Lesser known races thread 2022

[Devil's Elbow]

With the (European) season starting tomorrow at the 1.2 Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana, it's time to open the thread.

Startlist (very strong for a .2 race with 8 ProTeams taking part)

Route
Roadbook

Coll de Rates

Alto de Barx

...and, as mentioned in the General News Thread, the race will be streamed.

Live cycling action on Sunday - the Clàssica CV 1969 - Gran Premi València UCI Europe Tour 1.2 will be on Youtube:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1483864331913551873

View: https://twitter.com/1969_cv/status/1483864331913551873

The broadcast should start at 14:15, enough for the final 100-110 kilometres according to the roadbook, however the announcement also mentions that only the final 70 kilometres will be televised. Either way, the finish is expected for 16:38-16:50.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Posted by @Jakob747 in the CQ game thread, but much more relevant here, the Majorca Callenge series:

 

[Pinot's goat]

Posted by @Jakob747 in the CQ game thread, but much more relevant here, the Majorca Callenge series:

No live TV coverage though despite the good start lists.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

There's a good liveticker here. 9-rider breakaway up the road, featuring most of the bigger teams with a gap of 1:47.

 

[Faserr]

No live TV coverage though despite the good start lists.

Yes, unfortunately there are only short summaries on TV. I would really like to see the races, because there are good riders and I love ride my bike in this area, too. Nice landscape.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQyuQY3hLZo

 

[RedheadDane]

I think Albanese took it. At least, that's the name the commentators were shouting.
And I think Bonifazio might have crashed.

Edit: Aaah, it was Lonardi.

 

[yaco]

You know cycling is back when there is a big crash in the finale !

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

There was also a bigger crash with roughly 4km to go.
Lonardi ahead of Capiot. Just.
Contador all smiles in the finish area.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Nice race (Valencia)…

Would have been great if they would have shown Mallorca Challenge live. Rather sad…

Anyways, season 2022 finally has arrived.

 

[SafeBet]

Smaller teams and coverage only from the front moto made it harder, but man cycling is a tough sport to follow compared to all those winter sports I got used to over the last couple of months. I understood nothing until I checked the results on FirstCycling (and the commentators didn't help).

 

[tobydawq]

Smaller teams and coverage only from the front moto made it harder, but man cycling is a tough sport to follow compared to all those winter sports I got used to over the last couple of months. I understood nothing until I checked the results on FirstCycling (and the commentators didn't help).

Yeah, with only a front cam a cycling race is not really worth watching, if you ask me. Not even if it's the first race in months.

I saw that they were using drones to cover the Alpine skiing world cup event earlier today and wonder if that would be applied to cycling at some point. It looked really cool and I would wager that it's much less dangerous than some people claim because there once was one drone that almost crashed on a skier.

 

[SafeBet]

Yeah, with only a front cam a cycling race is not really worth watching, if you ask me. Not even if it's the first race in months.

I saw that they were using drones to cover the Alpine skiing world cup event earlier today and wonder if that would be applied to cycling at some point. It looked really cool and I would wager that it's much less dangerous than some people claim because there once was one drone that almost crashed on a skier.

I think it's pretty obvious that drones are the future of sport coverage. They can't be more dangerous than a motorbike right?

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Yeah, with only a front cam a cycling race is not really worth watching, if you ask me. Not even if it's the first race in months.

I saw that they were using drones to cover the Alpine skiing world cup event earlier today and wonder if that would be applied to cycling at some point. It looked really cool and I would wager that it's much less dangerous than some people claim because there once was one drone that almost crashed on a skier.

I think you are refering to this incident:

I'll admit that even if the data support the fact that drones are safer (I don't actually know if that's the case), that image left a big impression on me and I really don't want to imagine what would happen if a drone would drop on a peloton like that.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I think it's pretty obvious that drones are the future of sport coverage. They can't be more dangerous than a motorbike right?

You just have to let them fly not directly over the riders/road and there won't be any problems. Have them fly 1m outside of the road when possible or ahead of the riders like a motorbike and it's not a problem. As long as you don't use drones to get a straight overhead shot there really isn't a risk of them hitting the riders.
PS: The drone shots in Alpine skiing are pretty worthless from a technical standpoint because you can't really see/compare the different lines that the athletes take.

 

[tobydawq]

I think you are refering to this incident:

I'll admit that even if the data support the fact that drones are safer (I don't actually know if that's the case), that image left a big impression on me and I really don't want to imagine what would happen if a drone would drop on a peloton like that.

