General News Thread

[rick james]

Re:

Tour of Britain route just got presented. Looks very flat, which is lame.

Seems a strange decision as they've had good fields in recent years catering to Worlds contenders. I guess the length is good for preparation but hard to imagine the field will be that great.

Pathetic, missing the best parts of Scotland out again.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Tour of Britain route just got presented. Looks very flat, which is lame.

Seems a strange decision as they've had good fields in recent years catering to Worlds contenders. I guess the length is good for preparation but hard to imagine the field will be that great.

Pathetic, missing the best parts of Scotland out again.

In fairness, this year missing out the best parts wasn't a problem exclusive to Scotland

 

[Kazistuta]

Yet another DNF for Malori... so sad that it seems he can't come back to cycling for good.

 

[mariposa]

Re:

Yet another DNF for Malori... so sad that it seems he can't come back to cycling for good.

A real shame. He is getting a lot of encouragement from his team mates on twitter. I hope that things improve for him. It must be so hard and amazing that he keeps trying.

 

[RedheadDane]

I kinda feel bad that I keep forgetting about Malori... hope he can make a full recovery.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Movistar director interview at the Giro about Malori. Career may be over. Probably will never recover

 

[silvergrenade]

Re:

Movistar director interview at the Giro about Malori. Career may be over. Probably will never recover

Crap!

 

[glassmoon]

Not pro cycling but somehow cycling related: Nicky Hayden (35) world motoGP champion apparently died today as a result of the last week's accident in which he was hit by a car during his training on a road bike... RIP.

EDIT: Proper thread: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=33227

 

[mariposa]

Re:

Movistar director interview at the Giro about Malori. Career may be over. Probably will never recover

Do you have a link to this interview please?

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Movistar director interview at the Giro about Malori. Career may be over. Probably will never recover

Do you have a link to this interview please?

It was live on TV, sorry

 

[Nirvana]

For the 2018 Giro seems that Israel has surpassed Poland for the start.
I've never take seriously the Japan rumors because i think it's undoable.
http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/italia-mondo/2017/05/27/news/giro-2018-israele-sorpassa-la-polonia-1.15400986

Another new rumor in the article is the stage in Belice to commemorate the earthquake and the candidature of Prato Nevoso for a stage finish, the others like the double Zoncolan and Sorgenti del Piavere are already in the air by months.

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

For the 2018 Giro seems that Israel has surpassed Poland for the start.
I've never take seriously the Japan rumors because i think it's undoable.
http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/italia-mondo/2017/05/27/news/giro-2018-israele-sorpassa-la-polonia-1.15400986

Another new rumor in the article is the stage in Belice to commemorate the earthquake and the candidature of Prato Nevoso for a stage finish, the others like the double Zoncolan and Sorgenti del Piavere are already in the air by months.

Making it start in a bordering country would make much more sense.

1.) A small time trial in Malta followed by a couple of stages in Sicily.
2.) Three opening stages in the Croatia-Slovenia region.

Bratislava and Budapest would make fine opening cities too. You can get to Italy in less than 3 stages.

Tunisia is another possibility.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re: Re:

Tunisia is another possibility.

Vuelta to have a start in Morocco. Into Spain for the beginning of stage 3: a totally flat stage from Ceuta to Algeciras. Might be a few DNFs on that stage.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

For the 2018 Giro seems that Israel has surpassed Poland for the start.
I've never take seriously the Japan rumors because i think it's undoable.
http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/italia-mondo/2017/05/27/news/giro-2018-israele-sorpassa-la-polonia-1.15400986

Another new rumor in the article is the stage in Belice to commemorate the earthquake and the candidature of Prato Nevoso for a stage finish, the others like the double Zoncolan and Sorgenti del Piavere are already in the air by months.

Making it start in a bordering country would make much more sense.

1.) A small time trial in Malta followed by a couple of stages in Sicily.
2.) Three opening stages in the Croatia-Slovenia region.

Bratislava and Budapest would make fine opening cities too. You can get to Italy in less than 3 stages.

Tunisia is another possibility.

Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland.
I think it's pretty obvious that the Giro organisers aren't that concerned with making sense. Though, Japan might still be too far away, suppose it needs to be possible to move everybody back to Italy within a day.

 

[Nirvana]

Re: Re:

For the 2018 Giro seems that Israel has surpassed Poland for the start.
I've never take seriously the Japan rumors because i think it's undoable.
http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/italia-mondo/2017/05/27/news/giro-2018-israele-sorpassa-la-polonia-1.15400986

Another new rumor in the article is the stage in Belice to commemorate the earthquake and the candidature of Prato Nevoso for a stage finish, the others like the double Zoncolan and Sorgenti del Piavere are already in the air by months.

Making it start in a bordering country would make much more sense.

1.) A small time trial in Malta followed by a couple of stages in Sicily.
2.) Three opening stages in the Croatia-Slovenia region.

Bratislava and Budapest would make fine opening cities too. You can get to Italy in less than 3 stages.

