General News Thread

[Ricco']

No Pippo in Roubaix.

ASO invited Bora- Argon 18 (Ger), Cofidis, Solutions Crédit (Fra), Delko Marseille Provence KTM (Fra), Direct Energie (Fra), Fortuneo – Vital Concept (Fra), Topsport –Vlaanderen – Baloise (Bel) and Wanty – Groupe Gobert (Bel).

 

[pastronef]

Re:

No Pippo in Roubaix.

ASO invited Bora- Argon 18 (Ger), Cofidis, Solutions Crédit (Fra), Delko Marseille Provence KTM (Fra), Direct Energie (Fra), Fortuneo – Vital Concept (Fra), Topsport –Vlaanderen – Baloise (Bel) and Wanty – Groupe Gobert (Bel).

that's fine like that
Pippo's team already has Omloop, Kuurne, E3, Flanders. more than enough

Delko Marseille gets its place.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Final weekend of this year's Volta a Portugal seems to be...

Alcácer do Sal > Setubal (with Serra da Arrábida)
Vila Franca de Xira > Lisboa CRI

So everything is ready for Veloso III.

 

[pablopaul]

Re:

Bahrain to create a WT team in 2017?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nibali-linked-to-new-bahrain-sponsored-team-for-2017/

Interesting.

If they throw money around like some middle-eastern investors have in football (soccer) Sky might just have found someone bigger than them.

 

[pastronef]

Seier and Rijs will NOT BUY Tinkoff license

http://www.seiercapital.com/the-riis-seier-project/

 

[rune1107]

Re:

Bahrain!? Riis ain't ashamed of anything. He really is the cancer of cycling and this time around he's bringing AIDS straight with him.

I actually like the description of the project a lot! It is difficult for teams to build a solid foundation, with sponsors leaving left and right. If they, in a way, can create a team that doesn't need to rely on a sponsor in the same way, it could end up being a revolution for cycling. With both Riis and Seier and potentially a middle-eastern sponsor, this could turn into a powerhouse team. Although people don't like Riis, I look at him as a strategic mastermind and a very nice man. Especially after watching his documentary and his appearance as an expert during the danish coverage of the TDF 15.

Hopefully, thursday is a welcome back to the WorldTour for Seier and Riis!

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Final weekend of this year's Volta a Portugal seems to be...

Alcácer do Sal > Setubal (with Serra da Arrábida)
Vila Franca de Xira > Lisboa CRI

So everything is ready for Veloso III.

Heh, right in my backyard then. I honestly can't remember the last time the Volta did a Margem Sul stage. Hell, last time I remember them doing anything like a mountaintop finish in the south it must have been Fóia the year Lelli won. I wish they'd do Sesimbra instead of Setúbal though, really scenic. I'll settle for Arrábida tough

EDIT: Not the year Lelli won. And now I'm not even sure anymore. I think I'm remembering the 1994 Volta. But that's surprising as I was five. Over 20 years. Hah!

 

[Max Rockatansky]

1996 was the year, when Lelli won a stage on Fóia. Lelli won six stages that year plus overall and points. What a beast.

There is a list of all cities and towns used in A Volta until 2011.

http://www.uvp-fpc.pt/ficheirossite/08112012100240.pdf

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

Hopefully, thursday is a welcome back to the WorldTour for Seier and Riis!

And cycling keeps on punching itself in the face

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Re:

1996 was the year, when Lelli won a stage on Fóia. Lelli won six stages that year plus overall and points. What a beast.

There is a list of all cities and towns used in A Volta until 2011.

http://www.uvp-fpc.pt/ficheirossite/08112012100240.pdf

Thanks for that! I distinctively remembered that one, but the only website I found presented the wrong year's parcours. I remember the Mirandela start and Cândido Barbosa in the young riders' jersey, as well as Lelli cleaning most of the stages. That's where my passion for cycling began. Same year I remember watching Riis in the rain wearing the Danish champs' jersey winning a stage in the rain which must have been the shortened stage from Monetier-les-Bains to Sestriéres.

Enough nostalgia.

 

[yaco]

Gee you may as well close down cycling if you don't allow Reis to set up a team. Once you get rid of dopers in the peleton and the various DS's you'll have a reduced peleton - Think it makes some people feel good.

 

[jens_attacks]

Vamos bjarne a tope

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

Gee you may as well close down cycling if you don't allow Reis to set up a team. Once you get rid of dopers in the peleton and the various DS's you'll have a reduced peleton - Think it makes some people feel good.

Why would that be a bad thing? Constantly repeating the mistakes of the past is as about as stupid as it gets

 

[Libertine Seguros]

No team should EVER be granted a WT licence in its first year. If you jump to a ProConti team you have to run the risk of not getting invites, and the team has to provide an attractive proposition to race organizers, in order to earn the points to justify WT position.

If a team signs big enough names the invitations will come, just as happened when BMC signed Evans or with the Cervélo Test Team, but that way you're not left with the two big problems I see coming from it:
1) a top-heavy team overstretches its roster and takes away race spots from teams that could bring more, like the 2010 BMC team once they had Evans and Ballan but little else, so once Evans got hurt after a week of the Tour, they were only nominally present
2) a series of spiralling costs as nobody wants to invest unless they can guarantee the top invites, so they just throw the money at big stars and price long-standing loyal teams on lower budgets like Lotto and FDJ out of the top levels.
Making a team start ProConti for a year to justify their presence allows them to target races they can be of value to and not result in situations like year one GreenEdge at the Giro where they focused on coming out of the gate hot to garner buzz around the team, then by the time they got to the Giro, the big names were preparing for other races and they got DQed from the teams classification for only having two finishers and also minimise potential Euskaltel-at-Roubaix outliers. It also makes starting up a team more affordable, because you can splash out on a big star or two, but don't need as many riders to be ProConti, and can use a good calendar and the invites from your top riders as a fulcrum to go WT and spend the money in year two, reducing the risk of short term vanity projects like LEOPARD TREK®.

