General News Thread

[roundabout]

Looks like one of the toughest routes ever if all gets raced in Romandie next year

All road stages end with circuits (not sure how it works on stage 4)

https://www.tourderomandie.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Communiqu%C3%A9_presse_avec_carte_TDR_2020_09.07.2019.pdf

- Mardi 28 avril : prologue à Oron
- Mercredi 29 avril : Aigle – Martigny → sur le parcours des Mondiaux 2020 !
- Jeudi 30 avril : La Neuveville – Saint-Imier
- Vendredi 1er mai : Estavayer en boucles
- Samedi 2 mai : Sion – Thyon 2000
- Dimanche 3 mai : Fribourg (contre-la-montre)

Mont-Crosin - Mont-Soleil finishing circuit on stage 2, please.

 

[Nirvana]

One of the things I wrote in the UCI survey when allowed is "I hate circuits at the end of stages and one day races".

 

[Mayomaniac]

The goverment of the Valle d'Aosta has accepted a proposal to make a bid to get the big alpine stages of the next(?) Tour. They are working together with Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Valais.
The proposed stages are:
Bourg Saint Maurice - Pila
Aosta - Verbier
Verbier - Chamonix
Source: https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article...nta-tour-de-france-maurice-garin-monte-bianco
Could be good, but 3 short mountain stages in a row doesn't sound that good, maybe you could cut the 2nd one and have a glorious Aosta - Chamonix stage.
Still, Verbier after Grand Bernard would be pretty awesome and a Chamonix stage also has a lot of potential.
They just need to let the organizers of the Giro della Valle d'Aosta design the stages instead of ASO...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Depends how they do it. You could have some great stages if they, for example, go over PSB, then something like Verrogne or Lin-Noir, PAST Aosta and over Saint-Barthélemy or Champremier before Pila. The second of those stages sounds like it's inevitably a 100km or so stage which just has GSB and Verbier, but if they did GSB, Planches (or Champex from its easier side), Lein, Verbier it would be incredible. Or they could skip the loop to the east of Aosta in the Pila stage, then put those climbs in the Verbier stage. I'm thinking it's probably too much to ask that they go as far as Tze Core and Saint-Panthaléon. Chamonix would then be more or less a transitional stage in the first proposition (tough Pila stage, short Verbier stage), but if they go with a fairly ordinary shortish MTF stage to Pila then a really tough stage to Verbier NOT using the totality of climbs in the area around Martigny (e.g. Saint Barthélemy, Champremier, GSB, Verbier) then you could have the short stage be the Verbier - Chamonix one, e.g. Champex, Planches, Forclaz, Montets (hopefully finishing with a short uphill at Chamonix-La Vormaine).

I would perhaps, off the top of my head, most like BSM - Pila (PSB-1, Lin-Noir-1, Champremier-1, Pila-Ciel-Bleu-HC), Aosta - Verbier (Saint-Barthélemy-1, GSB-HC, Verbier-1/2), Martigny - Chamonix (Ovronnaz-HC, Lein-HC, Forclaz-1, Montets-3, La Vormaine-NC).

I mean, I fully expect consecutive 100-120km stages, but you COULD have incredible stages there.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Yeah, maybe they'll put one climb before GSB on the Verbier stage, but that's probably it.
The Martigny-Chamonix stage would be so short (44km) that I have more hope that they'd use 1 or 2 nice climbs at the start, maybe even just the wc circuit climb to P Forcaz and Champex at the start of the stage, that would already make things interesting if it is the 3rd consecutive mountain stage.
At least the pacing would be right, the hard Mtf at the start.

 

[Unchained]

Went to the 58th Manhattan Beach Gran Prix. As close to a classic as we have. Justin Williams did defend but raced Saturday in Utah..he won.
I try and give money for a couple of primes. Charly Litzky was at the start line at one of my first races after upgrading. I was petrified!!!
He said " if you don't think you can do it,you can't do it..period " he explained that trying to win my first Pro,1,2 race was probably lofty ..he said try and win a prime..I won a meal for 2 at the Kettle Restaurant..for me it was like the yellow jersey.
We don't have lots of great cycling stories in the US..Justin Williams is a story.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oQpU2lRACHs

https://www.usabmx.com/site/postings/131?section_id=8

https://journalism.uconn.edu/awards-and-scholarships/

RIP..Lit

 

[Valv.Piti]

Anybody know why Ruta a Burgos has ditched the hard Lagunas-stage? I remember in previous years that they used to make a hard mountain stage with a MTF on the last days, thats where I saw Mikel Landa in 2011 and Marc Soler I believe in 2015. Maybe its because they have added the Picon Blanco-stage.

But god damn, they are lazy. Its basically just the same stages as previous years.

 

[Nirvana]

I post here because there isn't a race thread yet, on the Italian forum they say that organizers of Deutschland Tour in a press release have listed all these riders as starters for this year's race:
Alaphilippe, Asgreen, Evenepoel, Lampaert, Mas, Kwiatkowski, Poels, Sivakov, Thomas, Kristoff, Martin, Ulissi, Pedersen, Porte, Stuyven, Ackermann, Buchmann, Bauhaus, Nibali, Hindley, Hirschi, Ewan, Politt, Bettiol, Cort.