Tunisia is another possibility.

I think they based it on the money that the start location would pay.
They'll continue with the format with three stages near the start location then a rest day to fly in the southern Italy for the rest of the first week of the race.
But that's impossible for Japan, they need two intercontinental travel in a week, riders and teams will boicott it, if UCI allows RCS to do so.

 

[May0maniac]

Trentin just crashed into a bear(!) while he was training around Morro Bay with the team.
He's ok, but just look at his helmet:

source: http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/2017/05/29/101718/trentin-california-orso-frontale

 

[Valv.Piti]

Please just ascent Zoncolan one time and add Crostis to the equation instead. Still, ascending Zoncolan 2 times sounds alot more interesting than Alpe d' Huez 2 times..

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

For the 2018 Giro seems that Israel has surpassed Poland for the start.
I've never take seriously the Japan rumors because i think it's undoable.
http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/italia-mondo/2017/05/27/news/giro-2018-israele-sorpassa-la-polonia-1.15400986

Another new rumor in the article is the stage in Belice to commemorate the earthquake and the candidature of Prato Nevoso for a stage finish, the others like the double Zoncolan and Sorgenti del Piavere are already in the air by months.

Making it start in a bordering country would make much more sense.

1.) A small time trial in Malta followed by a couple of stages in Sicily.
2.) Three opening stages in the Croatia-Slovenia region.

Bratislava and Budapest would make fine opening cities too. You can get to Italy in less than 3 stages.

Tunisia is another possibility.

Greece is fine, and I've previously designed Giri (not published) opening in Albania as they seem to be developing an interest for the sport slowly and there's a large Albanian expat community in Italy now.

Morocco for the Vuelta won't happen as long as they're keen for Ceuta and Melilla to play a role. Which is a shame as you could have a great start around parts of the Rif mountains to create a less than straightforward introduction, then cross over to Algeciras or La Linea. In the one I designed it was Casablanca TT, Casablanca - Rabat and Ksar el-Kebir - Tangier, but Fes - Fes, Fes - Chefchaouen, Chefchaouen - Tangier could also work well. I think they'd be looking more for something like Tangier - Tangier, Tangier - Tetouan, Ceuta - Ceuta though, which will cause more issues with the Moroccans.

What would an Israel start consist of? Presumably they'd be flying to Italy from Ben Gurion, so would need to end stage 3 somewhere at least close to Tel Aviv. Would expect that to be the base in all fairness, though perhaps something like Tel Aviv - Tel Aviv (chrono, either ITT or TTT - too flat for an opening road stage as likely to struggle with a categorized climb), Tel Aviv - Haifa (mostly flat along the coast but with Mount Carmel as a climb so potentially an interesting stage), Haifa or somewhere nearby - Tel Aviv or somewhere nearby (flat stage).

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Trentin just crashed into a bear(!) while he was training around Morro Bay with the team.
He's ok, but just look at his helmet:

source: http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/2017/05/29/101718/trentin-california-orso-frontale

:surprised:

Wut?

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Please just ascent Zoncolan one time and add Crostis to the equation instead. Still, ascending Zoncolan 2 times sounds alot more interesting than Alpe d' Huez 2 times..

The big problem is that they want to do 2 different ascents of the Zoncolan and with it also being the MTF there would be huge crowds, that and the narrow steep road would make the Zoncolan descent a nightmare to deal with.
The plan is to do the classic side from Ovaro early, then the never used side from Priola, 8.9km at 12.8% as the MTF. I think Zoncolan from Ovaro is a better MTF because of the nasty middle part of the climb and the easier final 2km, if the rest of the stage is hard enough it has the potential to create big gaps.
The easier way to create such a stage would be Zoncolan from Priola until the road converges with the one from Sutrio, it would be 5.6km at 13% then descent down to Sutrio, then Sella Valcalda and then Zoncolan from Ovaro and maybe you could even have 1 or 2 climbs before the ascent from Priola.
Regarding GT starts in other countries, I wouldn't mind seeing a TdF start in Algeria, it could be a gesture of reconciliation.

 

[Netserk]

I'd prefer Ovaro - Zonc - Sutrio - Priola - Zonc to the junction.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

I'd prefer Ovaro - Zonc - Sutrio - Priola - Zonc to the junction.

From a pure racing perspective that could work really well and there would be a parking lot and enough space to host a MTF, but the Zoncolan descent with limited support (only motobikes) and all those braindead idiots that you usually have on the Zoncolan, that could be a problem.

 

[Red Rick]

Double Zonc ascent on the 2nd to last day? Have they learnt nothing?

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

Trentin just crashed into a bear(!) while he was training around Morro Bay with the team.
He's ok, but just look at his helmet:

source: http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/2017/05/29/101718/trentin-california-orso-frontale

:surprised:

Wut?

A bear, this tops the cat I hit last week.

 

[tristecsinamigos]

what happened to the cat? :surprised: