General News Thread

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Longstanding labour shortages in the relevant police departments that have probably been aggravated by current nationwide labour shortages, combined with professional cycling not exactly being high on the police's priority list which means they've repeatedly pulled/tried to pull out of committing workforce there.

I can see the issue there of course, but not really how it let to the decision to not allow those "C1" qualified policemen to supervise cycling races anymore - instead it now needs a special qualification (only very few seem to have), according to that article. Maybe some bureaucratic or legal reasons played a part there as well?

 

[Mayomaniac]

I can see the issue there of course, but not really how it let to the decision to not allow those "C1" qualified policemen to supervise cycling races anymore - instead it now needs a special qualification (only very few seem to have), according to that article. Maybe some bureaucratic or legal reasons played a part there as well?

I guess it's probably a legal reason, maybe something like that their insurance wouldn't pay in case of incident, if they didn't have the specific qualification.

 

[DNP-Old]

Great timing for Volta Limburg Classic on Saturday... Cancellation coming?

And Benlux Tour cancelled again? Or just a WT Tour of Belgium, let's be honest. The Dutch stages won't be missed.

They won't indeed, but they should. You could make terrific stages in Zeeland and Limburg. An echelon stage, a mini Gold Race, a mini Ronde and mini LBL should be the foundation for one hell of a race and basically the epitome of Dutch/Belgian nature. For some odd reason, organizers seem te believe that Friesland is where the country starts and ends. Either that, or some trash ITT in or around Rotterdam/The Hague region.

 

[Samamba]

They won't indeed, but they should. You could make terrific stages in Zeeland and Limburg. An echelon stage, a mini Gold Race, a mini Ronde and mini LBL should be the foundation for one hell of a race and basically the epitome of Dutch/Belgian nature. For some odd reason, organizers seem te believe that Friesland is where the country starts and ends. Either that, or some trash ITT in or around Rotterdam/The Hague region.

I just realized yesterday that this years Benelux Tour is only 5 stages and they're even skipping the Ardennes, so all about the TT and hoping something happens in the Geraardsbergen stage. They butchered it completely. Don't care if it get cancelled again.

It hate how a Benelux Tour has so much potential, but they completely ruin it.

 

[search]

I guess it's probably a legal reason, maybe something like that their insurance wouldn't pay in case of incident, if they didn't have the specific qualification.

maybe, yeah.

But the situation in the Netherlands seems to be special in general?! I just saw a twitter thread about this, which said that the 1.2 Arno Wallaard Memorial had its number of police motos reduced from 15 to 7 because of the changes.

15?! Gent - Wevelgem has 12, as far as I know. Other small races do a rolling road closure with one or two.

 

[Unchained]

Reading about post event rides..now Kristoff feeling like 7 hours and a coffee being what was in order I am feeling pretty dim about my form!!
Walking from the sofa to the kitchen or bathroom shoots me out of zone 2!!!
Really am debating on weather.. Gotta think that if it's wet and regular " Belgian sunshine " that it's a slight edge for cyclocross specialists.. No matter what it's going to be f**king awesome!!!

 

[Gratemans]

Has anybody heard anything about Madouas by the way? Just wondering if it was a minor stomach thing or if he got more seriously ill. Was really looking forward to him doing the hilly classics.

 

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Has anybody heard anything about Madouas by the way? Just wondering if it was a minor stomach thing or if he got more seriously ill. Was really looking forward to him doing the hilly classics.

in an interview the other day, he said that he was sick before the Ronde actually, but still wanted to give it a try as he was starting to feel better already. Now he is fine again and plans to do Paris-Roubaix on Sunday

Cyclisme : Les planètes s’alignent pour Madouas avant Paris-Roubaix

Alors qu’il a connu la malchance lors du Tour des Flandres, qu’il a dû abandonner à cause d’une maladie, Valentin Madouas va retenter sa chance sur Paris-Roubaix dimanche prochain. Et cette fois, les planètes sont alignées pour que le coureur français de la…

le10sport.com

 

[Red Rick]

Tour de Suisse route is out

More ITT than Tour and Vuelta.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643736682657882112

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1643736682657882112/photo/1

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Tour de Suisse route is out

More ITT than Tour and Vuelta.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643736682657882112

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1643736682657882112/photo/1

In the bag for Mountain King Küng

 

[yaco]

Two ITT's in an eight stage race is overkill - At least the ITT's are fairly flat.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Two ITT's in an eight stage race is overkill - At least the ITT's are fairly flat.

