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General News Thread

Page 553 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
I don’t know which country’s Eurosport you’re using but that’s been the case on French Eurosport for years.
Yes, although there seemed to be fewer Coupe de France races last few years, and the Australian races seemed spotty this year. Also, I think there is much less available on replay. Just my impression as a long-term Eurosport France subscriber. But the demise of GCN may mean more on Eurosport...also since the changover from ES Player, my iPad app is useless.

But, yes, sometimes there's actually Too much to watch...
 
The stages are not really that hard and Roglic is a beast in steep mountains top finishes without too much fatigue, plus he will maybe have some margin over Jonas after the TT and the previous stages. Then it should be Jonas going all-in with Rogla only defending and trying to make at the end a Lo Port, Moncalvillo, etc... So no that easy for Vingegaard as people may think with the first impression of the route.
As for Remco I never know with him, can be great but for sure can implode completely.
 
To misquote Monty Python, "It's not dead yet!"
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ches-rescue-mission-for-2024-tours-of-britain
British Cycling has announced a rescue mission to take over running the 2024 men’s and women’s Tours of Britain after the previous promoter went into liquidation, but faces a race against time to stage either event.

Despite having no race routes, sponsorship or stage details finalised, British Cycling said the women’s and men’s races will remain scheduled in their original 2024 dates, of 4-9 June and 1-8 September respectively.
Maybe a few phone calls to the Gulf might help?
 
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For the last stage, I'd have liked if they went over Pitons from the hard side instead of going over Salève first from Mornex. And doing both of them, you can still have the full ascents in the right order: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/4548550

To misquote Monty Python, "It's not dead yet!"
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ches-rescue-mission-for-2024-tours-of-britain

Maybe a few phone calls to the Gulf might help?
“Ah, she must be made of sterner stuff” (different skit, I know)
 
British Cycling publish their new vision for major cycling events https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/r...-vision-for-major-cycling-events-in-Britain-0

which is basically a classic way of using alot of words to say absolutely nothing :(

worth noting on the same day, the Tour of the Reservoir organisers announced both the men's and women's races, which had been part of the expanded British Cycling reinvigorated national road race series, have been cancelled.
 
To misquote Monty Python, "It's not dead yet!"
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ches-rescue-mission-for-2024-tours-of-britain

Maybe a few phone calls to the Gulf might help?

"Its dead Jim"

articles like that annoy me so much because they just paraphrase a press release with barely any hint of questioning , BC have absolutely not commited to running a Tour of Britain - Women in June in 2024, or even a Tour of Britain - Men in September in 2024, they want you to think they have, but theyve only commited themselves as an ambition to run races in those same calendar positions, ie June and September in the future, the future might well mean this year, or it might mean next year, or some years after.

but there are only 122 days left till June 4th, they have no stages or routes planned (and route planning to get councils onboard to shut roads even temporarily and all the paperwork that entails takes months, believe me on that), no venues hosting stage starts or finishes, no sponsors, no logistics, and crucially no uci wwt backing for it either, so even if they pulled a rabbit from the hat and created some kind of stage race out of nothing, when even those trying to organise stage races for years in the UK are finding they have to cancel, it'd be no better than part of the national road series.

nothing the Chief exec of BC is quoted as saying in that article fills me with any hope they have any clue or clear understanding of what they need to do to make this stuff work properly.
 
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nothing the Chief exec of BC is quoted as saying in that article fills me with any hope they have any clue or clear understanding of what they need to do to make this stuff work properly.
What was the old saying about being a sergant major in the Army, all you need is a loud voice? :)
So what's it to be, a criterium around Clapham Common, or maybe Windsor Great Park? Why not a race before a F1 race around Brands Hatch or Silverstone (ties in neatly with the One World Cycling brainwave!)?
Nah, I think this is more Monty Python's parrot sketch.
 
In the CN article it says "We've still got a lot of work to do on the Tour of Britain Women. There may have to be some compromises from what has happened before in terms of duration. But our intention is to deliver something in 2024, which then grows in 2025 and 2026", so they do plan to run some kind of race at least this year as well.

Sounds like the naming rights got lost somewhere on the way, though. Or why else would they rebrand them to "Tour of Britain-Women and Tour of Britain-Men"?!
 
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In the CN article it says "We've still got a lot of work to do on the Tour of Britain Women. There may have to be some compromises from what has happened before in terms of duration. But our intention is to deliver something in 2024, which then grows in 2025 and 2026", so they do plan to run some kind of race at least this year as well.

Sounds like the naming rights got lost somewhere on the way, though. Or why else would they rebrand them to "Tour of Britain-Women and Tour of Britain-Men"?!

I believe BC has owned the Tour of Britain name all the way through and still does. However SweetSpot was only allowed to use it for their men's race, which was why the other one was named the Women's Tour instead. So now that BC wants to organise both races, it can be done under the same/a variation of the same name.
 
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In the CN article it says "We've still got a lot of work to do on the Tour of Britain Women. There may have to be some compromises from what has happened before in terms of duration. But our intention is to deliver something in 2024, which then grows in 2025 and 2026", so they do plan to run some kind of race at least this year as well.

