Are there too many races in the racing calendar?

[auscyclefan94]

I was just having a look at all the stage races coming up in the lead up to July and wondering if there are just too many for races for teams to field quality squads into?

Your thoughts?

 

[Moondance]

Who cares? The great thing about being a pro-cyclist is that you get to participate in exactly the amount of races you want, or if your sponsor or other commercial considerations force you to race you can do a half-a$$ed job of it, a la 09-10 Lance.

There are too many big races for a rider to be consistently good everywhere from the beginning of the classics season till the Champs-Élysées, but you just gotta prioritize where you want to be good and go for the win.

 

[issoisso]

Not enough. Now that a bunch have folded.

 

[pedaldancer]

I think it's about right. You want a good selection to pick from, if you fall ill and have to pull out you want to be able to make the neccessary adjustments to your calendar (Wigans, Armstrong etc)... And I like the hype that builds when rivals have tactically avoided one another until the bigger races and it's a clash of the titans to see who's bene preparing the best, call it a venture into the unknown. Unless it's Berti - then you know he will just go out and rip it up

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

yeah not enough if anything. For the PT teams - most of them anyway - they have enough depth to pretty much field quality squads all season long.

and it is nice to have races where younger guys can have a go and lesser known cyclists get some glory.

Also I don't think there are that many races leading into july. got the ardennes coming, then some giro warm up races (romandie etc) the giro, ToC, tour warm up races (suisse/dl) nationals and then the tour along with some other races obviously, but after the ardennes a lot of riders will be taking a rest till june.

 

[ingsve]

What races would that be? I just looked through the calender as well and if you remove all the small races where most PT teams won't be competing anyway then there certainly aren't too many.

I wish they could somehow bring back Tour of Sweden in the beginning of June. Sadly it went belly up in 2002 due to lack of sponsoring and things aren't looking great at the moment.

 

[echo-China]

The more people paritcipate in the race,the more fierce the games.

 

[auscyclefan94]

What races would that be? I just looked through the calender as well and if you remove all the small races where most PT teams won't be competing anyway then there certainly aren't too many.

I wish they could somehow bring back Tour of Sweden in the beginning of June. Sadly it went belly up in 2002 due to lack of sponsoring and things aren't looking great at the moment.

Main stage races after classics...

Tour de Romandie - 27th of Apr to 3rd of May
4 Days of Dunkerque - 5th to 9th of May
Giro D'Italia - 8th to the 30th of May
Tour of California - 16th to the 23rd of May
Tour of Belgium - 26th to the 30th fof May
Tour de Luxembourg - 2nd to the 6th of June
Dauphine Libere - 6th to the 13th of june
Tour de Suisse - 12th to the 20th of June
Tour de France - 3rd to the 25th of july

Can teams field quality squads to all and keep good form going into the tour without being too tired?

 

[issoisso]

Yes. Notice also that the Tour of Belgium is a very small race.

 

[Bala Verde]

Main stage races after classics...

Tour de Romandie - 27th of Apr to 3rd of May
4 Days of Dunkerque - 5th to 9th of May
Giro D'Italia - 8th to the 30th of May
Tour of California - 16th to the 23rd of May
Tour of Belgium - 26th to the 30th fof May
Tour de Luxembourg - 2nd to the 6th of June
Dauphine Libere - 6th to the 13th of june
Tour de Suisse - 12th to the 20th of June
Tour de France - 3rd to the 25th of july

Can teams field quality squads to all and keep good form going into the tour without being too tired?

I don't see why not. On top of that, it provides ample opportunity for youngsters to compete at the highest level.

 

[ingsve]

Main stage races after classics...

Tour de Romandie - 27th of Apr to 3rd of May
4 Days of Dunkerque - 5th to 9th of May
Giro D'Italia - 8th to the 30th of May
Tour of California - 16th to the 23rd of May
Tour of Belgium - 26th to the 30th fof May
Tour de Luxembourg - 2nd to the 6th of June
Dauphine Libere - 6th to the 13th of june
Tour de Suisse - 12th to the 20th of June
Tour de France - 3rd to the 25th of july

Can teams field quality squads to all and keep good form going into the tour without being too tired?

It's not like each teams tour squad is riding all these races. Teams have at least 25 riders and most teams won't even ride all these races.

And what says that a team needs to field a quality squad for each race? It's not like Tour of Belgium or Tour of Luxembourg is a big season goal for any PT teams. Alot of races are still part of the build up phase and are essentially training even that far into the season.

 

[auscyclefan94]

It's not like each teams tour squad is riding all these races. Teams have at least 25 riders and most teams won't even ride all these races.

And what says that a team needs to field a quality squad for each race? It's not like Tour of Belgium or Tour of Luxembourg is a big season goal for any PT teams. Alot of races are still part of the build up phase and are essentially training even that far into the season.

Will they have the form though going into the tour? Will teams be a bit tired?

 

[ingsve]

Will they have the form though going into the tour? Will teams be a bit tired?

How? Each rider that's going to the Tour won't ride more races than they need to prepare for the Tour. Even if a team races alot of races does not mean every rider does.

 

[9000ft]

Certainly not enough in the US. Grass roots racing, both road and off road is doing fine, but there's not near enough $ floating around to pull together the resources that it takes to put on more than a few multi day stage races with real point to point road stages.

 

[auscyclefan94]

How? Each rider that's going to the Tour won't ride more races than they need to prepare for the Tour. Even if a team races alot of races does not mean every rider does.

Some of the smaller teams especially are going to struggle and also the younger riders are going to be getting more tired around that time which will reduce numbers that teams can use.

Allso I think maybe putting one of theses races after the tour or early in the season would spread out the good quality races. A few teams are not riding the giro this year that usually would be due to ToC.

 

[karlboss]

Some of the smaller teams especially are going to struggle and also the younger riders are going to be getting more tired around that time which will reduce numbers that teams can use.

Allso I think maybe putting one of theses races after the tour or early in the season would spread out the good quality races. A few teams are not riding the giro this year that usually would be due to ToC.

Who's not riding the Giro? Radioshack...and?

With this thread are you asking for BMC's lack of depth to be pointed out? Many teams can go to all of these races and have a good showing the strongest teams should contend for the win in all of them or at least stages. If a team thinks its too much for their roster they don't have to enter.

 

[ingsve]

Some of the smaller teams especially are going to struggle and also the younger riders are going to be getting more tired around that time which will reduce numbers that teams can use.

Allso I think maybe putting one of theses races after the tour or early in the season would spread out the good quality races. A few teams are not riding the giro this year that usually would be due to ToC.

The smaller teams don't get invited to all of these races. Only the top PT teams ride the full program and they can handle it just fine.

I just don't see any problem here.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Who's not riding the Giro? Radioshack...and?

With this thread are you asking for BMC's lack of depth to be pointed out? Many teams can go to all of these races and have a good showing the strongest teams should contend for the win in all of them or at least stages. If a team thinks its too much for their roster they don't have to enter.

yeah i agree. Most of the PT teams will be fine. Most riders goin to the tour will be havinga break in the next 2 months. Other then BMC most teams should be pretty fresh. If a team has a lcak of depth they shouldn't attempt so many races.