Just make it one long ITT- I don‘t think it is illegal to have long TTs

 

[Netserk]

I wonder if Tour de Suisse has ever had 2 ITTs in the race before ...

 

[Monte Serra]

I wonder if Tour de Suisse has ever had 2 ITTs in the race before ...

You're asking for a friend?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643747191201353728

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/Net_serk/status/1643747191201353728

 

[Devil's Elbow]

You're asking for a friend?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1643747191201353728

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/Net_serk/status/1643747191201353728

There was also only one ITT in 2018, when they started with a TTT instead.

 

[Netserk]

There was also only one ITT in 2018, when they started with a TTT instead.

Lol, I completely forgot about that. In my mind there is never TTTs in Suisse.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

I don’t know where to put this, but found what ChatGPT’s hypothetical Tour route to be funny

https://twitter.com/x/status/1645438484398632963

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/AndyGraham22/status/1645438484398632963

Two Mount Ventoux MTF’s would be interesting.

 

[Põhja Konn]

All mountain stages being 200 km long or more is something even this forums hardliners could appreciate. All of them ending with MTFs on the most famous and overused cols not so much.

 

[Red Rick]

Ne enkrat, kar dvakrat na Kolovrat v boju za zeleno

Vrhunec 29. dirke Po Sloveniji bo kar dvakratni vzpon na Kolovrat s tolminske strani, preden se bo odločilna 4. etapa končala v Kobaridu. Boj za zeleno bo od 14. do 18. junija vključeval še vzpone, kot so Jeruzalem, Rakitna, Kladje in Trška gora.

www.rtvslo.si

Tour of Slovenia route is out.

Stage 4 has double Kolovrat but the rest is very meh.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

It's almost impressive to design a Tour of Slovenia with four sprint stages...

 

[Red Rick]

It's almost impressive to design a Tour of Slovenia with four sprint stages...

Final stage at least is the same final hill as last time, so that shouldn't be a sprint.

But really for Pogacar it's probably below training intensity

 

[Ricco']

I thought I saw something about Pogacar skipping Slovenia this year to do one of the WT stage races but I must be confused as I don't see nothing that indicates that.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Tour of Slovenia is suffering from its terrible spot on the calendar. We already have Suisse and Dauphine as Tour preparations (and even these have suffered in terms of attractiveness I feel), a third one is just overkill. Even Pogi going there as their flagship hasn't helped if no other big contender are interested and it just ends up as nice training rides for him in beautiful landscape.
Slovenia or Deutschlandtour would be perfect as a bigger one week stage race in the big void between Tour and Vuelta instead of Tour of Poland (don't get me wrong, I like Poland and their cycling enthusiasm but the route - they just don't have that much to work with - and the race overall has just been dire for years).

From the tweet above: Is Stage 7 of Suisse really without any categorized climbs? Does anyone have more detail on that?

 

[Red Rick]

Tour of Slovenia is suffering from its terrible spot on the calendar. We already have Suisse and Dauphine as Tour preparations (and even these have suffered in terms of attractiveness I feel), a third one is just overkill. Even Pogi going there as their flagship hasn't helped if no other big contender are interested and it just ends up as nice training rides for him in beautiful landscape.
Slovenia or Deutschlandtour would be perfect as a bigger one week stage race in the big void between Tour and Vuelta instead of Tour of Poland (don't get me wrong, I like Poland and their cycling enthusiasm but the route - they just don't have that much to work with - and the race overall has just been dire for years).

From the tweet above: Is Stage 7 of Suisse really without any categorized climbs? Does anyone have more detail on that?

There is basically no good slot for Slovenia on the calendar, and its only upside was that it had softer fields so slightly lesser riders could also maybe grab a win before the Tour de France.

Pogacar then came and destroyed the only good thing for WT level climbers in Slovenia.

 

[RedheadDane]

There is basically no good slot for Slovenia on the calendar, and its only upside was that it had softer fields so slightly lesser riders could also maybe grab a win before the Tour de France.

Pogacar then came and destroyed the only good thing for WT level climbers in Slovenia.

Obvious solution is obvious.
They just need to give a prize to the best-placed rider not named Tadej Pogacar. If he ends up not racing, the winner will of course not be named Tadej Pogacar.

(I might not be 100% serious. Just around 98.7%)