General News Thread

[LaFlorecita]

Mick Rogers retires:
"Recent cardiac examinations have identified occurrences of heart arrhythmia which have
never been detected beforehand. This latest diagnosis, added to the congenital heart
condition I was diagnosed with in 2001, means that my competitive career must end. My
last race being the Dubai Tour in February."
source

Sad news. All the best, Mick!

 

[yaco]

OGE needs to get Rogers involved in their program - Has so much to offer off the bike.

 

[ILovecycling]

Mick Rogers retires:
"Recent cardiac examinations have identified occurrences of heart arrhythmia which have
never been detected beforehand. This latest diagnosis, added to the congenital heart
condition I was diagnosed with in 2001, means that my competitive career must end. My
last race being the Dubai Tour in February."
source

Sad news. All the best, Mick!

Yeah all the best!

 

[CheckMyPecs]

And so one of the greatest chapters in Aussie cycling comes to a close. Good luck, Mick.

 

[pastronef]

Brain Smith leaves Dimension Data at the end of this month

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dimension-data-and-brian-smith-part-ways/

 

[TMP402]

Brain Smith leaves Dimension Data at the end of this month

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dimension-data-and-brian-smith-part-ways/

Any theories why?

 

[RedheadDane]

According to this article from when he was appointed manager it was always meant to be just for a short while.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/brian-smith-appointed-interim-manager-of-mtn-qhubeka/

 

[MartinGT]

Currently snowing in large parts of Yorkshire. Should be interesting racing the end of this week!

 

[scrooll07]

Tour du Sénégal (2.2) Stage 4 Khombole › Diourbel-Kaolack
Race/stage cancelled.Stage cancelled due to riders and police who got lost on the road in the final 20k
Wasn't seen such a thing before,hope that they found the road

 

[RedheadDane]

LoL, whut?

 

[Squire]

Re:

Tour du Sénégal (2.2) Stage 4 Khombole › Diourbel-Kaolack
Race/stage cancelled.Stage cancelled due to riders and police who got lost on the road in the final 20k
Wasn't seen such a thing before,hope that they found the road

Fantastic

One of the reasons why I love cycling.

 

[May0maniac]

The route of the 2016 Österreich Rundfahrt will be presented today in Innsbruck.
I won't be able to watch the presentation, I'll post the profiles once they get uploaded on the official website.

 

[Gigs_98]

While Mayo still has to work I was able to watch the presentation. I think there are no profiles yet but I will put them into this post as soon as they are online. The stages are:
Prologue: last 600 meters of the Kitzbüheler Horn
Stage 1: Innsbruck - Salzburg (186,7 km)
Stage 2: Mondsee - Steyr (194,3 km)
Stage 3: Stift Ardagger - Sonntagberg (179,7 km/mtf)
Stage 4: Rottenmann - Edelweißspitze (183,3 km/mtf)
Stage 5: Millstatt - Dobratsch (155 km/mtf)
Stage 6: Graz - Stegersbach (195,9 km)
Stage 7: Bad Tatzmannsdorf - Wien/Kahlenberg (187,8 km/mtf)

So we have the steepest prologue in the history of cycling, the hardest mtf in all cycling races of the whole year, and two cobbled mtf's of which one is the freakin Kahlenberg. This is actually a horrible route with all those mtf's and I'm already sick of the Dobratsch, but it ends on the Kahlenberg, the one climb which I want to be included in any cycling race since I started watching cycling so I'm super hyped anyway.

 

[Squire]

So how many minutes will Superman Lopez win by?

 

[May0maniac]

While Mayo still has to work I was able to watch the presentation. I think there are no profiles yet but I will put them into this post as soon as they are online. The stages are:
Prologue: last 600 meters of the Kitzbüheler Horn
Stage 1: Innsbruck - Salzburg (186,7 km)
Stage 2: Mondsee - Steyr (194,3 km)
Stage 3: Stift Ardagger - Sonntagberg (179,7 km/mtf)
Stage 4: Rottenmann - Edelweißspitze (183,3 km/mtf)
Stage 5: Millstatt - Dobratsch (155 km/mtf)
Stage 6: Graz - Stegersbach (195,9 km)
Stage 7: Bad Tatzmannsdorf - Wien/Kahlenberg (187,8 km/mtf)

So we have the steepest prologue in the history of cycling, the hardest mtf in all cycling races of the whole year, and two cobbled mtf's of which one is the freakin Kahlenberg. This is actually a horrible route with all those mtf's and I'm already sick of the Dobratsch, but it ends on the Kahlenberg, the one climb which I want to be included in any cycling race since I started watching cycling so I'm super hyped anyway.

Lol at the Prologue, that's their way of saying "suck it!" to the Dauphine and ASO
And we thought that the TdS would be a mtf fest, has Zomegnan finally taken over?

 

[luckyboy]

Edelweißspitze is from this side, right?

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Grossglockner---Edelweissspitze&qryMountainID=1375

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Edelweißspitze is from this side, right?

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Grossglockner---Edelweissspitze&qryMountainID=1375

Hell yeah

 

[May0maniac]

Without Dobratsch and with a 25km long ITT (maybe right before the Kahlenberg stage) it would actually be an interesting route, Sonntagberg and Kahlenberg are two good climbs for the explosive murito specialists and Edelweißspitze is just a brutal climb.

