General News Thread

[yaco]

Probably no surprise as the women's edition this year was part of the WT.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Had rather seen KBK get WT-status, but this is also alright. More to boost the Flandrian spring calender, a very nice 4 races before de Ronde.

 

[Squire]

Re:

Had rather seen KBK get WT-status, but this is also alright. More to boost the Flandrian spring calender, a very nice 4 races before de Ronde.

I see no advantages about more Flandrian classics becoming WT. Life is already hard enough for the Belgian CT teams with the trend of giving invitations to foreign money-teams. Shutting them definitely out from more races doesn't help the situation at all. Races like KBK and De Panne get good enough fields already, it's not like you have to dangle the WT carrot to make teams take those races seriously.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Had rather seen KBK get WT-status, but this is also alright. More to boost the Flandrian spring calender, a very nice 4 races before de Ronde.

I see no advantages about more Flandrian classics becoming WT. Life is already hard enough for the Belgian CT teams with the trend of giving invitations to foreign money-teams. Shutting them definitely out from more races doesn't help the situation at all. Races like KBK and De Panne get good enough fields already, it's not like you have to dangle the WT carrot to make teams take those races seriously.

Well, I think the hope is in the case of De Panne that it will be a harder race with more attention and better riders attending, but yeah, you are probably right.

 

[RedheadDane]

If Driesdaagse actually becomes Driesdaagse again, I just hope it won't have a negative effect on the women's race. Hopefully two three-day races run parallel with each other.

Though, wasn't there some talk about including a U23 race, so it would actually be three days, just three separate races?

 

[Nirvana]

Returning to three days for men is impossible in the new calendar slot because there is E3 on friday and starting on monday is out of question with Sanremo, Denain and Handzame in the previous weekend.
The only way to return a three days race is swapping again its place with Dwars and returning midweek between Gent and Ronde but Flanders Classics has asked and obtained the slot so won't happen.

 

[RedheadDane]

Might be a stupid question; but do those races use (some of) the same roads? Having races overlap isn't exactly unheard of.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Might be a stupid question; but do those races use (some of) the same roads? Having races overlap isn't exactly unheard of.

Obviously, you can't have two Flemish races who normally share the same protagonists (and yes, roads) run at the same time.

 

[RedheadDane]

I can see how sharing roads would be an issue, since you can't set a schedule like "Race A will pass at 2 pm, and race B at 4 pm." Coz then what's gonna happen will probably be that the riders in Race A all crashes or get lost, while the riders in Race B decide to ride as if they were chased by rapid boars on motos.
But as for the protagonists; the way I see it it would just be giving some other guys the chance to shine.

 

[tobydawq]

Then let's just have the three Grand Tours at the same time with all the five monuments on the same day during that period.

 

[RedheadDane]

I meant the riders who (for one reason or another) wouldn't get a slot in WT race.
But actually, I just figured a way to do it:

Of the races Nirvana mentioned the only WT race, other than Driesdaagse, that would be an issue is E3, I know Sanremo is a WT race too (a Monument even), but it isn't exactly a Flemish race. (Same for Catalunya).
So you could have Sanremo on Saturday, Driesdaagse from Monday to Wednesday, and finally E3 on Friday. Then we could have Handzame the day before Sanremo, and Denain the day after. (Then we just need to find a race to fit in between Driesdaagse finishing, and E3.)

However, I can't seem to find Handzame on the PCS calendar; mistake or... has it been cancelled?

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

I meant the riders who (for one reason or another) wouldn't get a slot in WT race.
But actually, I just figured a way to do it:

Of the races Nirvana mentioned the only WT race, other than Driesdaagse, that would be an issue is E3, I know Sanremo is a WT race too (a Monument even), but it isn't exactly a Flemish race. (Same for Catalunya).
So you could have Sanremo on Saturday, Driesdaagse from Monday to Wednesday, and finally E3 on Friday. Then we could have Handzame the day before Sanremo, and Denain the day after. (Then we just need to find a race to fit in between Driesdaagse finishing, and E3.)

However, I can't seem to find Handzame on the PCS calendar; mistake or... has it been cancelled?

Okay, that makes sense then. I think Handzame has been renamed (can't remember to what).

Edit: Bredene Koksijde Classic.

 

[RedheadDane]

I kinda figured out about Handzame by looking a bit more carefully at the calendar. (It's Bredene Koksijde Classic now)
However, I guess an issue now would be the locals maybe being a little bit annoyed that their roads are constantly blocked…

 

[Tim Booth]

Re:

I kinda figured out about Handzame by looking a bit more carefully at the calendar. (It's Bredene Koksijde Classic now)

Seems that the race organisers are taking advantage of their new status. They have invited Tarteletto-Isorex and Cibel Cebon Continental teams as wildcard entries, but on the condition they pay 1.850 euros for a 'VIP package'. Peter Bauwens, team manager of Tarteletto-Isorex, is not impressed - his reaction is reported here
https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/peter-bauwens-in-de-clinch-met-organisator-bredene-koksijde-classic/

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

I kinda figured out about Handzame by looking a bit more carefully at the calendar. (It's Bredene Koksijde Classic now)

Seems that the race organisers are taking advantage of their new status. They have invited Tarteletto-Isorex and Cibel Cebon Continental teams as wildcard entries, but on the condition they pay 1.850 euros for a 'VIP package'. Peter Bauwens, team manager of Tarteletto-Isorex, is not impressed - his reaction is reported here
https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/peter-bauwens-in-de-clinch-met-organisator-bredene-koksijde-classic/

Understandable; it was HC last year, it's HC this year. A new name does not a new status make.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I just noticed the whole calender got moved 1 week ahead.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

I just noticed the whole calender got moved 1 week ahead.

Most years it moves by 1 or 2 days because the days of the week have to align. For example, Roubaix has to be on a Sunday, so it was on the 10th in 2016, 9th in 2017, 8th in 2018

You can't keep moving back forever, so after a while you have to move it "back" to where it was originally, which is a week forward

 

[Nirvana]

Re:

I meant the riders who (for one reason or another) wouldn't get a slot in WT race.
But actually, I just figured a way to do it:

Of the races Nirvana mentioned the only WT race, other than Driesdaagse, that would be an issue is E3, I know Sanremo is a WT race too (a Monument even), but it isn't exactly a Flemish race. (Same for Catalunya).
So you could have Sanremo on Saturday, Driesdaagse from Monday to Wednesday, and finally E3 on Friday. Then we could have Handzame the day before Sanremo, and Denain the day after. (Then we just need to find a race to fit in between Driesdaagse finishing, and E3.)

However, I can't seem to find Handzame on the PCS calendar; mistake or... has it been cancelled?

I mentioned Sanremo because WT riders that are supposed to go to Da Panne are almost the same that usually go to Sanremo, considering that they also come out of Tirreno/PN no one will add three days of racing slotted between Sanremo and E3. The problem with Handzame and Denain is that usually French/Belgian professional teams rode that races in the weekend of Sanremo so will be difficult also for them to send a good lineup.
I think that in this slot is difficult to attract big names already with only one day of racing, probably they've tried to go WT to exactly to have a better lineup than last year but I'm not sure it will actually work, the only "big" name confirmed at the moment is Viviani and we already know the spring schedule of a certain number of important names along sprinters/durable sprinters/cobbled specialists.

 

[Nirvana]

Re:

I just noticed the whole calender got moved 1 week ahead.

Only the first half of the year has moved in 2019, the second half was moved already last year after the Tour decided to move due to World Cup.
Anyway is only provisional, with the reform a restructure of the calendar is very likely since they want to split the calendar in roughly three blocks with classics during the spring and fall and stage races in between and there will be the implementation of the new classics series and pro series (with likely new races in new markets).
Not to mention the fact that genius Lappy has already announced that he wants to move the Giro start to the second half of May and slot California at the beginning of the month to allow the riders to ride both and next year we have ORR on the 26th of July so the Tour should start the last week of June to avoid overlapping.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

I just noticed the whole calender got moved 1 week ahead.

Only the first half of the year has moved in 2019, the second half was moved already last year after the Tour decided to move due to World Cup.
Anyway is only provisional, with the reform a restructure of the calendar is very likely since they want to split the calendar in roughly three blocks with classics during the spring and fall and stage races in between and there will be the implementation of the new classics series and pro series (with likely new races in new markets).
Not to mention the fact that genius Lappy has already announced that he wants to move the Giro start to the second half of May and slot California at the beginning of the month to allow the riders to ride both and next year we have ORR on the 26th of July so the Tour should start the last week of June to avoid overlapping.

