General News Thread

[SafeBet]

A great inspiration for me as a fellow podcaster. I enjoyed the cycling podcast Giro diaries in particular. He'll be sorely missed.

 

[vsd88]

Incredibly shocking and sad news.
I have been an avid listener to the Cycling Podcast for nearly 5 years now. I especially love their daily grand tour podcasts which go far beyond just the racing. Will sorely miss Richard. My heartfelt condolences to his family and the Cycling Podcast team.

It is not public knowledge how it happened

On GCN's World of Cycling, Dan Lloyd mentioned that Richard passed away in his sleep.

 

[Berflamand]

The parcours of the 2022 World Champs in Wollongong have been revealed.

This is the parcours for the men elite:

 

[Berflamand]

And this is the profile for the men (and women) elite TT:

 

[tobydawq]

The parcours of the 2022 World Champs in Wollongong have been revealed.

This is the parcours for the men elite:

That's rather disappointing. Why would they put Mount Keira that early?

But what do I know, probably Pogacar will just attack 230 kms out just to one-up Remco, Cort and Cosnefroy from last year.

 

[Mayomaniac]

That's rather disappointing. Why would they put Mount Keira that early?

But what do I know, probably Pogacar will just attack 230 kms out just to one-up Remco, Cort and Cosnefroy from last year.

At least Mount Pleasant is steep/hard enough to actually make a difference if they race it 12 times. Looks great for Ala, Wout, MVDP and Pidcock.

 

[yaco]

Australia can't take Ewan to this race - The home nation's two key riders will be Matthews and Haig. Would take Plapp to obtain experience.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Almost no way the pure sprinters are going to survive to the final of this race.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Almost no way the pure sprinters are going to survive to the final of this race.

Depends on what you define as a pure sprinter. This circuit sits in between Bergen 2017 and Geelong 2010, both of which ended up in sprints of 20- to 30-rider groups. In fact, Kristoff and Gaviria made the top-10 of the former, and Allan Davis and Romain Feillu did the same in the latter. The nature of this generation means the racing will probably be harder but I still wouldn't count out a sprinter with a bit of climbing pedigree who's peaking for this race. An in-form Ewan or Nizzolo, for example, should still be in with a shout.

 

[StryderHells]

Australia can't take Ewan to this race - The home nation's two key riders will be Matthews and Haig. Would take Plapp to obtain experience.

Plapp will be racing the TT so its a good chance he’ll line up in the RR.

 

[gavia88]

The parcours of the 2022 World Champs in Wollongong have been revealed.

This is the parcours for the men elite:

Is there any info about how difficult mount Ousley is?


Climb seems difficult enough for riders like Alaphilipe, van Aert, MvdP, ect. to get some gap. Will depend on how many can hang on the top and if the group will work together afterwards well enough if a small bunch sprint can be avoided. Rather typical circuit, Geelong, Salzburg, Valkenburg, Bergen. Can be entertaining if teams think they need to race hard to get rid of the sprinters or rather boring if they think they can wait for a final punch.

 

[Red Rick]

Depends on what you define as a pure sprinter. This circuit sits in between Bergen 2017 and Geelong 2010, both of which ended up in sprints of 20- to 30-rider groups. In fact, Kristoff and Gaviria made the top-10 of the former, and Allan Davis and Romain Feillu did the same in the latter. The nature of this generation means the racing will probably be harder but I still wouldn't count out a sprinter with a bit of climbing pedigree who's peaking for this race. An in-form Ewan or Nizzolo, for example, should still be in with a shout.

Think its significantly steeper than Salmon Hill in Bergen. Its harder than Amstel Gold lol

 

[SafeBet]

This route screams Alaphilippe threepeat to me.

 

[Red Rick]

A great inspiration for me as a fellow podcaster. I enjoyed the cycling podcast Giro diaries in particular. He'll be sorely missed.

