Is the TDU a ridiculous race?

[Martin318is]

What do the organizers of the TDU have against time trials? A short ITT, and a stage or two with a few hills that could force a selection and the race might be interesting.

One guess would be that it would highlight how out of condition some of the internationals might be - as it is well before their actual objectives?

 

[BroDeal]

Tutur has said that they don't want to force teams to ship all the tt bikes for an early season race on the other side of the world. Seems reasonable to me although I think they could just use road bikes with clip on aero bars.

A few stage races in the U.S. have ITTs but force use of regular road bikes for them.

Personally I would prefer stage races to be ridden on the same frame (or same model of frame to account for mechanicals, crashing, etc.) throughout the entire race.

 

[greenedge]

I like it because all the teams come, the field quality has grown and it would be too hot to continue for harder stages. This year the route will be better as well. ( And i am going to it for the first time so i am excited )

 

[danjo007]

It is what it is. Any harder and you soft Europeans would struggle.

lol +1 to that then - made me laugh

 

[valentius borealis]

Falls Creeks is in the middle of nowhere. Sun Tour doesn't drift too far away from Melbourne.

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/oct07/suntour07/?id=results/suntour074

 

[auscyclefan94]

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/oct07/suntour07/?id=results/suntour074

The organisers seem hesitant to go to those places now especially after the past few editions and also how the organisers are announcing that the Arthurs Seat stage will remain in the race.

 

[Kwibus]

TDU has its place, but is not rediculous. Not every race can equal a GT or monument.

This. It's not very entertaining, but it's perfect as a season start. As simple as that. I'm glad they finally added a hilly finish, because that was the only thing it was lacking.

 

[El Pistolero]

The ridiculous thing about the TDU is that it's World Tour. No preparation race without any history or prestige should be made World Tour.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

tour san luis is around the same time and a tenfold more entertaining and better course.

 

[jens_attacks]

it's ridiculous but i watch it every year,nuff said.here we come willunga hill

 

[movingtarget]

The ridiculous thing about the TDU is that it's World Tour. No preparation race without any history or prestige should be made World Tour.

I don't think it would make a difference to the race if it was not on the World Tour. Riders and teams realise that it's a good preparation race. Australian fans would still attend and the it would still be screened on TV. Let's face it, sport is all about advertising and money these days: maybe the TDU organisers are are doing a better job at selling their race to the rest of the world and the UCI than the organisers of older races with more history behind them ? The TDU is just a stage race favouring sprinters and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. No different to some of the early season European races.

 

[El Pistolero]

I don't think it would make a difference to the race if it was not on the World Tour. Riders and teams realise that it's a good preparation race. Australian fans would still attend and the it would still be screened on TV. Let's face it, sport is all about advertising and money these days: maybe the TDU organisers are are doing a better job at selling their race to the rest of the world and the UCI than the organisers of older races with more history behind them ? The TDU is just a stage race favouring sprinters and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. No different to some of the early season European races.

If the WT ever wants to regain prestige it wouldn't include these crappy races. Because that's the difference with the TDU and these early European races. TDU is WT and the early European races aren't. That and they're loaded with cash... Which is the only thing that matters for the UCI it seems. It's easy to sell your race to the rest of the world if you're doing it with cash.

Challenge Mallorca, Volta ao Algarve and the Tour Méditerranéen are all in financial problems and aren't confirmed to be held next year.

 

[craig1985]

I don't think Challenge Mallorca, Volta ao Algarve and the Tour Méditerranéen do a great job of promoting themselves, there's not a lot of media coverage, and in their host country either, so what's in it for sponsors? Several people on here have stated that the Volta barely gets any TV time, no highlights (or next to nothing at least). I'd love to watch these races but there's SFA TV coverage and I don't feel like eating up my bandwidth by watching streams.

The other important factor here is that unlike you Euro's, Australia wasn't affected that much by the GFC, no where near the extent of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Iceland.

 

[El Pistolero]

I don't think Challenge Mallorca, Volta ao Algarve and the Tour Méditerranéen do a great job of promoting themselves, there's not a lot of media coverage, and in their host country either, so what's in it for sponsors? Several people on here have stated that the Volta barely gets any TV time, no highlights (or next to nothing at least). I'd love to watch these races but there's SFA TV coverage and I don't feel like eating up my bandwidth by watching streams.

The other important factor here is that unlike you Euro's, Australia wasn't affected that much by the GFC, no where near the extent of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Iceland.

What part of no money don't you understand? Yet despite that they still attract stellar fields. They probably won't even exist anymore after this year. They're good prep races, but don't deserve to be WT for that very reason. Same goes for TDU. First WT race should be Tirreno-Adriatico/Paris-Nice. That's when things are getting serious. That's a race people want to have on their palmares.