I think there will be some tweaking of the calendar, but some races, esp the Spanish week races are unlikely to move as there just aren't a lot of warm weather places to hold races in February and March. I also don't see too many riders changing their calender's much even with the new ideas of different categories of races.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

I meant the riders who (for one reason or another) wouldn't get a slot in WT race.
But actually, I just figured a way to do it:

Of the races Nirvana mentioned the only WT race, other than Driesdaagse, that would be an issue is E3, I know Sanremo is a WT race too (a Monument even), but it isn't exactly a Flemish race. (Same for Catalunya).
So you could have Sanremo on Saturday, Driesdaagse from Monday to Wednesday, and finally E3 on Friday. Then we could have Handzame the day before Sanremo, and Denain the day after. (Then we just need to find a race to fit in between Driesdaagse finishing, and E3.)

However, I can't seem to find Handzame on the PCS calendar; mistake or... has it been cancelled?

I mentioned Sanremo because WT riders that are supposed to go to Da Panne are almost the same that usually go to Sanremo, considering that they also come out of Tirreno/PN no one will add three days of racing slotted between Sanremo and E3. The problem with Handzame and Denain is that usually French/Belgian professional teams rode that races in the weekend of Sanremo so will be difficult also for them to send a good lineup.
I think that in this slot is difficult to attract big names already with only one day of racing, probably they've tried to go WT to exactly to have a better lineup than last year but I'm not sure it will actually work, the only "big" name confirmed at the moment is Viviani and we already know the spring schedule of a certain number of important names along sprinters/durable sprinters/cobbled specialists.

I gave them an entire day to get from Sanremo to Driesdaagse! There have been riders standing on the startline for P-N literally the day after finishing SB.
And looking at the start list for Sanremo for the last couple of years, it seems unlikely that teams like Wanty or Sport Vlaanderen are going to get Wild Cards, as for a team like Deceuninck; is it really so terrible that they don't get to send their "A-team" to races like The-Race-Formerly-Known-As-Handzame and Denain, but will have to make do with their "a-team"? It sure didn't stop them in Handzame last year.

Look, all I want is an entire "super-week" (from Friday to Friday) of races basically every day - except that evil Thursday between Driesdaagse and E3 - is that really too much to ask?
I know Catalunya is in the same week, but that's not a cobbled race, and you can watch two races at the same time.

 

[Valv.Piti]

1ª etapa. Zumarraga - Zumarraga (CRI, 12 km).

2ª etapa. Zumarraga – Valle de Egüés.

3ª etapa. Sarriguren - Santuario de Estibaliz.

4ª etapa. Vitoria - Arrigorriaga.

5ª etapa. Arrigorriaga - Santuario de Arrate.

6ª etapa. Eibar - Eibar.

This is the route for Pais Vasco. I like that they are having the TT on the first day, that should make for a better race IMO. We have the classic Arrate stage, but outside of that, Im pretty lost to what is going to happen. Does anybody have a clue to what the stages are going to look like?

 

[Squire]

There are no stage details in any of the news articles about the route, so the profiles will presumably be released later.

But do not for a second believe that being a time trialist will help you in this race. The only info I could find details the time trial. It includes the insanely steep Antigua climb that we saw in the 1st stage of the 2011 edition, when we waited for the riders to come into view of the fixed cameras on the climb. Purito obviously destroyed everyone, winning the sprint after the short downhill to the finish against Samu Sanchez, Klöden and Horner. It was a great finish.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

There are no stage details in any of the news articles about the route, so the profiles will presumably be released later.

But do not for a second believe that being a time trialist will help you in this race. The only info I could find details the time trial. It includes the insanely steep Antigua climb that we saw in the 1st stage of the 2011 edition, when we waited for the riders to come into view of the fixed cameras on the climb. Purito obviously destroyed everyone, winning the sprint after the short downhill to the finish against Samu Sanchez, Klöden and Horner. It was a great finish.

Didn't he win after a photo finish?

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

There are no stage details in any of the news articles about the route, so the profiles will presumably be released later.

But do not for a second believe that being a time trialist will help you in this race. The only info I could find details the time trial. It includes the insanely steep Antigua climb that we saw in the 1st stage of the 2011 edition, when we waited for the riders to come into view of the fixed cameras on the climb. Purito obviously destroyed everyone, winning the sprint after the short downhill to the finish against Samu Sanchez, Klöden and Horner. It was a great finish.

Didn't he win after a photo finish?

Yes, I mentioned the sprint win. He was, however, clearly the strongest on the climb.