So, after amazing racing on the cobbles, we once came down to the ground during the Ardennes week. We moan about the racing, we moan about the parcours, riders, DS's and organizers all have their thoughts about it.
There is an increasing trend toward passive racing in these races. The last 11 Ardennes classics have all rather large groups together at the foot of the final hill at 3km from the line. The last rider to win from an attack with a decent range was Roman Kreuziger, who won the AGR in 2013 after going solo from a group that attacked from far out. This trend is also happening in WC's where very often all the action is concentrated in the last lap.
The ASO has seen the lack of action at recent LBL's and decided to include a new short and steep cobbled climb very close to the finish. This didn't have the result they wanted. Racing was even more passive. An 80 group crested La Redoute together, a 40 man group crested RAF together, and after the Saint Nicolas, usually the last climb in the race, the group was still almost 30 man strong. All this without significant attacks. Finally one attack uphill was made on the new climb and they got away and were not seen again.
There is a similar thread somewhere, discussing the trends in the Grand Tour parcourses, and I think its interesting to think about what can be changed about the hilly classics.
I think it all boils down to one thing. Due to various reasons, the quality gap between team leaders and domestiques has become smaller. In a 50 man group, the team leaders have less energy than before and as a result they have to be more careful with their energy.
As a result, the hilly classics have become races of attrition. And not in a good way. We see these races be ridden at the back of the peloton, rather than at the front. Every hill the group gets a little smaller, but without anyone attacking off the front. Today you saw that happening very clearly. Riders who had done nothing all day, were super tired at the end of the day and they were crawling their way up to that cobbled climb. Last week, Tom Dumoulin accurately described the AGR as "super hard for the riders, but boring as hell for the spectators."
To make the hilly classics better, its good to take a look at the one day races that provide spectacle more often. The cobbled classics. What happens there? Riders have to make the difference from the front, not from the back. Another example are the Olympics, where the biggest teams have only 5 riders.
So in short, what I'd suggest to improve the hilly classics, would be to make the teams smaller, as has been suggested a million times before, and to make them easier, rather than harder. Make the last 20km easier, so that if the favourites want to make the difference, they'll have to do it earlier. It would also mean that outsiders risk less by going from afar, as they have smaller chances of blowing up completely.
There is an increasing trend toward passive racing in these races. The last 11 Ardennes classics have all rather large groups together at the foot of the final hill at 3km from the line. The last rider to win from an attack with a decent range was Roman Kreuziger, who won the AGR in 2013 after going solo from a group that attacked from far out. This trend is also happening in WC's where very often all the action is concentrated in the last lap.
The ASO has seen the lack of action at recent LBL's and decided to include a new short and steep cobbled climb very close to the finish. This didn't have the result they wanted. Racing was even more passive. An 80 group crested La Redoute together, a 40 man group crested RAF together, and after the Saint Nicolas, usually the last climb in the race, the group was still almost 30 man strong. All this without significant attacks. Finally one attack uphill was made on the new climb and they got away and were not seen again.
There is a similar thread somewhere, discussing the trends in the Grand Tour parcourses, and I think its interesting to think about what can be changed about the hilly classics.
I think it all boils down to one thing. Due to various reasons, the quality gap between team leaders and domestiques has become smaller. In a 50 man group, the team leaders have less energy than before and as a result they have to be more careful with their energy.
As a result, the hilly classics have become races of attrition. And not in a good way. We see these races be ridden at the back of the peloton, rather than at the front. Every hill the group gets a little smaller, but without anyone attacking off the front. Today you saw that happening very clearly. Riders who had done nothing all day, were super tired at the end of the day and they were crawling their way up to that cobbled climb. Last week, Tom Dumoulin accurately described the AGR as "super hard for the riders, but boring as hell for the spectators."
To make the hilly classics better, its good to take a look at the one day races that provide spectacle more often. The cobbled classics. What happens there? Riders have to make the difference from the front, not from the back. Another example are the Olympics, where the biggest teams have only 5 riders.
So in short, what I'd suggest to improve the hilly classics, would be to make the teams smaller, as has been suggested a million times before, and to make them easier, rather than harder. Make the last 20km easier, so that if the favourites want to make the difference, they'll have to do it earlier. It would also mean that outsiders risk less by going from afar, as they have smaller chances of blowing up completely.
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