 

[luckyboy]

The amount of UCI points on offer are ridiculous.

The racing isn't great, but it's ok for what it is.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The racing is usually rubbish, but let's give it a chance with the hilltop finish as it might make it a bit more than a Bonus Seconds Extravaganza. The UCI points available for it are ridiculous given the stages average 130km with no climbs, but it is what it is.

Ultimately, it's an easy race that people go to for a bit of fun. Biker jk comments on it being easy because the Europeans can't handle a harder race at that point, but that's only half right. There are plenty of Europeans who can, and do. But a lot of the bigger names don't, and a lot of the Australian big names come from a track background, so sprinting is a-ok with them (Evans is obviously a huge, glaring exception). At the moment, it's quite simple: people who want to do climbing in January go to Argentina, people who don't go to Adelaide.

The Tour de San Luís is a much better, more entertaining and interesting race with a really intriguing field. But the Tour Down Under has more big names, and World Tour status. It's down to what you want. The Aussie fans on the roadside probably would rather see the stars. The riders are happy to roll around and let the sprinters have their fun. I don't see the problem, other than that neither race are really given adequate coverage.

 

[Anonymous]

its no more ridiculous than ATOC

 

[El Pistolero]

its no more ridiculous than ATOC

Yes it is. And ToC is not WT.

The only ridiculous thing about ToC is no doping controls.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Yes it is. And ToC is not WT.

The only ridiculous thing about ToC is no doping controls.

and the hype

 

[El Pistolero]

and the hype

This hype is only created by the people who keep on whining that the Giro is better(and grass is green, but I don't keep mentioning that). They're the only people I hear calling it the fourth GT anyway...

Better some hype than no hype I guess. This is the first year I found ToC interesting, so I'll gladly defend it(except the no doping control part).

 

[clipperton]

The ridiculous thing about the TDU is that it's World Tour. No preparation race without any history or prestige should be made World Tour.

this.

much as it would be the death knell for it's burgeoning success, pre-pharmstrong there simply was no case for tdu getting wt status. the fact that the two happened together might create a veneer of legitimacy but deep down we all know that there are plenty of other races that deserve the nod more from a sporting point of view.

from a nationalistic bias point of view i'm ecstatic that it got wt status, but i'm not blinkered enough to think that it's borne of anything other than self-interest.

interestingly enough i think the success of the tdu in getting crowds is having a reasonable impact on the herald suntour. like anything else here folks have a tendency to turn up for things and as it becomes more and more apparent that the tdu is staying put for the foreseeable future, the suntour's starting to draw numbers. if they can figure out how to avoid any sort of near overlap with around the bay in a day as well as shooting for an earlier stage finish, that arthur's seat stage could become a pretty huge day out for melbourne's not insignificant cycling community.

 

[thehog]

The race cannot survive. The organizers pay business class tickets for each and every rider and team staff along with all expenses. As compared to the Sun Tour which pays partial exspenses. Once the government pulls the funding or a sponsor dips the race will collapse. The Armstrong fiasco just adds to the sheer ridiculous nature of the race. The riders ride because they are given massive incentive to so..... it can't last.

 

[clipperton]

..... it can't last.

nor can anything that's reliant on sponsors, no matter how successful. just ask bob stapleton.

but anyway, you're saying that you expect the south aussie government to pull it's funding in spite of the fact that the tourism bucks it's been bringing in since the pharmstrong "fiasco" have substantially outweighed the outlay by almost any measure you could care to name?

personal opinion aside, why was pharmstrong's appearance a "fiasco"? was it because it gave the race, and hence the location, and hence the sponsor unprecendented global attention?

 

[auscyclefan94]

The race cannot survive. The organizers pay business class tickets for each and every rider and team staff along with all expenses. As compared to the Sun Tour which pays partial exspenses. Once the government pulls the funding or a sponsor dips the race will collapse. The Armstrong fiasco just adds to the sheer ridiculous nature of the race. The riders ride because they are given massive incentive to so..... it can't last.

What date will this happen?

Nah, I do agree with you to an extent although I do think it will last as long as the fans continue to come. It is an event run partially by the Government and partially by corporatesso they will probably need an increase of funding from the corporates as I'd imagine that the Govt involvement would go down slightly as crowds will probably decrease a bit but as long as they get decent crowds to the events, the economic benefits to Adelaide is an incentive for the Govt to continue to support the event.

 

[craig1985]

As cringeworthy as it was, Armstrong did create a lot more interest for the race and so did the numbers on TV and those on the side of the road, and at the end of the day if interest remains high, I don't think it will be going anywhere.