General News Thread

[Ludwigzgz]

Mitchelton Scott has been rebadged as the Manuela Fundacion for 2020 and beyond - Read story on the CN front page - It's always good news when new sponsors enter the sport.

Astonishing...

https://www.elmundo.es/deportes/ciclismo/2020/06/12/5ee3467afdddffc70d8b4766.html
https://www.granadahoy.com/deportes/Manuela-Fundacion-patrocino-GreenEDGE-Cycling_0_1473152907.html

 

[jaylew]

HUGE kit upgrade

 

[Koronin]

Read an article about this and it does sound like it will eventually start to at minimum add a focus on Spanish riders.

The new kit is nice.

 

[Bonimenier]

Flanders Classics changing some parts of the courses of their races. There won't be a Muur this year and the Ronde.

 

[SafeBet]

That was the proposal made by the italian federation at the beginning of may when other federations started to postpone national championships due to the sport events and crowds limitations in many countries but UCI don't want to move the national championships weekend so Sanremo will likely be the 15th in the spot left vacant by London-Surrey Classic.

Latest change in calendar:

1st August: Strade Bianche
5th August: Milano - Torino
8th August: Milano - Sanremo
12th August: Gran Piemonte
15th August: Lombardia

This makes a lot of sense: Sanremo requires closing large portions of the Aurelia, which doesn't look like a great idea on the 15th of August. Lombardia should be more managable.

 

[Koronin]

Unfortunately now Lombardia overlaps with the Duaphine. Although I suspect there isn't any way to really avoid that.

 

[yaco]

Read an article about this and it does sound like it will eventually start to at minimum add a focus on Spanish riders.

The new kit is nice.

You would expect a greater focus in the future on Spanish riders or those from Spanish speaking countries, though this may have to wait to 2022 - In saying that the team should be chasing Cortina.

 

[BlueRoads]

Flanders Classics changing some parts of the courses of their races. There won't be a Muur this year and the Ronde.

Can you tell more? Or link something?

Lombardia / Dauphiné is not great, but I suppose the Giro riders will now use it for preparation and can stay in Italy the whole time? At the end of october most of the skinny climbers would probably not have ridden Lombardia anyway.

Hamburg seems to be on, to my surprise, and if it happens I think I might visit.

By the way, I wanted to have a discussion about which companies can benefit the most from sponsoring cycling and thought there probably was already a thread, but I could not find a definite one. Does anyone from the more experienced users or mods know one that I should use?

 

[RedheadDane]

And meanwhile Cavendish went on a ride with Spratt and Van Vleuten. Or... at least he tried to.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1271472287141842952

View: https://twitter.com/itvcycling/status/1271472287141842952

 

[Bonimenier]

Can you tell more? Or link something?

https://sporza.be/nl/2020/06/12/dit...ders-classics-wijzigt-parcours~1591978781483/

Brabanste Pijl, Gent-Wevelgem, Scheldeprijs and the Ronde will be shortened this year to make sure riders will have enough rest during the busy schedule. After the first ascent of the Oude Kwaremont in the Ronde, the riders won't go to Tenbosse and the Muur, but instead they will go to the Valkenberg. The total distance of this years Ronde will be 241km, about 30 km less than last year.

 

[Koronin]

You would expect a greater focus in the future on Spanish riders or those from Spanish speaking countries, though this may have to wait to 2022 - In saying that the team should be chasing Cortina.

From the sounds of it (from Spanish articles and a few people who know the organization in Spain) it sounds like the changes will start slowly in signings for 2021, but the bigger changes will start with 2022 and after.

I suspect if they keep the women's team there will be less changes with it.

 

[yaco]

From the sounds of it (from Spanish articles and a few people who know the organization in Spain) it sounds like the changes will start slowly in signings for 2021, but the bigger changes will start with 2022 and after. Also found out they currently have a Spanish U-23 team, so they could start pulling riders from that team.

I suspect if they keep the women's team there will be less changes with it.

They are definitely keeping the women's team - MS women's team is in the top 3 teams in the world - Anyway it's great to see another Spanish Tour in the WT.

 

[Koronin]

They are definitely keeping the women's team - MS women's team is in the top 3 teams in the world - Anyway it's great to see another Spanish Tour in the WT.

