General News Thread

[Breh]

Re:

Having seen those pictures from the Tour of Rwanda I really hope they can get it some day. However, and this might be extremely prejudiced, I dunno if they can afford it. If not, then maybe the richer national federations should lend them a hand.

That would be great, seeing these riders on their bikes worth €10k race on dirt tracks while about 40% of the children in Rwanda is malnourished.

Not to mention the variety of other reasons why this would be a bad idea.
Rwanda is really not an option for atleast the next 20years.

 

[RedheadDane]

If only there was a way to host a big event in Rwanda or other countries in similar situations - maybe not the World's, but something slightly smaller - and instead of having it cost them money it would actually give them money.
Have the richer national federations, and UCI in general, pay the bill while the host country gets to keep the revenue.

 

[Sestriere]

The problem is that it's difficult to earn money from organising a bike race because there are no entrance fees. The only chance are sponsors and selling TV rights. I have no idea if there is a rich patron in Rwanda who would be willing to pay the costs.
From what I know, the people in Rwanda are very passionate about cycling, so that will help to find the necessary support among the people. It would be very bad indeed if the funding of the event would result in budget cuts in other way more important sectors such as education or health care.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re:

According to Sporza UCI has some new guidelines for next season:

-Missing the time limit will result in loss of all points in the minor classifications if the jury decides not to kick you out.

A rule to give the race jury a get-out for ignoring the rules. I'm rather they just instructed race juries to apply the rules that exist.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

According to Sporza UCI has some new guidelines for next season:

-Missing the time limit will result in loss of all points in the minor classifications if the jury decides not to kick you out.

A rule to give the race jury a get-out for ignoring the rules. I'm rather they just instructed race juries to apply the rules that exist.

Are you talking about going under level crossings? I don't remember any other rules not being enforced.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re: Re:

According to Sporza UCI has some new guidelines for next season:

-Missing the time limit will result in loss of all points in the minor classifications if the jury decides not to kick you out.

A rule to give the race jury a get-out for ignoring the rules. I'm rather they just instructed race juries to apply the rules that exist.

Are you talking about going under level crossings? I don't remember any other rules not being enforced.

Er, I'm talking about the only new guideline that I quoted.
You don't remember any instances of time limits not being enforced?

 

[GuyIncognito]

Ah, the Vuelta time limit. Sure, I'm onboard.

 

[RedheadDane]

To me the biggest problem with the dispensation-system is that number of riders being HD, rather than how hard each individual rider worked to finish.
So a rider who crashes, and then works his ass out of his shorts to finish just a few seconds outside the timelimit, is less likely to be granted mercy than a whole bunch of riders taking it easy in order to all stick together, and finishing several minutes outside the timelimit.

 

[Gigs_98]

Can't wait for biased jury decisions with this new time limit rule.

That said, the rule that you lose your minor classification points is great and will change the way the grupetto races. Sprinters usually care about the points classification and they are usually in the grupetto so huge groups finishing outside the time limit will get a lot less common.

 

[May0maniac]

The start and finish of all the Tour de Romandie stages has been revealed almost 2 weeks ago:
Prologe: Fribourg
Stage 1: Fribourg - Delémont
Stage 2: Delémont - Yverdon-les-Bains
Stage 3 (MTT): Ollon - Villars
Stage 4: Sion - Sion (apparently the hardest mountain stage)
Stage 5: Mont-sur-Rolle - Genève
Source: http://www.tagblatt.ch/sport/rad/etappenorte-der-tour-de-romandie-bekannt;art608,5092910

 

[Forever The Best]

That stage 4 can be a very good stage.

 

[RedheadDane]

I know this isn't news, but I just realised a rather neat pattern about the Monuments, and couldn't think of anywhere else to post it.

Italy.
Belgium.
France.
Belgium.
Italy.

