Leader boards in Tour and similar rides: adjust late starts

Lots of discussion on whether leader boards should be displayed in Tour events.

I really hope they come back. Even though I’ll never be near the top of one, I find them motivating and really helpful to find other riders ("I’m at 546! I’m at 499, I’ll slow up a bit…!)

Having joined late to a couple of stages, the treatment of late joiners likely adds to the confusion.

I’d recommend that late joiners for ‘leaderless’ rides (tours, fondos, maybe even races if any allow late starts) simply start at the start line and not be teleported into the pack.

That way, the in-ride leader board could easily reflect position on the road (like a marathon’s gun time) and then the results board could reflect “chip” time: a discrepancy extremely common IRL.

I suspect that there are other technical issues at play, but adjusting late start to simply start you at the starting line might help.

I agree that late starters should just start from the line behind the pack. I’m sure there is a time limit which the entire ride must be finished in and maybe that time could be displayed to let you know how hard you need to push it.
I have ridden one stage without the leader board and I love it. When the leader board has previously been displayed I watch it constantly. I found I payed more attention to what was immediately going on around me without it.