61st Eschborn-Frankfurt, WT classic, May 1st

[Rob5091]

Wednesday May 1 is time for the 61st Eschborn to Frankfurt race (1.UWT) 201.5 km, start 12.05 CET, TV from the start!
Live stream online at https://www.hessenschau.de/sport/mehr-sport/radrennen-frankfurt/index.html
startlist at https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/eschborn-frankfurt/2024/startlist
(Buchmann is down for Bora, which might be interesting!)

[Moderator's note: This post, the two that immediately follow it, and two others in this thread, were moved from the Lesser known races thread]

 

[Sciatic]

Too bad they don’t finish in Eschborn at the bottom of that final climb. It’s a good climby profile for a one-day race but there are those 25 km of flat at the end, I think I remember this being discussed before —I guess it’s the need to have the race finish in Frankfurt that shapes the course?

 

[Samamba]

Too bad they don’t finish in Eschborn at the bottom of that final climb. It’s a good climby profile for a one-day race but there are those 25 km of flat at the end, I think I remember this being discussed before —I guess it’s the need to have the race finish in Frankfurt that shapes the course?

Wasn't a problem last year, and this year the start list has way more climbers/punchers. If you make this race hard like last year you will get a pretty good race imo.

Also 27 degrees tomorrow; First hot day for a lot of riders in the peloton.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Pfff... lesser known race... It's my home race, it's in the World Tour, I'm making a thread.

The route: The race is 200 kilometers long and it's seen a significant route improvement last year.
Profile:

The race starts in Eschborn at the outskirts of the city and takes a trip through Frankfurt and the later finishing circuit after only a few kilometers. Afterwards, the race heads for the beautiful Taunus hills that are going to play host to the more interesting parts of the event. The first climb on the menu is the Feldberg from its most gradual side:

After an unnecessarily long, irregular descent (about 25 km) through the backcountry broken up by short false flats and climbs we still have almost twenty kilometers to cover until we arrive at the climb that has previously defined the race for quite some time. The climb through Mammolshain is about two kilometers long and especially steep closer to the bottom as we skip a hairpin through a steep straight line road. Otherwise the climb is covered in this profile (up to Königstein):

After a moderately twisty descent through Kronberg and a slight detour through Schwalbach we return to Mammolshain only 16 kilometers later but this ascent is where the real action starts because we are going to ascend the entire way up the profile above (ok, except for the last 500 meters) making for an exceptionally long climb for a spring one-day race. Because we once again take a massive detour through the Schwarzbach valley, the final ascent of the Mammolshainer takes place nearly fifty kilometers after the top of Feldberg. Still, with a lot of tired legs at this point, the steep ramps through the village and the drag up to Königstein provide one final launchpad to the puncheurs in the bunch. But alas, because this is the Ardennes-like adaptation of Kuurne, the finish line lies 35 kilometers away, because after tracing our earlier steps through Eschborn, and roaring into Frankfurt there are still almost two full laps of a 7 k finishing circuit left in store until the race concludes in front of the Alte Oper.


Favorites:
********** Manny Bookman, FAUSTO
**** Hirschi,J. Christen, Kragh Andersen
*** Nys, Vermaerke, Rota, Powless, Van Gils, Schachmann, Ulissi
** Kristoff, Ciccone, Gautherat, Zingle, Garcia Cortina, Albanese, Healy, Zimmermann
* anyone else that can climb decently (not Ewan, not Bennett, not Degenkolb)

 

[Sciatic]

Wasn't a problem last year, and this year the start list has way more climbers/punchers. If you make this race hard like last year you will get a pretty good race imo.

Also 27 degrees tomorrow; First hot day for a lot of riders in the peloton.

Good to know!

 

[Potomac]

Can we please stop having a poll on the race day thread? Then we have scroll by the poll every page.
It is much simpler if the poll has it's own thread.

 

[Red Rick]

Gonna happily continue my over 2 decade long tradition of not watching this race.

 

[Red Rick]

Can we please stop having a poll on the race day thread? Then we have scroll by the poll every page.
It is much simpler if the poll has it's own thread.

and get 2 threads for one race that's gonna get under 100 posts total?

Nah

 

[QueenStagiaire]

I‘ve added a new option to the poll.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Pfff... lesser known race... It's my home race, it's in the World Tour, I'm making a thread.

