Lesser known races 2023 edition

[Salvarani]

...and they also are evidently incapable of publishing the full results within an hour and 40 minutes (and counting) of the finish. That might be the slowest of this season so far.

Too much beer maybe. It is a Wednesday after all.

 

[Samamba]

Belgian races are also specialist in not giving out the results till like 4 hours after the race. I really don't get it, just annoying. They have the results but they refuse to publish them. If the Tour of Taiwan can publish them like 5 min after a stage a European race can do it too.

 

[tobydawq]

Euskaltel also rode the smaller Belgian races last weekend. They're obviously not going to win, but a top 20 is not impossible, and that is also worth some UCI points.

And voilà, they were 14th, 15th and 16th. A performance of sorts...

 

[YavorD]

Wanting it to be more of a warm-up for MSR?
Would also explain the change in time.

Only that not of the top favorites goes there. What a waste of a great race.

Oh no, you're spot on when it comes to them wanting to have a warm-up race for MSR. It's just the execution that's really poor...

That's a genius move actually. Make a warm up race (for a monument) which is not raced by any of the top favorites for that monument.
While at the same time you kill a perfectly fine warm-up race for a different monument.

 

[Samamba]

And voilà, they were 14th, 15th and 16th. A performance of sorts...

Spanish teams and their team classifications...

 

[hayneplane]

Milano-Torino: Cancellara happy

(thanks RedHeadDane for the thread advice!)

That’s just criminal how they ruined Milano-Torino. If they wanted a sprint friendly race in the week of MSR create a new race instead of butchering a once very fine one day classic with a star studded winners list.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And voilà, they were 14th, 15th and 16th. A performance of sorts...

And a whopping 36 points for my CQ team.

 

[Ricco']

That's a genius move actually. Make a warm up race (for a monument) which is not raced by any of the top favorites for that monument.
While at the same time you kill a perfectly fine warm-up race for a different monument.

And I think a sprint race like this is no use as a warm-up race as well. All flat, pace wise should not be harder than a training day riding in the peloton, and the factor that could call more riders to be there in order to prepare San Remo (small short hills near the finish) don't exist either. It's a better chance to have a crash that hinders their presence in Sanremo than to prepare anything.

I think Laigueglia (maybe a less harder version than the last iterations) or the now defunct GP Industria Larciano would be a better warm-up race than this.

Edit: i thought it was not held last year due to Tirreno changing dates but is now held in the end of march.

 

[Samamba]

i thought it was not held last year due to Tirreno changing dates but is now held in the end of march.

It's the "easiest" hilly 1.Pro race of the year now lmao, together with the Japan Cup. Gets held together with Catalunya, that doesn't help.

 

[yaco]

The calendar has its imperfections like having 2 WT races at the same time, however I am happy with the sprinters getting their chance in a world of less opportunities.

 

[search]

I think the calendar will actually look much worse if the UCI really pushes through the "no WT races at the same time" idea. I really struggle to see that can work out without shortening races like Paris-Nice, Tirreno or Catalunya to ~5 days, at least.

But anyway, over to Denain today, which should be fun. Lots of wind, and as usual, fairly rough cobbles:

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

I think the calendar will actually look much worse if the UCI really pushes through the "no WT races at the same time" idea. I really struggle to see that can work out without shortening races like Paris-Nice, Tirreno or Catalunya to ~5 days, at least.

To make it work without shorting the events you need to move Strade and Paris Nice a week earlier.

Given K-B-K is not WT it’s possible to have Omloop at the standard Saturday, Strade the Sunday and then start a 7 stage Paris-Nice on Monday. Then start a 7 stage Tirreno the following Monday. Then San Remo Saturday and a 6 stage Catalunya Monday as this year leaving the Sunday for Gent-Wevelgem.

The losers would be Brugge de Panne and E3, but probably not a big issue to degrade them to .Pro (and therefore have them same dates as now) as there is a lot of WT-races in Belgium already.

 

[search]

To make it work without shorting the events you need to move Strade and Paris Nice a week earlier.

Given K-B-K is not WT it’s possible to have Omloop at the standard Saturday, Strade the Sunday and then start a 7 stage Paris-Nice on Monday. Then start a 7 stage Tirreno the following Monday. Then San Remo Saturday and a 6 stage Catalunya Monday as this year leaving the Sunday for Gent-Wevelgem.

it may be possible, yes, but I struggle to see any advantage that would come with a calendar like this - apart from for the TV stations.

 

[Ricco']

I think the calendar is fine as it is. Even if they are in separate weeks, no one is going to race Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico back to back and the event that changes dates is the one that will suffer the most in terms of participation.

UCI just need to align with race organizers in order to guarantee that both races don't finish at the same time. 1h30 to 2 hour of broadcast is enough for both races, no need to watch paint dry for 3 hours in each race.

 

[DNP-Old]

Raining super hard on Rhodes. There goes the first win for Herzog or The Flying Moustache.

 

[Didinho]

Hofstetter broke his steering wheel again in Denain.

Chaos on the muddy/wet cobbled sections. A lot of crashes, even motorbikes.

 

[Salvarani]

Riders and moto down on this sector

Very muddy

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Motors and cyclists crashing all over the place in Denain. Peloton was about to catch the front group but the gap is going out again on the final sector as a result.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Van Dijke pulling in the front group with Molano when Jumbo have Kooij in the peloton...

 

[Samamba]

Moto's crashing mid peloton just ruined the race for the peloton. Ridiculous. Not that it isn't great that the break wins this, but a race shouldn't be decided by this stuff.

 

[search]

Van Dijke pulling in the front group with Molano when Jumbo have Kooij in the peloton...

Kooij was struggling on every cobbled sector so far. Don't think he is even in the chase group anymore

 

[Samamba]

Kooij was struggling on every cobbled sector so far. Don't think he is even in the chase group anymore

He is, and he wasn't struggling, je just had mechanicals (or crashed) twice. No teammates there for him anyways.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

If Boasson Hagen can pull this off, he will be both the second-youngest and second-oldest winner in the history of this race.

 

[search]

He is, and he wasn't struggling, je just had mechanicals (or crashed) twice. No teammates there for him anyways.

it's not him, and he must have had a load of mechanicals then

edit: it's van Belle from Jumbo in the chase group

 

[Samamba]

If Boasson Hagen can pull this off, he will be both the second-youngest and second-oldest winner in the history of this race.

He look strong, but if Molano has something left I don't think Hagen can beat him.