General News Thread

[jens_attacks]

Cocaine, brothels...


Make pro cycling great again!

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Volta ao Algarve will be live on ESP this february.

 

[GP Blanco]

Re:

For those who speak Dutch, nice little piece on the Tour of Congo, which happens to be vastly different from the well-organised European races.

http://www.vicesports.nl/diarree-hoeren-en-coke-de-nederlander-die-de-ronde-van-congo-won/?utm_source=sportsfbned

- Due to not enough rooms on a plane, not all bikes could be transported to the starting location, so the first stage would be ridden without the whole peloton being there, but the VIP who had to give the starting sign wouldn't show up for half a peloton, so the first stage was delayed
- For more stuff like that, no stages were ridden in the first 3 days of the race, so the race director was fired and jailed, though people say he'll probably organize the race again next year
- Due to chaotic scheduling, transfers are long and very hectic, and some bus drivers use cocaine to stay awake
- Several teams had to sleep in brothels rather than hotels
- It was considered relatively normal for a rider to get diarrhea at some point during the race
- The people were all super excited about the race going through their towns and villages, and in the finishing criterium the crowds were huge.

And the winner was Dutch. There is **** hope after all

Sounds like the goal of Thomas Dekker.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Predictable Tour wildcards: Wanty, Cofidis, Direct energie and Fortuneo

 

[pastronef]

Re:

Predictable Tour wildcards: Wanty, Cofidis, Direct energie and Fortuneo

I am not a Wanty fan very much. but finally they got their Tour start. fair.

but shame they got the Dauphine wild card too, instead of Fortuneo

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Predictable Tour wildcards: Wanty, Cofidis, Direct energie and Fortuneo

I am not a Wanty fan very much. but finally they got their Tour start. fair.

but shame they got the Dauphine wild card too, instead of Fortuneo

The Dauphine and PN wildcards are highly conservative. All drawn from the four French teams and Wanty. I'd much prefer to see invites for these races primarily given to teams with neither a Tour nor Giro wildcard. There are loads of ambitious PCT teams which would see say the Dauphine as a major seasons highlight and which would target it, but instead the invites go to teams for which it is a warm up race.

The Tour wildcards are pretty sensible though, particularly compared to the Giro zaniness.

As for Cofidis, it never stops annoying me that they are effectively guaranteed two GTs and any ASO races they like every year.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

Predictable Tour wildcards: Wanty, Cofidis, Direct energie and Fortuneo

I am not a Wanty fan very much. but finally they got their Tour start. fair.

but shame they got the Dauphine wild card too, instead of Fortuneo

The Dauphine and PN wildcards are highly conservative. All drawn from the four French teams and Wanty. I'd much prefer to see invites for these races primarily given to teams with neither a Tour nor Giro wildcard. There are loads of ambitious PCT teams which would see say the Dauphine as a major seasons highlight and which would target it, but instead the invites go to teams for which it is a warm up race.

The Tour wildcards are pretty sensible though, particularly compared to the Giro zaniness.

As for Cofidis, it never stops annoying me that they are effectively guaranteed two GTs and any ASO races they like every year.

They deserve it, name me some other sponsors that have done more for the sport than Cofidis?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Predictable Tour wildcards: Wanty, Cofidis, Direct energie and Fortuneo

I am not a Wanty fan very much. but finally they got their Tour start. fair.

but shame they got the Dauphine wild card too, instead of Fortuneo

The Dauphine and PN wildcards are highly conservative. All drawn from the four French teams and Wanty. I'd much prefer to see invites for these races primarily given to teams with neither a Tour nor Giro wildcard. There are loads of ambitious PCT teams which would see say the Dauphine as a major seasons highlight and which would target it, but instead the invites go to teams for which it is a warm up race.

The Tour wildcards are pretty sensible though, particularly compared to the Giro zaniness.

As for Cofidis, it never stops annoying me that they are effectively guaranteed two GTs and any ASO races they like every year.

They deserve it, name me some other sponsors that have done more for the sport than Cofidis?

Name another team as bad so consistently with consistent access to all of the big races it wants. I've no problem with Cofidis getting into the Tour every year, as long as they are one of the two biggest French PCT teams, but every god damn race is ridiculous.

There are quite a few long term sponsors of PCT teams, from Androni to Canada Rural to United Healthcare who don't seem to see much in the way of guaranteed invites to all of the big races as a result.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Volta ao Algarve will be live on ESP this february.

This deserves more attention and cheering for. Great news.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re: Re:

Volta ao Algarve will be live on ESP this february.

This deserves more attention and cheering for. Great news.

yep, an excellent development.