 

[roundabout]

While Mayo still has to work I was able to watch the presentation. I think there are no profiles yet but I will put them into this post as soon as they are online. The stages are:
Prologue: last 600 meters of the Kitzbüheler Horn
Stage 1: Innsbruck - Salzburg (186,7 km)
Stage 2: Mondsee - Steyr (194,3 km)
Stage 3: Stift Ardagger - Sonntagberg (179,7 km/mtf)
Stage 4: Rottenmann - Edelweißspitze (183,3 km/mtf)
Stage 5: Millstatt - Dobratsch (155 km/mtf)
Stage 6: Graz - Stegersbach (195,9 km)
Stage 7: Bad Tatzmannsdorf - Wien/Kahlenberg (187,8 km/mtf)

So we have the steepest prologue in the history of cycling, the hardest mtf in all cycling races of the whole year, and two cobbled mtf's of which one is the freakin Kahlenberg. This is actually a horrible route with all those mtf's and I'm already sick of the Dobratsch, but it ends on the Kahlenberg, the one climb which I want to be included in any cycling race since I started watching cycling so I'm super hyped anyway.

Lol at the Prologue, that's their way of saying "suck it!" to the Dauphine and ASO
And we thought that the TdS would be a mtf fest, has Zomegnan finally taken over?

more like unipublic

any possibility of interesting passes?

 

[Gigs_98]

While Mayo still has to work I was able to watch the presentation. I think there are no profiles yet but I will put them into this post as soon as they are online. The stages are:
Prologue: last 600 meters of the Kitzbüheler Horn
Stage 1: Innsbruck - Salzburg (186,7 km)
Stage 2: Mondsee - Steyr (194,3 km)
Stage 3: Stift Ardagger - Sonntagberg (179,7 km/mtf)
Stage 4: Rottenmann - Edelweißspitze (183,3 km/mtf)
Stage 5: Millstatt - Dobratsch (155 km/mtf)
Stage 6: Graz - Stegersbach (195,9 km)
Stage 7: Bad Tatzmannsdorf - Wien/Kahlenberg (187,8 km/mtf)

So we have the steepest prologue in the history of cycling, the hardest mtf in all cycling races of the whole year, and two cobbled mtf's of which one is the freakin Kahlenberg. This is actually a horrible route with all those mtf's and I'm already sick of the Dobratsch, but it ends on the Kahlenberg, the one climb which I want to be included in any cycling race since I started watching cycling so I'm super hyped anyway.

Lol at the Prologue, that's their way of saying "suck it!" to the Dauphine and ASO
And we thought that the TdS would be a mtf fest, has Zomegnan finally taken over?

more like unipublic

any possibility of interesting passes?

I fear no. Maybe the Dientner Sattel will be part of the stage to the Edelweißspitze, but that mtf is so crazily hard that nothing would happen earlier for sure. In the stage to the Dobratsch I don't expect any other big climbs and on the stages to the Sonntagberg or the Kahlenberg there could be some hills before but generally the mountains in that area aren't that high anymore. Best thing for the Sonntagberg would be if they would climb it twice or even more because you can also use that climb as a pass.

Generally I think the route is rather bad. I don't like the Dobratsch since its a not very scenic climb on a wide road in the middle of the wood. Moreover it's not very steep (compared with most HC climbs in Austria) which would normally encourage long range attacks but there are just no hard climbs near the Dobratsch where you could attack. And this is also already the third time in a row they will climb it and it really isnt like its one of the only possible hard mtf's in Austria.
The Edelweißspitze is kind of cool because for the first time we see the hardest possible ascent of the Großglockner. The Sonntagberg is a climb which I really like but again we have already seen this climb very often in the past.
The Kahlenberg however is a completely new climb and I'm really really looking forward to it. It isnt super hard, probably only 3rd category but they could still make a very hard stage out of it if they use some of the steep ramps there. I just fear that it will be a one climb stage with only the Kahlenberg at the end.
Mayomaniac basically summed it up perfectly. Make an ITT instead of the Dobratsch stage and you have a relatively balanced route. Unfortunately now we will already know the winner after the Sonntagberg and then see the same rider being the strongest rider in three stages in a row.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

New 2.1 race in Portugal in May.

13 Maio – 1ª Etapa : Pinhel /Vilar Formoso – 150 kms
Dificuldade :Média alta

14 de Maio – 2ª Etapa : Sabugal /Fundão – 65 kms CR Equipas
Dificuldade :Média alta

15 de Maio – 3ª Etapa : Guarda /Torre – 195 kms
Dificuldade : Alta

http://jornalciclismo.com/?p=41836

I hope that UCI won't allow a silly TTT of 65 f'n kms.

Okay. Route looks like this now:

1 Pinhel > Vilar Formoso (145k)
2 Sabugal > Fundão (192k)
3 Sabugal > Penhas da Saúde (192k)

Stage 3 will feature Torre @ km 119 and a mtf in Penhas da Saúde. Rumors also state, that there won't be a Torre mtf in this years Volta a Portugal. Of course there will be a Serra de Estrella stage, but not the classic arrival they had in the last years.

 

[Breh]

De Ronde might be starting in Antwerp in the near future. Flanders Classics made Antwerp an offer to host the start.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

De Ronde might be starting in Antwerp in the near future. Flanders Classics made Antwerp an offer to host the start.

Will the course also change?

 

[Breh]

Well, as it is now the first 100 kilometers are a flat run-up to the hilly stage and I don't think that will change.Last 150km or so will remain the same.

 

[god.child]

Hopefully they will move the finish to the classic one while they at it.