In your opinion, what is THE 'official' season opening race?

[Henrik]

Het Volk..

 

[erader]

for me it was the ATOC. in years past i would be pretty excited by now and i would have my reservations in solvang and maybe sacramento lined up.

but lance helped screw that up too, wot ?

ed rader

 

[stephens]

I used to say Het Volk was the start. But since it's easier to say "Paris-Nice" than remember het volk is out of business and the race is now run by Nieuwsblad, let's give the guys another official week or two off.

 

[erader]

for me it was the ATOC.

http://erader.zenfolio.com/f561244030

ed rader

 

[ak-zaaf]

the off season has been so dull..

But those tweets.... All those tweets!!!

 

[bianchigirl]

Etoile de Bessege

 

[Cosette]

Omloop Het Volk for me as well...

 

[Anonymous]

I've always thought of Paris-Nice as the first major race of the season. TDU is a glorified training camp, and Het Volk is the final warm-up to tune up the fast-twitchers.

 

[krebs303]

It is when the first pedal gets turned in anger.

 

[philcrisp]

Het Volk. It's the first race of the year where no one is there for training.

 

[blaxland]

I've always thought of Paris-Nice as the first major race of the season. TDU is a glorified training camp, and Het Volk is the final warm-up to tune up the fast-twitchers.

+1 agree.....paris-nice is where all the main contenders start checking there form......

 

[craig1985]

Next week when I do my first race of the season.

 

[Bike Boy]

I've always thought of Paris-Nice as the first major race of the season. TDU is a glorified training camp, and Het Volk is the final warm-up to tune up the fast-twitchers.

The question was which race opens the season. Not necessarily the first major race.

But if I may join in on this one, I would have to say that I agree. First major stage race of the season is Paris Nice.
The first major one day event of the year would be MSR

 

[Polish]

THE "official" season opener would be a race that Eddy has won no doubt.

Looking at the list of 2010 races..
http://www.cyclinglinks.nl/

First would be the Tour Méditerranéen in early February I believe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Méditerranéen

However, the Tour down Under did not exist in Eddy's day.
But if it did, IMO Eddy would have raced it, tanned the hides of the competition, and won!

TdU=official season opener IMO.
Med Tour #2...

 

[dotcycling]

For me its Etoile de Bessèges...

Leaving aside the TdU and the couple of races in the Middle East, and Langkawi, the European season traditionally kicked off with the Etoile de Bessèges in France. That is the first real race where there is participation by all major teams and a cross-section of decent pros from various countries, not just the host nation. Then there is the tour of Mallorca the week after... Not really a "tour" but a series of one day races...

Mallorca is usually seen as warm up for the Tour of Med which is the first major target for the early season stage racers.... Most Paris-Nice contenders will have a number of days in their legs at this stage...

Het Volk is the traditional season opener for "northern classics" and those who will be fighting over the cobbles in March and April... it falls on the same weekend as Gran Premio Lugano (which was originally called the "Season Opening Race")... GP Lugano caters for riders who will also fight it out at Paris Nice or Tirreno Adriatico. Many riders who ride the tour of the Med will ride GP Lugano.

Last year GP Insubria was held the day before Lugano... the same teams rode both races....

Paris Nice is a relatively late start if that is your first race... If so, a rider would be late on form for the first classics... such as MSR which falls the following week

 

[auscyclefan94]

+1

The race in Australia is nice, but it is winter in the northern hemisphere and no amount of pomp and circumstance will make the TdU more than a warm up act. Same went for the ToC in its old time slot.

Some aussies and internationals I would say do take it seriously and want to have good form. Also teams like BMC are going to have to take it seriously if the want a tour spot. Though Het Volk is when the real hard racing starts to happen. So Down under is the official start but Het volk is when it starts to get really serious!

 

[krebs303]

Some aussies and internationals I would say do take it seriously. Also teams like BMC are going to have to take it seriously if the want a tour spot.

+1.........................

 

[doddy13]

For me it varies.
I watch the Tour Down Under and Qatar but they aren't the start of season.

I'd say Het Nieuwsblad and Paris-Nice

 

[Sum_of_Marc]

Was nobody listening to Jonathan Vaughters last season?

The season obviously only starts on the day of the Giro TTT

 

[Big_Blue_Dave]

For me its the Etoile de Besseges and GP de Marsellaise (sp), usually when the top teams came out and rode their first races in anger. Though, in the last couple of years the TDU started getting some larger teams and better known European racers to join the Australian and New Zealand riders it is fast becoming "the" season opener.

 

[karlboss]

Looking at the field, I'd say tour down under. Its a sprinters race, and most teams bring their best sprinters and a team to support them (granted a few of these are aussies anyway). If some others want to spend winter in europe....more fool them.

I agree noone is going to target and peak for the TDU, so I wouldn't regard as the first race that matters, just the season opener where we can start looking at which sprinters and teams have done the work during the break.

 

[red_flanders]

Omloop 'Het Nieuwsblad,' everything before is just practice.

+1

I will say these early races like Cali (formerly) and TdU are were changing that a bit, but w/o Cali the TdU is just too much of a random race to really be in season.

 

[miffed]

Id have said TdU is the first road race I care enough about to go out of my way to watch highlights of and the first race I actually care about who wins is Het Volk. So which is the start of the year? TdU probabl,y but the result tells you nout about whats going to happen for the rest of the year whereas Het Volk gives some idea of form.

 

[42x16ss]

Id have said TdU is the first road race I care enough about to go out of my way to watch highlights of and the first race I actually care about who wins is Het Volk. So which is the start of the year? TdU probabl,y but the result tells you nout about whats going to happen for the rest of the year whereas Het Volk gives some idea of form.

Good points, but for me the TDU shows which teams and riders are really targeting the early classics. It also shows which teams are going to try something new in the year to come and in the case of Katusha last year and Sky/BMC this year, a chance to find out how well the team gels together on the road. Training camps aren't always the best indicator of these types of things and TDU gives plenty of time for teams to work on any issues before major European races later in the year.

 

[brianf7]

The Bay classic is 2nd January you aint had a lot of time to work the grog out of the body by then.
But do you still have 25 mile time trials on new years day.

If they dont kill you they do you good.