 

[Unchained]

Dear American pro cycling..
you did this to yourself.Had you not wanted to azzkiss, Big George and LA you never should have changed the titles of the races. Philadelphia was the location.. not Carolina anywhere. Now the 2017 version of the race is cancelled.
Had Philadelphia been called and recognized as the US Pro Championship we would have had one.. really one cycling constant. No Red Zinger,no Tour of anything, including the Tour d Trump. You diluted what was already weak.
Funny how the only successful US race was the worlds it made some profit.
All the people involved should be ashamed.
The great people of Philadelphia have opened their city, volunteered their time and had off the hook party environment course wide with a special crazy as riders crank up Manayunk wall..you squandered it away.
I will watch extra happy and appreciate the Tour of California and Redlands this year knowing you will probably piss away the support you already have.
You didn't help Otto Wenz either and that ran it's course..US racing organization reinvents the wheel every other week never capitalising on community support.

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

Predictable Tour wildcards: Wanty, Cofidis, Direct energie and Fortuneo

I am not a Wanty fan very much. but finally they got their Tour start. fair.

but shame they got the Dauphine wild card too, instead of Fortuneo

I think it's fair that Wanty go to the Dauphine along with the Tour wildcard, Fortuneo get P-N and the Tour which is good enough for them.

 

[May0maniac]

Any news about the Milano - Sanremo route?
After Demare's win there was a debate about the route and even La Gazzetta asked a few big names who have won it like Moser if the route should be change, so I assumed that RCS wanted to change the route.

Maybe they'll bring back Le Manie, Le Manie + Via Roma should make the race hard enough and give the attackers a decent chance.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

Any news about the Milano - Sanremo route?
After Demare's win there was a debate about the route and even La Gazzetta asked a few big names who have won it like Moser if the route should be change, so I assumed that RCS wanted to change the route.

Maybe they'll bring back Le Manie, Le Manie + Via Roma should make the race hard enough and give the attackers a decent chance.

For a moment, I thought you meant Moreno.

The Gazzetta website shows the same route as last year, but they may have not updated anything and it's last year's race

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Yes, it is still the route of 2016. Last year they announced the route one month before the race. I haven't read any rumors so far, so it might be the same route. Normally there would be chatter.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Any news on Verva-ActiveJet? They are still not registered by the UCI. The team's website, Twitter, facebook have been silent since December.

 

[GambadiLegno]

Don't know if someone posted in other thread: Ciolek finally retires, same as Gerdemann. He's only 30, but seems that no offer is enough for him to continue as a professional. I've always seen him as those kind of cyclist that should have won many more important races than he did, but after a great success he had a lack of motivation these last years with very poor results for a rider like him...

 

[jflemaire]

No Stockeu nor Haute Levée on Liège-Bastogne-Liège because of roadwork in Stavelot. ASO is looking for an alternative route. Link to article in French: http://www.rtbf.be/sport/cyclisme/detail_pas-de-stockeu-ni-de-haute-levee-sur-liege-bastogne-liege?id=9519684

 

[ciranda]

Oh man that's a shame. Stockeu was not there last year either as far as I remember.

 

[jflemaire]

Re:

No Stockeu nor Haute Levée on Liège-Bastogne-Liège because of roadwork in Stavelot. ASO is looking for an alternative route. Link to article in French: http://www.rtbf.be/sport/cyclisme/detail_pas-de-stockeu-ni-de-haute-levee-sur-liege-bastogne-liege?id=9519684

Edit: Haute Levée might actually still be in the race. Article in the link above has been updated.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Tour de l'Ain 2017

Prologue of 3,8km in Bourg-en-Bresse, then

 

[Eshnar]

Tour of the Alps 2017 Route presented today. Interesting route, particularly pleasured by the appearance of L'Alpe di Rodengo.

1 Kufstein - Innsbruck Hungerburg:

2 Innsbruck - Innervillgraten:

3 Villabassa - Funes:

4 Bolzano - Cles:

5 Smarano - Trento:

 

[Netserk]

Nice route. Landa ftw

 

[staubsauger]

Rodenecker Alm / Parkplatz Zumis certainly's a nice little col!

Well, not so little actually:
http://www.quaeldich.de/paesse/parkplatz-zumis/
http://cyclingcols.com/col/Rodengo_RodeneckerAlm

Nice route overall. Looks good for Pozzovivo or maybe even for Landa! Although he shouldn't peak too early. Bernal and Torres might make this their major spring goal now. Maybe they could at least recommend Androni Giocatolli for a Tour de Suisse wildcard that way. Depending on whether Infront gives away their invitations of course.

 

[Gigs_98]

Nice route. There are climbs in all stages but no super hard stage which means that no rider will easily dominate the gc.