General News Thread

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

They really should run a new race for a couple of seasons before they make it WT, give it some history and prestige before promoting it.

Tour of Beijing didn't happen. Nope.

Yep Beijing was a perfect example of what I was saying, they created it and made it WT in its first season, no history or time to build a profile and it was a complete failure. That's why I have reservations about this newly proposed Chinese WT race.

 

[Nirvana]

Seems that next year there will be the Tour of Sicily in october.
http://www.cicloweb.it/2016/11/15/rinasce-una-corsa-storica-nel-2017-ecco-il-grand-tour-of-sicily/

 

[CTQ]

it's over for the Criterium International

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/aso-announces-end-of-criterium-international/

 

[Flamin]

Molenberg makes its comeback in Omloop as the final hill after absence due to road works last year.

Flanders Classics (owner of multiple Flemish races including de Ronde, and a bunch of golddiggers) announce some changes on the calendar for 2018. Dwars door Vlaanderen will be hosted a week later, so Wednesday before de Ronde. Not sure what happens to De Panne...

Also Oudenaarde will be the finish for de Ronde at least until 2023.

 

[Eshnar]

Next Wednesday the new route of the Strade Bianche 2017 (WT for the first time) will be officially announced.

 

[Flamin]

Gent-Wevelgem will feature 3 semi-unpaved roads, 5.2kms in total and placed between the two Kemmel climbs.

I hope this 'trend' stops right there right now. Dwars door het Hageland was a great addition to the calender, but we don't need any more of those.

 

[Nirvana]

Has anyone seen the last two editions of Schaal Sels?
In some parts was like a cyclo cross race with sector in corn fields.

 

[jens_attacks]

That's just stupid.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

No UCI licenses yet for TJ Sports, Verva-ActiveJet, Androni and Funvic. All other WT and ProConti teams are confirmed.

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

That's just stupid.

What's wrong with having some races on the calendar like that?

 

[jens_attacks]

nothing wrong.



In mtb or cyclocross.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

nothing wrong.



In mtb or cyclocross.

We should also pave Finestre completely, right?

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

jens is right. There's a reason this sport is called road cycling.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

jens is right. There's a reason this sport is called road cycling.

And not all roads are paved. Big deal.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yes, but the strade bianche are roads. The ribin sectors at Tro Bro Léon, for the most part, are roads. The pavé sectors at Roubaix are roads, just ones that are mostly unused but for agricultural traffic nowadays. The Colle delle Finestre is a road. The unpaved roads used in the old GP Herning were roads. They've mostly not been updated as they have been rendered unnecessary by infrastructure improvements or bigger/better roads nearby, so they aren't used regularly by regular traffic, but you can nevertheless get in your car and legally drive them. Some of the sectors at Schaal Sels were literally just paths through a field, and have never been nor likely ever will be accessible for road traffic, and so it's debatable that racing on those particular stretches should be considered to be 'road' cycling. They weren't 'unpaved roads' which are not and should not be a problem.

Sectors on unpaved roads are not a problem, but seeking out actual off-road sections in road cycling is stretching the boundaries a bit, which we shouldn't really be doing too much for the same reason as while it's great fun to see steep mountain climbs, we shouldn't be clamouring to see the Giro take on Scanuppia.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Scarponi out training parrot fashion

http://video.gazzetta.it/scarponi-pappagallo-frankje-allenamento/29380cdc-b185-11e6-9e15-0f5bb99a0986

 

[May0maniac]

The new Strade Bianche route has been revealed:

Still only 175km long, but even more sterrato (2 new sectors), so now we've got 61.9 km of sterrato (they added 9.1km of sterrato).
The Women's race will be 127km long, with 8 sectors of sterrato that add up to a total of 30.5km of sterrato.

 

[Flamin]

Sector 2 and 3 are new then if I'm correct.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Sector 2 and 3 are new then if I'm correct.

Yes, those 2 are the new ones.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Sector 2 and 3 are new then if I'm correct.

Yes, those 2 are the new ones.

Don't like they added more unpaved roads but at least they left the second half of the race untouched.

 

[Gigs_98]

Meh, I hoped the race would become longer, now that it's a WT race. Anyway, let's hope we will finally get the first rainy strade bianche

 

[Alexandre B.]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-of-guangxi-added-to-2017-worldtour-calendar/
This is terrible.

"The UCI's main role is to grow and develop cycling globally and China provides us with a wonderful opportunity to engage with literally hundreds of millions more people." - Brian Cookson

Tour of Beijing didn't teach a lesson, it seems. Race where there are people who care about the sport, not just where there are people.

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-of-guangxi-added-to-2017-worldtour-calendar/
This is terrible.

"The UCI's main role is to grow and develop cycling globally and China provides us with a wonderful opportunity to engage with literally hundreds of millions more people." - Brian Cookson

Tour of Beijing didn't teach a lesson, it seems. Race where there are people who care about the sport, not just where there are people.

I'm all for top level cycling to be expanded to different non-traditional cycling countries but as Beijing proved you can't just dump a new race in at the top level and expect it to work, why not let Guangxi run for a couple of seasons and build some history and interest then promote it to the top level of the sport. Baffles me how cycling keeps making the mistake of chasing the quick dollars that end up getting the sport nowhere, the worlds in Qatar and the new Bahrain team are just some recent examples of this.

 

[May0maniac]

They should just upgrade the Tour of Qinghai Lake to WT.
It's another race without history in a place that lacks cycling fans, they could try to create new races in places where people actually care about cycling and that have a nice domestic scene, but in the end it's all about money.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

The Tour of Qinghai Lake has a longer history then the oh so great Strade Bianche...