BengiesDad you say

A Certain works Rider suggested that the field be limited to 40 odd, years ago,
It never happened then,
But the way its going, He might get his wish very soon !
And who will pay stupid money to watch that ?

I was and am not suggesting going to that sort of extreme , but what he was concerned about was the speed differential experienced in the last two laps , he was of the opinion that it was too dangerous having people touring ( now not allowed any more ) and slow riders holding front men up , and as you know if you get held up at one point it can influence the next few miles and ultimately the outcome of a race ,

I may not express what I mean vary well , but my take on it is that to minimise that problem it is a simple mathematical calculation you have to have an amount of time from first man setting off to last man setting off based on the time laps from last man and the capability of the last men to leave , the slower your last man away is compared to first man requires a wider gap , the other consideration is the duration of the race you could have maintain the numbers and the slowness of the last riders by shortening the race , all of which can be worked out mathematically , it all boils down to the organisers desire to run it with what they think is acceptable risks , some thing I often disagree with them over , but that's just me being me