Re:
Breh said:E3 Harelbeke changes it's name to the E3 BinckBank Classic, only minor changes to the route.
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Breh said:E3 Harelbeke changes it's name to the E3 BinckBank Classic, only minor changes to the route.
Red Rick said:Breh said:E3 Harelbeke changes it's name to the E3 BinckBank Classic, only minor changes to the route.
Scheduling disaster waiting to happen. Who decides what week the race is?Red Rick said:[quote="Nirvana":17y4irlg]Lappartient in an interview for the Gazzetta (I don't post it because is mainly on clinic related stuff) said that he wants two WC in Africa in the next decade (they already have candidatures from Rwanda and Marocco for 2025).
But the really important thing (and something that could affect vastly the calendar) is that he said he's working for 2020 to have California in the first week of May and Giro start postponed to the second part of May to avoid the overlapping of the two races and allow riders to ride both. In this case I wonder if they need to postpone also every race after the Giro or they'll overlap the Giro with Dauphine and maybe even Suisse and reduce to only three or four week the break between Giro and Tour. And what they'll do with the usual preparation races for the Giro, riding in California could become more attractive than going to Tirol or Romandie with more likely cold and bad weather and almost a month before the start of the Giro.
And not to mention that for 2020 we could also have the Olympics overlapping with the Tour considering that RR is scheduled for the 26th of July, the likely Sunday of Champs Eliseé.
RedheadDane said:I'm honestly a little confused here. Lappartient wants to move around the Giro and ToC, so said two races won't clash. Yet there are no words about P-N and T-A, or CdD and TdS…
tobydawq said:RedheadDane said:I'm honestly a little confused here. Lappartient wants to move around the Giro and ToC, so said two races won't clash. Yet there are no words about P-N and T-A, or CdD and TdS…
He can't unclash all races... What about London, San Sebastián, Poland, Canadian Classics, Hamburg, Vuelta?
They have already obtained the extra week they wanted, next year the Giro will start the second week of May instead of the first but that won't change anything because Dauphine and Suisse will also move and all the races after will maintain the slot used this year after the Tour was moved for football World Cup (as well as all the races after the Tour).yaco said:I think it is a wonderful idea - Giro has been pushing to start a week later which will 99% ensure there are no issues for bad weather.
If they want to avoid a clash between the Tour and Olympics they need to start the Tour at the end of June so it could end the 19th of July, but in that case there will be only two or three weeks between a Giro that could start in the second half of May and the Tour. And with the Olympics RR the Sunday after the end of the Tour will still be hard for riders interested in going for gold finish the Tour, going to Japan it's not like going to San Sebastián.[/quote]Nirvana said:Scheduling disaster waiting to happen. Who decides what week the race is?Red Rick said:[quote="Nirvana":229bpqwi]Lappartient in an interview for the Gazzetta (I don't post it because is mainly on clinic related stuff) said that he wants two WC in Africa in the next decade (they already have candidatures from Rwanda and Marocco for 2025).
But the really important thing (and something that could affect vastly the calendar) is that he said he's working for 2020 to have California in the first week of May and Giro start postponed to the second part of May to avoid the overlapping of the two races and allow riders to ride both. In this case I wonder if they need to postpone also every race after the Giro or they'll overlap the Giro with Dauphine and maybe even Suisse and reduce to only three or four week the break between Giro and Tour. And what they'll do with the usual preparation races for the Giro, riding in California could become more attractive than going to Tirol or Romandie with more likely cold and bad weather and almost a month before the start of the Giro.
And not to mention that for 2020 we could also have the Olympics overlapping with the Tour considering that RR is scheduled for the 26th of July, the likely Sunday of Champs Eliseé.
Anyway, I don't believe the Tour would clash with the ORR
Great route, the ascent before San Genesio is also irregular and on a rather narrow road.Laplaz said:Tour of the Alps 2019 route presented!
https://tourofthealps.eu/it/
Great to have Monte Giovo and San Genesio in the race!
I'm fine with this as long as they also level the Tourmalet or at least dig a tunnel underneath.Nirvana said:ASO wants to put mortar between the cobbles in Aremberg, that's even worse than Lappartient calendar works.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/arenberg-sector-of-paris-roubaix-cobbles-set-to-be-made-safer/
With this continuous degeneration toward a non sense research of safety everywhere i fear the day that will be a rainy Roubaix they'll cut out three quarters of the cobbles sectors from the race.
"It won't mean that the sector will be less difficult," Amis president Soulcier insisted, hoping to allay the fears of fans. "We're not trying to change the character of the most iconic part of the race."
I think that this is only PR, it's obvious that the intention is to make the surface smoother.RedheadDane said:Guys, the mortar is quite probably just as much to ensure that the Arenberg will actually stay in the race.
"It won't mean that the sector will be less difficult," Amis president Soulcier insisted, hoping to allay the fears of fans. "We're not trying to change the character of the most iconic part of the race."
If I know those guys they're probably going to take great care that every rock and stone is exactly as loopsided as it was before, and with mortar there'll be no leveling out any stone afterwards.
Safety is good, what is bad is the degeneration toward a continuos non sense research of it even when not needed, Roubaix is not the only evidence of this but I think is the one most affected, we have already seen that in the last two edition when they did extensive cleaning of some sectors on Friday and Saturday because otherwise they would have cut them out, and in both cases there was only some rain at the beginning of the week. I consider something like that ridiculous, the mud has always been a symbolic part of the race.RedheadDane said:How is it obvious? Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix - who, you know, have expressed their concerns too - have so far been doing a pretty good job of fixing the roads by making sure they remain as bad as always. That's literally what they do; ensure safety while maintaining difficulty.
It's quite possibly going to be no more than a few centimeters of mortar, right at the base of the stones. There will still be plenty of possibility for mud/dirt to get over the stones from the - plowed up - paths along the side.
I mean, come on. Is safety really that bad?
roundabout said:https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DsjnovGXoAIG3vK.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DsjnovDXQAEXrxx.jpg
Guess the best part about Colombia next season will be the field and not the parcours
Nirvana said:Safety is good, what is bad is the degeneration toward a continuos non sense research of it even when not needed, Roubaix is not the only evidence of this but I think is the one most affected, we have already seen that in the last two edition when they did extensive cleaning of some sectors on Friday and Saturday because otherwise they would have cut them out, and in both cases there was only some rain at the beginning of the week. I consider something like that ridiculous, the mud has always been a symbolic part of the race.RedheadDane said:How is it obvious? Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix - who, you know, have expressed their concerns too - have so far been doing a pretty good job of fixing the roads by making sure they remain as bad as always. That's literally what they do; ensure safety while maintaining difficulty.
It's quite possibly going to be no more than a few centimeters of mortar, right at the base of the stones. There will still be plenty of possibility for mud/dirt to get over the stones from the - plowed up - paths along the side.
I mean, come on. Is safety really that bad?
Anyway regarding sectors maintenance, the sectors are always easier after it because the position of the stones is corrected during maintenance and they reduce the gaps between the stones. But ASO wants to go even beyond that, their intention is to avoid mud deposit and therefore grass growth between the stones with mortar, maybe the assaciation is concerned but if ASO asks for that they are forced to do what they want. I can easily see ASO saying something like "without this work we won't use Aremberg anymore because is too dangerous".