Sounds like the naming rights got lost somewhere on the way, though. Or why else would they rebrand them to "Tour of Britain-Women and Tour of Britain-Men"?!

No it's stuck with Sweetspot or whats left of it.

so we go back a decade or more and Im paraphrasing alot of this so dont take me to task on the specifics :) but roughly BC somehow ended up owning the "Tour of Britain" as a thing, so when Sweetspot who were then running the ToB for BC at the time said, hey maybe we should do a women's race as well as women's pro cycling is getting really popular now and call it the Women's Tour of Britain or something like that, BC said no, that will impact on our Tour of Britain naming and impact the men's race, you cant do that.

Sweetspot went ok, well, we are going to do this anyway and we'll call it the Women's Tour then, and trademarked that naming, and set up the race themselves, and it was wholly a Sweetspot arranged event, sanctioned by BC as it had to be to get UCI approval, but BC were simply the national governing body, they had no involvement in the race itself.

the Tour of Britian on the other hand is a British Cycling event that Sweetspot simply arranged for them, thats the difference. The Women's Tour was a Sweetspot event, the Tour of Britain was a BC event, they just happened to both be delivered by Sweetspot.

however the media, being the media who arent terribly clued into the intracies of this kind of stuff, spent most of their time calling it the Tour of Britain for women, or the Women's Tour of Britain, very few ever properly credited it as just The Women's Tour.

so you could argue what value was their in that trademark name anyway, other than no-one else can organise a race called The Women's Tour, which is possibly why British Cycling havent attempted to take on the trademark from the remnants of Sweetspot, because ultimately they probably have neither the money to buy it, or the impetus to do it, because they can arrange a race in the same calendar spot, call it whatever the darn they like, and people will still equate it to The Women's Tour & the Tour of Britain.
 
This weekend, on both the 10th and 11th, there are six different races happening at virtually the same time (except Colombia), all of which have at least two WT teams entered. Maybe I’ve simply not noticed in past years, but that definitely seems like a lot! Some fields have a full complement of 180 riders on 7-rider teams, but some fields (Turkey?) are probably smaller. But even if the average field size is, let’s say, 160 riders, that is a total of almost a thousand WT, pro-conti, and conti riders competing each of those days.
 
This weekend, on both the 10th and 11th, there are six different races happening at virtually the same time (except Colombia), all of which have at least two WT teams entered. Maybe I’ve simply not noticed in past years, but that definitely seems like a lot! Some fields have a full complement of 180 riders on 7-rider teams, but some fields (Turkey?) are probably smaller. But even if the average field size is, let’s say, 160 riders, that is a total of almost a thousand WT, pro-conti, and conti riders competing each of those days.

Yeah, the "LiveStats section" on PCS is definitely something to behold these days.
 
Team and manger and representive banned by UCI - for fraud!
https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling...o-banned-for-5-years-after-forging-signatures
Team Java - Kiwi Atlántico (also known as Kiwi Atlántico - Cabo de Peñas) which was registered as a Venezuelan UCI Continental Team in 2022, has been sanctioned with a ban on registration with the UCI and ineligibility to participate in events on the UCI International Calendar until December 31, 2028. The team's general manager, Enrique Salgueiro, has been sanctioned with a suspension from any cycling activity until December 31, 2028, as well as a fine; and the team's representative, Gerardo Guzmán, has been sanctioned with a suspension from any cycling activity until December 31, 2025.
 
They told the national federation that they had a rider under contract, but it wasn't his signature on the contract: Brilliant.

"My team would like a wild card for the Giro: we have signed up Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde and Domenico Pozzovivo. You don't believe me? But look at the signatures! Letter from a UCI official to say us not being a ProTeam doesn't matter? Of course, just cast your eyes on that signature there..."
 
They told the national federation that they had a rider under contract, but it wasn't his signature on the contract: Brilliant.

"My team would like a wild card for the Giro: we have signed up Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde and Domenico Pozzovivo. You don't believe me? But look at the signatures! Letter from a UCI official to say us not being a ProTeam doesn't matter? Of course, just cast your eyes on that signature there..."

Well the team has merged with the Crotian Kamen team that has had a few Italian stars riding for them in the past.
 
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Hold onto your horses there ... the US government might stop your new sports streaming service -
https://www.reuters.com/business/me...orts-streaming-deal-bloomberg-law-2024-02-15/
Feb 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice aims to scrutinize a sports streaming platform planned by Walt Disney , Fox and Warner Bros Discovery over concerns it could harm consumers, sports leagues and rivals, Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday.
The Justice Department will examine the terms of the deal when it is finalized, the report added, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Earlier this month, the three media companies said they will launch a joint venture to start a sports streaming service this autumn to capture younger viewers.
 
Dauphine has announced it route for 2024. It's quite heavy, and perfect for Vingegaard to put his rivals in doubt for the TDF.

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Plus for using not frequently used climbs. Minus for all hilly and mountain stages being HTFs and MTFs. No incentive for attacking further out on any of the stages.