Maybe the drone could not fly directly over the road but a little to the side.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

But what if the drone's has a faulty command that makes it veer to the side while dropping to the ground ? As long as the drone's close enough to get quality images it's going to be very complicated to react fast enough if it malfunctions to prevent it from crashing some place. And there's a non trivial chance that some place is the peloton. Now it might still be safer than using helicopters and/or motorbikes, I don't know. But I do think that it's a bit more complicated than just saying let's not fly it right over the riders head although that it is a good start.

 

[tobydawq]

How often do you think drones crash?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Nice race (Valencia)…

Would have been great if they would have shown Mallorca Challenge live. Rather sad…

Anyways, season 2022 finally has arrived.

That would have been quite an achievement: the first race isn't until Wednesday.

 

[Salvarani]

Roniel Campos wins Vuelta al Tachira en Bicicleta for the third time in a row.

Didier Merchan wins the last stage for Drone Hopper - Androni Giocattoli and finishes 3rd overall.

 

[tobydawq]

Roniel Campos wins Vuelta al Tachira en Bicicleta for the third time in a row.

Didier Merchan wins the last stage for Drone Hopper - Androni Giocattoli and finishes 3rd overall.

Speaking of drones...

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

How often do you think drones crash?

How often do you think helicopters filming a cycling race crash ? How often does a motorbike filming the action hit a rider ? Like I say I don't know which is safer. Unless you have numbers on the matter, all we can do is guess and I don't know how useful that is. Just like you have to be careful driving a motorbike next to a peloton of 200 riders you have to be careful deploying drones at live sports event and "well the drone isn't directly above someone's head, should be fine" isn't going to cut it. Maybe you have faith in the UCI to write guidelines on the use of drones that will keep everybody safe. I don't.

 

[tobydawq]

How often do you think helicopters filming a cycling race crash ? How often does a motorbike filming the action hit a rider ? Like I say I don't know which is safer. Unless you have numbers on the matter, all we can do is guess and I don't know how useful that is. Just like you have to be careful driving a motorbike next to a peloton of 200 riders you have to be careful deploying drones at live sports event and "well the drone isn't directly above someone's head, should be fine" isn't going to cut it. Maybe you have faith in the UCI to write guidelines on the use of drones that will keep everybody safe. I don't.

I don't know, I have no idea why you would assume they would "veer to the side while crashing". That all seems exceedingly hypothetical.

But no, I don't know anything about drones, and yes, I do have faith in the UCI that they will not deploy them unless they're safe. Then again, I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist.

I think it's very irrational to have the opinion that just because there was that incident with a skier ten years ago, then drones may never be used. I get that it looked dramatic but it's anecdotal evidence and should not be used as a foundation for decision making.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Well it seems exceedingly hypothetical that a plane would get struck by a flock of birds, lose both reactors, make an emergency landing on the Hudson with zero casualties and yet it happened. In the real world crazy stuff happens all the time. You can't just assume that things are going to go well because you want them too.

I've been watching cycling for two decades and I can't recall a single incident with the current set up of motorbike cameras + helicopters which certainly doesn't mean it will never happen (or has never happened for that matter) but it does suggest that on the whole it's pretty safe. Yet there's a pretty famous incident where a drone endangered an athlete so it's not immediately obvious to me that drones are safer. I'm well aware that that evidence is very circumstantial which is why I'd like to see numbers from a serious study comparing both filming methods. I'll be the first to push for drone adoption if (or when) it turns out they are actually the safer option. I don't know that we're there yet and what I don't want is increased safety hazards for the riders just so we can get better images.

 

[tobydawq]

Well it seems exceedingly hypothetical that a plane would get struck by a flock of birds, lose both reactors, make an emergency landing on the Hudson with zero casualties and yet it happened. In the real world crazy stuff happens all the time. You can't just assume that things are going to go well because you want them too.

I've been watching cycling for two decades and I can't recall a single incident with the current set up of motorbike cameras + helicopters which certainly doesn't mean it will never happen (or has never happened for that matter) but it does suggest that on the whole it's pretty safe. Yet there's a pretty famous incident where a drone endangered an athlete so it's not immediately obvious to me that drones are safer. I'm well aware that that evidence is very circumstantial which is why I'd like to see numbers from a serious study comparing both filming methods. I'll be the first to push for drone adoption if (or when) it turns out they are actually the safer option. I don't know that we're there yet and what I don't want is increased safety hazards for the riders just so we can get better images.

Really, you have never seen accidents involving motorbikes?

You must not have been watching very closely, then. For me, Alaphilippe, Sagan, Fuglsang, GVA, Geraint Thomas, Landa, Adam Yates, Viviani, Nicki Sørensen, Stig Broeckx and, fatally, Antoine Demoitié all spring to mind. In addition, I have seen a car crash into Juan Antonio Flecha and make Johnny Hoogerland fly into a barbed-wire fence and even seen an inflatable kilometre port crash down upon Adam Yates.