 

[trevim]

Final weekend of this year's Volta a Portugal seems to be...

Alcácer do Sal > Setubal (with Serra da Arrábida)
Vila Franca de Xira > Lisboa CRI

So everything is ready for Veloso III.

Wow that's awful
That MTF will be beautiful but it's not hard enough to allow for any sort of selection. It would be an awesome 1st hilly stage but definitely not the last one. The TT should be OK although I would prefer them to start in Sintra ou something like that to add some spice to an otherwise flat affair.

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Final weekend of this year's Volta a Portugal seems to be...

Alcácer do Sal > Setubal (with Serra da Arrábida)
Vila Franca de Xira > Lisboa CRI

So everything is ready for Veloso III.

Wow that's awful
That MTF will be beautiful but it's not hard enough to allow for any sort of selection. It would be an awesome 1st hilly stage but definitely not the last one. The TT should be OK although I would prefer them to start in Sintra ou something like that to add some spice to an otherwise flat affair.

I'm assuming a descent finish into Setúbal from Max's description, considering Alcácer into Arrábida from Setúbal is really short for a road stage. A descent finish here isn't completely awful...I'm assuming they'll go around Arrábida to climb it from the west (detour through Palmela first?). Still a pretty short stage though? They might go for a circuit race with Arrábida using the mountaintop road and the one that runs above Portinho.

The Volta has always been way to focused on the North though. I'm glad to see this region back in it. Realistically, the South is not quite as suited for a race finish as it lacks serious mountains compared to the North (highest point south of Portalegre has got to be...Fóia?). But having a so-called tour of Portugal regularly doing just half the country is ridiculous. Sometimes I just wish they'd have the Volta go WT replacing Algarve and we'd see a proper race. Sadly, the Volta's folklore pretty much dictates the August date. It'd be like taking the TDF out of July.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Final weekend of this year's Volta a Portugal seems to be...

Alcácer do Sal > Setubal (with Serra da Arrábida)
Vila Franca de Xira > Lisboa CRI

So everything is ready for Veloso III.

Wow that's awful
That MTF will be beautiful but it's not hard enough to allow for any sort of selection. It would be an awesome 1st hilly stage but definitely not the last one. The TT should be OK although I would prefer them to start in Sintra ou something like that to add some spice to an otherwise flat affair.

I'm assuming a descent finish into Setúbal from Max's description, considering Alcácer into Arrábida from Setúbal is really short for a road stage. A descent finish here isn't completely awful...I'm assuming they'll go around Arrábida to climb it from the west (detour through Palmela first?). Still a pretty short stage though? They might go for a circuit race with Arrábida using the mountaintop road and the one that runs above Portinho.

The Volta has always been way to focused on the North though. I'm glad to see this region back in it. Realistically, the South is not quite as suited for a race finish as it lacks serious mountains compared to the North (highest point south of Portalegre has got to be...Fóia?). But having a so-called tour of Portugal regularly doing just half the country is ridiculous. Sometimes I just wish they'd have the Volta go WT replacing Algarve and we'd see a proper race. Sadly, the Volta's folklore pretty much dictates the August date. It'd be like taking the TDF out of July.

From the article.

"Antes do final em Setúbal, a passagem pela Serra da Arrábida, que terá um prémio de montanha, é curta, mas difícil. Esta etapa, a penúltima, poderá vir a decidir a volta antes do contrarrelógio de 07 de agosto entre Vila Franca de Xira e Lisboa", vaticinou o dirigente.

A short but difficult climb. Kind of vague of course.

http://www.dn.pt/desporto/interior/joaquim-gomes-elogia-regresso-de-setubal-e-alentejo-a-volta-4988111.html

 

[Ricco']

In this year LBL after La Redoute, Roche-aux-Faucons and Saint-Nicolas the riders will tackle the short climb in Rue Naniot, 600m @ 10.5% with cobbles before the traditional ending in Ans.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

https://goo.gl/maps/hnS8NCJ5x5v

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Also, no Stockeu

Not sure if the changes are for the better...

 

[togo95]

I don't like it. I would like changes for toughening the 100-220 km part and easing up the last 30 km. This goes rather in the opposite direction.

 

[fauniera]

Re:

I would like changes for toughening the 100-220 km part and easing up the last 30 km.

That's a romantic idea, but it wouldn't work nowadays. Would be a bunch sprint. Also it doesn't get much tougher than Wanne/Stockeu/Haute Levee, but it hardly has any effect.

I like the new finale.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re:

https://goo.gl/maps/hnS8NCJ5x5v

I've been there a lot, I did it at the end of a 90km tour when I was 12, shouldn't be that hard for a guy in shape

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

It better not be too hard, that would ruin the finale. I seems like a perfect place to break away from a small group though.

 

[GP Blanco]

Vanmarcke thought about quitting after the critisism last year.

http://m.sporza.be/#!/snippet/56cd4ecfc9976f72b7ea0d3e