way to keep the pressure up. And even then, if the sprinter has their whole team around them to pace that is probably enough.
Most OTL’s are either when the rider is a bit ill or the team just don’t care.
Has any rival team ever deliberately try and put the green jersey leader out of time on a hard mountain stage? Or is this considered poor form/sportsmanship?
It’s pretty hard to do “deliberately”.
You could crash into them I guess, but that would seem fairly obviously poor form!
Other than that, you could try to drop them from the peloton on an early climb, but then you would need to drive hard for a long way to keep the pressure up. And even then, if the sprinter has their whole team around them to pace that is probably enough.
Most OTL’s are either when the rider is a bit ill or the team just don’t care.