 

[trucido]

Nice article on custom kit for riders + bikes https://cyclingtips.com/2017/10/betting-on-the-win-special-bikes-kit-for-victory/

 

[Red Rick]

The driver of the van that collided with Michele Scarponi is on trial. He alledgely was watching a video on his phone, which lead to the accident.

http://amp.timeinc.net/cyclingweekly/news/latest-news/scarponi-driver-distracted-video-playing-smartphone-354403?source=dam

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

The driver of the van that collided with Michele Scarponi is on trial. He alledgely was watching a video on his phone, which lead to the accident.

http://amp.timeinc.net/cyclingweekly/news/latest-news/scarponi-driver-distracted-video-playing-smartphone-354403?source=dam

Who's so *** dumb to watch a video while driving? I know there's an issue with texting and I strongly disfavor that whenever it occurs. But to watch a full video. My gosh. That's at least negligence if not more...

 

[Alexandre B.]

The 2018 edition of Grand Prix de Denain will be held on sunday, a day after Milano-Sanremo, and will feature some cobbles from Paris-Roubaix (more than ten sectors, it will be a real race for cobbles-lovers).

 

[Anderis]

Shame it will be just a day after MSR then, otherwise it could attract a stronger field.

 

[May0maniac]

The Giro del Trentino (I refuse to use the new name) route will be unveiled on the 7th of november in Milan (probably because of RCS promoting the race).
Source: https://tourofthealps.eu/en/tour-of-the-alps-to-be-discovered-in-milan-on-november-7th

 

[Sestriere]

ASO announced today that Trier (close to the Luxemburg-border) is going to be hosting a stage of the re-established Tour of Germany next year. A nice route up and down the vineyards along the Moselle would surely be great to watch.
Trier is the second city to be announced after Stuttgart, so we can expect the race to stay rather in the south west of the country for now.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Cédric Vasseur new general manager of Cofidis.

 

[Nirvana]

From Lasterketa Burua we have the original profiles of Perpignan-Luchon 1910, Luchon-Bayonne 1910, Chamonix-Grenoble 1911, Bayonne-Luchon 1913 and Nice-Grenoble 1919.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Nice find! I'm always surprised when seeing those old profiles. Apparently riders could ride 300km+ multi mountain stages in those days, but nowadays when roads, bikes, nutrition, training etc. have become much better, routes are only becoming easier. If anything, they should have become harder since those days in order to compensate for everything else getting easier. I'd really like to see that 326km Aubisque > Tourmalet > Aspin > Peyresourde > Luchon stage today. #Makecyclinganendurancesportagain

 

[Chrispol]

Nice find ! But is Gallica and not Lasterketa Burua who released online the old Auto Journal magazine, the "l'Equipe" ancestor, since 1900 ! And with have some mythical quotes from Henri Desgranges too !

BTW col de Valgelaye is the col d'Allos.

 

[RedheadDane]

Nice find! I'm always surprised when seeing those old profiles. Apparently riders could ride 300km+ multi mountain stages in those days, but nowadays when roads, bikes, nutrition, training etc. have become much better, routes are only becoming easier. If anything, they should have become harder since those days in order to compensate for everything else getting easier. I'd really like to see that 326km Aubisque > Tourmalet > Aspin > Peyresourde > Luchon stage today. #Makecyclinganendurancesportagain

Well, if you look at Wikipedia you'll see that there are there were only new stages every other day; riders just rode through the nights as well.
Unfortunately that doesn't really fit with modern viewers... also, I guess people have realised that sleep is kinda important.

 

[Robert5091]

ASO's finances -
http://inrng.com/2017/11/amaury-sport-accounts-finances/#more-32471

Much is made of ASO’s dominant position in the sport but how much money does the Parisian race owner make? Here’s a closer look at the finances of Amaury Sport Organisation.

The latest set of accounts show annual revenue for 2016 of €220 million and profits of €45.9 million.

As the documents show the Dauphiné’s annual budget is around two million Euros and it breaks even with a meagre profit: just €11,892 for 2016. Remember this is consistently one of the best stage races of the year attracting a stellar field and offering a sublime Alpine route but it’s no money spinner.