A lot of surprising names considering that some were supposed for the Vuelta and the route is good only for durable sprinters, maybe fast puncheurs with a couple of slight uphill finishes and the bonus seconds on the last hill every stage. The only interesting thing will be to see if Evenepoel could go away from the peloton on flat/rolling terrain again now that everyone should know what he could do.

 

[del1962]

Would have been a great race to add a 40k ITT

 

[yaco]

Why would you ruin the race with a 40 ITT ? There are no big climbs to even up the race.

 

[RedheadDane]

Here is a really sweet article about the relationship between Louis Vervaeke and his wife Astrid Collinge.
Or, you could say; between Astrid Collinge and her second husband Louis Vervaeke, her first husband being Antoine Demoitié.

 

[Flamin]

Here is a really sweet article about the relationship between Louis Vervaeke and his wife Astrid Collinge.
Or, you could say; between Astrid Collinge and her second husband Louis Vervaeke, her first husband being Antoine Demoitié.

Thanks for the link! Read the whole article in Dutch. Great interview.

 

[b.broadhurst]

How do I change my username?

 

[RedheadDane]

Dunno where else to post this/too lazy to search for a more appropriate thread...
Apparently there's a new rule that riders are only allowed to have 85 race days per year… that is *** stupid! If a rider wants to ride as many races as he possibly can, let him! He's the one who's going to be tired!

 

[janraaskalt]

Dunno where else to post this/too lazy to search for a more appropriate thread...
Apparently there's a new rule that riders are only allowed to have 85 race days per year… that is *** stupid! If a rider wants to ride as many races as he possibly can, let him! He's the one who's going to be tired!

It's probably to prevent "The Clinic". With less races cycling will be more healthy for the riders.

 

[del1962]

Do teams put pressure on riders to race more than 85 days?

What about those who do multi disciplines, how many races has MvDP done including MB and CC?

 

[RedheadDane]

Do teams put pressure on riders to race more than 85 days?

No, but a rider might want to. Basically the way I heard about it was Lars Bak saying that the main reason he wasn't doing Tour of Denmark was because then he'd only have one race day left.

 

[Sestriere]

No, but a rider might want to. Basically the way I heard about it was Lars Bak saying that the main reason he wasn't doing Tour of Denmark was because then he'd only have one race day left.

Six riders on the Vuelta start list have 65 or more race days, which means they will surpass 85 days if they finish the race...

 

[janraaskalt]

Six riders on the Vuelta start list have 65 or more race days, which means they will surpass 85 days if they finish the race...

I thought this rule would apply starting 2020. Apparently not.

 

[janraaskalt]

No, but a rider might want to. Basically the way I heard about it was Lars Bak saying that the main reason he wasn't doing Tour of Denmark was because then he'd only have one race day left.

The way it is implemented for Women's WT in 2020 is that national team appearances don't count for their max 75 days.

 

[Nirvana]

Dunno where else to post this/too lazy to search for a more appropriate thread...
Apparently there's a new rule that riders are only allowed to have 85 race days per year… that is *** stupid! If a rider wants to ride as many races as he possibly can, let him! He's the one who's going to be tired!

Erik Zabel would have been forced to end his seasons in June/July with this rule...

 

[Ricco']

Do teams put pressure on riders to race more than 85 days?

What about those who do multi disciplines, how many races has MvDP done including MB and CC?

Well, from January 1st, I believe it's 46 until now.

12 cyclocross races,
19 races on the road as per Pro Cycling Stats (plus 2 criteriums but I didn't count them)
15 days on the MTB (I think the BeMC was a prologue with 3 stages, plus 5 world cups and the Euro championships).

Funny fact, in those 46 race days of 2019 he won 32 of them.

If you count a full year, I think the sum adds up to 72 days. More 22 CX races, XCC and XCO at La Bresse and the XCO World Championships (Team Relay and Men Elite race).

 

[Leinster]

Erik Zabel would have been forced to end his seasons in June/July with this rule...

Chiapucci might have made it to May. If he skipped all the Middle East/Tour Down Under type stuff.

It’s clearly intended to protect riders and prevent burnout, but the obvious counterpoint is that there is a history of some riders preferring to race more, and use races as their training.

 

[Finn84]

PCS lists Marco Haller and Reto Hollenstein as current leaders with 81 days this year. Hollenstein is planning to go to Deutschland-Tour which puts him to 85 at finish. And actually Backaert would go from 80 to 86 in Deutschland-Tour and two one-day races.

De Gendt would also go over in the Vuelta so I don't believe to that rule.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Dunno where else to post this/too lazy to search for a more appropriate thread...
Apparently there's a new rule that riders are only allowed to have 85 race days per year… that is *** stupid! If a rider wants to ride as many races as he possibly can, let him! He's the one who's going to be tired!

Stupid, just stupid.

How about they made a rule about how many kilometres you could do a season?