True, and it would be dumb to eliminate that team. I don't think they will do much to make it more "Spanish" other than maybe try to to add 1 or 2 Spanish cyclists to it, but I suspect for the most part that team will be left alone.
I agree it's nice to see another Spanish WT team. My friends over there seem to be very excited that they will have a second WT team.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

And meanwhile Cavendish went on a ride with Spratt and Van Vleuten. Or... at least he tried to.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1271472287141842952

View: https://twitter.com/itvcycling/status/1271472287141842952

Titanium and awesomeness.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Latest change in calendar:

1st August: Strade Bianche
5th August: Milano - Torino
8th August: Milano - Sanremo
12th August: Gran Piemonte
15th August: Lombardia

This makes a lot of sense: Sanremo requires closing large portions of the Aurelia, which doesn't look like a great idea on the 15th of August. Lombardia should be more managable.

I like this, this plus Tirreno-Adriatico from the 7th to the 14th of September seems like a nice block of racing in Italy.

 

[RedheadDane]

Where is Schachmann going? He could aim for the rare - and normally literally impossible - P-N, T-A double.
Though, I suppose it won't be much of a double with several months in between...

 

[BlueRoads]

I'm pretty sure they will send him to the Tour, all in as TJV, so no T-A. It would be funny, though. "Schachmann... wasn't that the rider who once won P-N and T-A in the same year?" (Don't think he'd win T-A, if Fuglsang and Evenepoel are around.)

 

[tobydawq]

Where is Schachmann going? He could aim for the rare - and normally literally impossible - P-N, T-A double.
Though, I suppose it won't be much of a double with several months in between...

It would be quite cool, actually.

 

[yaco]

True, and it would be dumb to eliminate that team. I don't think they will do much to make it more "Spanish" other than maybe try to to add 1 or 2 Spanish cyclists to it, but I suspect for the most part that team will be left alone.
I agree it's nice to see another Spanish WT team. My friends over there seem to be very excited that they will have a second WT team.

MS has strong Spanish roots - A couple of backroom staff are Spanish while Matt White has lived in Spain for 15 years while most of the team live in Spain and Andorra - I'll be interested to see their new budget.

 

[Bonimenier]

Terpstra crashed hard today on training. Seems like the season is over for him before it started.

 

[Koronin]

Just read the report on the front page and it sounds bad.

 

[Bonimenier]

Yeah, read more details about as well just now. Considering he is 36 already, it's possible we'll never see him again at top level. I believe his contract also ends this year. Wonder which teams wants to spend a reasonable amount of money for him during these times.

 

[RedheadDane]

Some good news.

Bigla-Katusha to become Paule-Ka

 

[PeterB]

So for anyone who was tempted to join the bidding, the special yellow and white bike presented to Pope Francesco by Sagan went for EUR 30,000. The bidding was fierce towards the end, with the price increasing by EUR 10,000 during the final minutes of the auction (period of which is automatically extended if new bid is entered within last several minutes). The last few intense moments:

High Bidder	Amount	Time
TSSRL Winning	€30,000	June 18th 2020, 6:21pm CEST

Bidder	Amount	Time
cita	€28,000	June 18th 2020, 6:19pm CEST
Matkor	€27,000	June 18th 2020, 6:18pm CEST
cita	€26,000	June 18th 2020, 6:15pm CEST
Matkor	€25,000	June 18th 2020, 6:13pm CEST
FASSRL	€24,500	June 18th 2020, 6:12pm CEST
Matkor	€24,000	June 18th 2020, 6:10pm CEST
cita	€23,500	June 18th 2020, 6:09pm CEST
Matkor	€23,000	June 18th 2020, 6:07pm CEST
cita	€22,500	June 18th 2020, 6:07pm CEST
Matkor	€22,000	June 18th 2020, 6:04pm CEST
cita	€21,500	June 18th 2020, 6:04pm CEST
Matkor	€21,000	June 18th 2020, 6:02pm CEST
cita	€20,500	June 18th 2020, 6:01pm CEST
Matkor	€20,000	June 18th 2020, 5:59pm CEST
cita	€19,500	June 18th 2020, 5:58pm CEST
Matkor	€19,000	June 18th 2020, 5:57pm CEST
Fernandop	€18,500	June 18th 2020, 5:54pm CEST

 

[RedheadDane]

That was one helluva fight between cita and Matkor!