Didnt know you did podcasting

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Think its significantly steeper than Salmon Hill in Bergen. Its harder than Amstel Gold lol

Amstel Gold Race is harder than the numbers suggest thanks to the string of climbs without flat and the narrow roads, here there's a lot of flat on wider roads to recover after each climb so I disagree on it being harder. Salmon Hill is definitely easier, mainly due to it having a more consistent gradient, but it's still one of the closest comparisons on offer.

 

[RedheadDane]

The parcours of the 2022 World Champs in Wollongong have been revealed.

This is the parcours for the men elite:

That looks like a very pleasant route.

Come on, guys! The pun basically wrote itself.

 

[Billie]

Anybody got the profile of the full climb on the lap so Mount Ousley + Mount Pleasant?

I saw somewhere that Mount Ousley was 0,8 km à 9% but that's impossible given the top is at 54m on the profile (unless they start in a crater somewhere )

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Anybody got the profile of the full climb on the lap so Mount Ousley + Mount Pleasant?

I saw somewhere that Mount Ousley was 0,8 km à 9% but that's impossible given the top is at 54m on the profile (unless they start in a crater somewhere )

Link to the correct climb on Veloviewer. Mount Ousley is ~500 metres at 6.2%, then there are ~900 metres to the foot of Mount Pleasant, most of this is a mild downhill.

 

[Sciatic]

Amstel Gold Race is harder than the numbers suggest thanks to the string of climbs without flat and the narrow roads, here there's a lot of flat on wider roads to recover after each climb so I disagree on it being harder. Salmon Hill is definitely easier, mainly due to it having a more consistent gradient, but it's still one of the closest comparisons on offer.

Good point; a sharp turn onto a narrow road to start a short climb effectively increases the length of the climb

 

[Valv.Piti]

Looks like a pretty decent route I guess, but I cant help but think it will be one of those world championship will be ridden conservatively until the last lap. Thought it would be suited more for the sprinters, and thats definitely a plus that it isnt.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Wasnt there something about that small uphills ection or sections near the finish being possibly too hard for someone to get back into a good positon if they were dropped on Mount Pleasant?

 

[Red Rick]

Looks like a pretty decent route I guess, but I cant help but think it will be one of those world championship will be ridden conservatively until the last lap.

You mean like almost every single WC that uses the same lap 15 times?

 

[OlavEH]

I defer. The hilly stages could be really interesting.

Maybe the Novazzano stage. Not sure about the other. The Aetsch stage has this climb, followed by a 14 km descent:

Stage 5 to Brunnen has a climb which seems to bes something like 3 km, 8,5 % before 15 km descent. I don't think any of these stages will prompt a lot of action.

The toughest Tour de Suisse of recent years - Tour de Suisse: 6. – 13. June 2021 This year’s Tour de Suisse will be demanding for both the men and the women. The topography and diversity of Switzerland will be at the fore. It is up and down and the route leads through all four linguistic regions. An additional highlight – the visit to the neighbouring country of...

www.tourdesuisse.ch

Business as usual. Two big MTFs and not much else. Too bad that more or less all the bigger one week races except Pais Vasco rely so heavily on big MTFs of 15+ km.

 

[Mayomaniac]

If you think that the 2021 Giro got presented too late, a quick reminder that the official presentation of the Tour de Romandie route will only take place on the 12th, 2 weeks before the start of the race. We know the start and finishing towns, but presenting the route only 2 weeks before the actual race starts has to be some kind of record. What's next, presenting the route of every stage right before the start of the stage?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

If you think that the 2021 Giro got presented too late, a quick reminder that the official presentation of the Tour de Romandie route will only take place on the 12th, 2 weeks before the start of the race. We know the start and finishing towns, but presenting the route only 2 weeks before the actual race starts has to be some kind of record. What's next, presenting the route of every stage right before the start of the stage?

UCI really should require WT races to unveil their parcours in time if they want to keep their license. Of course, they don't have the time to do that kind of thing because they're too busy finding ways to measure sock lengths with iPads.