Lesser known races 2023 edition

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Not to mention the fact that Iran has enough hard climbs and mountain passes for an entire gt.
More than. I've more than once attempted to draw a GT for the Race Design Thread in Iran but end up with something that just doesn't hang together well enough or omits far too much. It's just a bit too large as a country to cover satisfactorily with a GT route, so I'd have to do multiple, and then I'd be doing like 42 stage write-ups and that would be such an undertaking that I always end up giving up :laughing:
 
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More than. I've more than once attempted to draw a GT for the Race Design Thread in Iran but end up with something that just doesn't hang together well enough or omits far too much. It's just a bit too large as a country to cover satisfactorily with a GT route, so I'd have to do multiple, and then I'd be doing like 42 stage write-ups and that would be such an undertaking that I always end up giving up :laughing:

Who are you and what have you done to the real LS? ;)
 
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Who are you and what have you done to the real LS? ;)
It's more that the time taken on the writeups would mean that I'd have been wanting to move on to new projects long before I'd finished if I did back to back GT length races in the same part of the world. It's why I don't tend to do too many similar projects back to back. If I've done a couple of long mountainous races in a row, you can bet the next thing will be, like, a Renewi Tour or something, and if I've done a few cobbled races or one day races in a row, the next thing I post will be like, some high altitude Latin American race.

That's also why bigger projects like a stage race in every South American country haven't materialised, because I'll move on to something else and I'll do that kind of thing piecemeal over several months or even years instead.
 
And now, just because I can, a quick summary of the various lesser-known races today.

The guy with the best hairdo in the peloton - Filippo Fortin - has been bossing "In the Footsteps of the Romans", wining both stages and (obviously) the GC.

Carlos Alfonso Garcia won stage 4 of the Giro della Regione, with Francesco Galimberti winning the GC. The other stages were won by Matteo Baseggio, Michael Kukrle, and Luca Vergallito.

Andreas Stokbro won the Strange race; Gylne Gutuer.

Pierre Thierry won the Grand Prix de Plouay, which appears to have been multiple laps of the finishing circle from Bretagne Classic.
 
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And now, just because I can, a quick summary of the various lesser-known races today.

The guy with the best hairdo in the peloton - Filippo Fortin - has been bossing "In the Footsteps of the Romans", wining both stages and (obviously) the GC.

Carlos Alfonso Garcia won stage 4 of the Giro della Regione, with Francesco Galimberti winning the GC. The other stages were won by Matteo Baseggio, Michael Kukrle, and Luca Vergallito.

Andreas Stokbro won the Strange race; Gylne Gutuer.

Pierre Thierry won the Grand Prix de Plouay, which appears to have been multiple laps of the finishing circle from Bretagne Classic.

Why is GG a strange race?
 
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In a pleasant surprise, the Italian autumn classics seem to be on GCN this year, first up with Giro Della Toscana tomorrow and Sabatini the day after.

Pogacar is riding in both but I'm also looking forward to seeing if Richie can salvage something out of a tumultuous season, he looks to have done a massive training block. Startlist isn't the best with the Vuelta and GP Wallonie clashing but Formolo, Sheffield, Sivakov, Luts and Zana could also play a role.

Was also impressed by young Walter Calzoni in the spring but he looks to have faded since then, no idea why Rota isn't here after last year but he's doing Pantani at the weekend.
 
Toscana is doing the 2021 route again rather than three times up this side like in 2019 or two times up the hardest side like last year? Boo. Considering how sparse the opportunities for climbers are in the one-day race calendar, I prefer this one to be as hard as possible.

With Pogacar against a not-that-great field, this is not going to be as good an edition as last year, unless someone like Carapaz or Martínez suddenly rediscovers his best legs.