The route: The race is 200 kilometers long and it's seen a significant route improvement last year.
Profile:

The race starts in Eschborn at the outskirts of the city and takes a trip through Frankfurt and the later finishing circuit after only a few kilometers. Afterwards, the race heads for the beautiful Taunus hills that are going to play host to the more interesting parts of the event. The first climb on the menu is the Feldberg from its most gradual side:

After an unnecessarily long, irregular descent (about 25 km) through the backcountry broken up by short false flats and climbs we still have almost twenty kilometers to cover until we arrive at the climb that has previously defined the race for quite some time. The climb through Mammolshain is about two kilometers long and especially steep closer to the bottom as we skip a hairpin through a steep straight line road. Otherwise the climb is covered in this profile (up to Königstein):

After a moderately twisty descent through Kronberg and a slight detour through Schwalbach we return to Mammolshain only 16 kilometers later but this ascent is where the real action starts because we are going to ascend the entire way up the profile above (ok, except for the last 500 meters) making for an exceptionally long climb for a spring one-day race. Because we once again take a massive detour through the Schwarzbach valley, the final ascent of the Mammolshainer takes place nearly fifty kilometers after the top of Feldberg. Still, with a lot of tired legs at this point, the steep ramps through the village and the drag up to Königstein provide one final launchpad to the puncheurs in the bunch. But alas, because this is the Ardennes-like adaptation of Kuurne, the finish line lies 35 kilometers away, because after tracing our earlier steps through Eschborn, and roaring into Frankfurt there are still almost two full laps of a 7 k finishing circuit left in store until the race concludes in front of the Alte Oper.


Favorites:
********** Manny Bookman, FAUSTO
**** Hirschi,J. Christen, Kragh Andersen
*** Nys, Vermaerke, Rota, Powless, Van Gils, Schachmann, Ulissi
** Kristoff, Ciccone, Gautherat, Zingle, Garcia Cortina, Albanese, Healy, Zimmermann
* anyone else that can climb decently (not Ewan, not Bennett, not Degenkolb)

My new favourite race, the 6th monument, and honored with a great opening post and good poll thanks.

 

[Salvarani]

My new favourite race, the 6th monument, and honored with a great opening post and good poll thanks.

Love this race. Always watch it.

Weird seeing some people comment on it but they dont watch it. Just seem like hating for no reason. Maybe that is what they do best.

 

[Salvarani]

Kristoff should have a section named after him in this legendary race.

 

[Netserk]

Kristoff should have a section named after him in this legendary race.

GOAT

 

[Salvarani]

GOAT

GO KRISTOFF! GO GO GO

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Jayco destroying themselves and the other sprint teams in one stroke last year has seemingly had a lasting impact, there are way more Ardennes types this year. A big sprint definitely isn't possible anymore.

 

[Samamba]

there are way more Ardennes types this year. A big sprint definitely isn't possible anymore.

Unless they cancel eachother out ofcourse. Last year it was made hard to drop the sprinters, but now there are almost no sprinters (that actually have a chance) left, so we'll have to see if they still make it hard from the first climb onwards. I do think some team will, like Bora for example or EF or UAE ofcourse (but they have to convince someone to sacrifice themselves). And indeed there's a lot of good punchers or even climbers here.

Van Gils, Healy, Nys, Powless, Zingle, Aranburu, Buchmann, Higuita, Adria, Schachmann, Christen, Ulissi, Hirschi, Van den Broek, Vermaerke, Gee, Sheehan, Ciccone, Schmid, Engelhart, ...

Honestly for once a bit WT worthy at least.

And like I said earlier in the Lesser Known thread. It's gonna be hot tomorrow. 27 degrees expected, some riders won't react well to the first time racing in hot weather this season.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The race took way too long to react to parcours trends after it started to be won in increasingly-sized groups, but last year was a big step in the right direction and I hope it continues.

 

[Filippo_3467]

Gonna happily continue my over 2 decade long tradition of not watching this race.

Come on it will be more fun then Strade Bianche, Roubaix and Liege combined. At least the race isn't over an hour before the finish line. last year was really fun.

 

[tobydawq]

To answer the poll: The race used to be part of the World Cup (not always, though), so why wouldn't it be WorldTour?

 

[AmRacer]

For those who didn't make it to the Giro team.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

To answer the poll: The race used to be part of the World Cup (not always, though), so why wouldn't it be WorldTour?

Because few people care about it, but that‘s not mandatory.
Anyway, I hope the broadcasters will know this year that if you invite actual racing, you can‘t show 6 billion replays of the steep part of Mammolshain when it‘s the decisive moment. Otherwise we might have to reconsider that WT status.

 

[Netserk]

To answer the poll: The race used to be part of the World Cup (not always, though), so why wouldn't it be WorldTour?

One year only, like Japan Cup.

 

[tobydawq]

One year only, like Japan Cup.

Okay, fair enough then. I just knew it had been on but didn't check how often.

At least it's better than the Eindhoven TTT.

 

[search]

as far as I understood back then, to get WT status, the UCI required the race to take place on a fixed day in the week. As the organizers preferred to keep the May 1st date, though, it only got promoted after the WT reform in 2017.

 

[Sciatic]

Looking back over the previous decade it’s amazing to se Kristoff podiumed in 7 consecutive editions of the race (It wasn’t held for 2 years in that span). That’s got to be pretty darn usual regardless of a race’s status?