Lesser known races thread 2022

[Samu Cuenca]

There was also this incident involving a helicopter in the 2020 Giro:

Giro d’Italia riders caught in nasty crash after ‘helicopter blows barriers into road’

The two riders were seen lying on the floor injured after the stage finish

www.cyclingweekly.com

But the problem with the TV motorbikes is not just about safety (though they do lead to some crashes and many near crashes), and since I can't imagine a rightly positioned drone can determine the outcome of a race, I hope they will be used far more in the coming years.

 

[roundabout]

Being realistic, to replace a motorbike a drone has to have multi-hour endurance, top speed of probably over 100 km/h and being able to fly above 2700 meters (we are not going to Colombia for this example). Probably being able to transmit video to the plane directly would also be an additional challenge.

Plus being able to handle bad weather.

I am not really confident that a drone with this set of attributes exists on the market right now, so I guess it will be motorbikes for a while

 

[Nirvana]

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.

In the final ITT of the 2020 Giro at some point there was a shot from a lateral field that looked like was taken from a drone considering that in Italy no one would allow an helicopter to fly so low and there wasn't the usual "noise".

 

[RedheadDane]

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.

In fact, I was quite surprised to see this conversation now. Because, usually when there's talk about using drones it's been when there - once again - has been an incident involving a motorbike.

 

[Cannavaro]

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.

There was a helicopter crash at the peace race in 2002. Riders were shocked and wanted to cancel the stage. I have only found a German source: article in German
Olaf Pollack said after the incident: If this would have happened three seconds later, 100 people would have been killed. Probably helicopters are more safe now, than they were 20 years ago.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

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.

There is a race which uses drones instead of helicopters for its aerial shots and has pretty good live coverage - the mighty, mythical, legendary... HTV Cycling Cup.

 

[Mayomaniac]

There is a race which uses drones instead of helicopters for its aerial shots and has pretty good live coverage - the mighty, mythical, legendary... HTV Cycling Cup.

The 2020 Giro did use camera drones for the final TT.
At least it's better than the coverage of Klasikoa Donostia, that one looks like they payed a bunch of local kids with a few beers to follow the race on their 5 vespas while filming it one their cellphone...

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Grega Bole was beaten by a Monk in the opening ITT of the Tour of Sharjah. Well it's a jungle out there.

01	Cyrus Monk		MEIYO CCN Pro Cycling	11:18​	7​
02	Grega Bole		Shabab Al Ahli Cycling Team	+ 04​	3​
03	Eusebio Pascual		Bahrain Cycling Academy	+ 06​	1​
04	Ryan Thomas		MEIYO CCN Pro Cycling	+ 12​	​
05	Jambaljamats Sainbayar		Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team	+ 15​	​
06	Mohcine El Kouraji		Al Shafar Jumeirah	+ 16​	​
07	Aleksey Fomovskiy		Tashkent City Professional Cycling	+ 17​	​
08	Dmitriy Bocharov		Tashkent City Professional Cycling	+ 21​	​
09	Achraf Ed-Doghmy		Morocco	+ 22​	​
10	Hamza Mansouri		Algeria	+ 22​

 

[Nirvana]

Someone should suggest that climb to RCS for the UAE Tour instead of using always Jabel Hafeet and Jabel Jais but i don't have much faith, in 2020 they announced the route with a proper hilly stage ending on the Rafisa Dam climb but the week prior of the race was replaced by the usual Jabel Hafeet and now looks like they even cut the Hatta Dam uphill sprint for another bunch sprint, knowing Vegni the next step will be cutting also the ITT to have 5 pan flat stages and 2 unipuertos...

 

[Red Rick]

You wanna hear something funny

I never realised UAE was an RCS race until now

 

[Mayomaniac]

You wanna hear something funny

I never realised UAE was an RCS race until now

Back in the day when it was at the end of the season those scumbags even ran it during the same time as the Giro dell' Emilia just to mess with their starlist.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

You wanna hear something funny

I never realised UAE was an RCS race until now

But have you realised that the Saudi Tour is actually an ASO race?

 

[repre]

But have you realised that the Saudi Tour is actually an ASO race?

Oman too

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Oman too

Yes, but that race seems to be dead for now.

 

[tobydawq]

Yes, but that race seems to be dead for now.

Didn't they just confirm it will take place in February earlier today?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Didn't they just confirm it will take place in February earlier today?

Oh, you're right. I've totally missed that.

 

[yaco]

It's a pity that there is only a highlights package of the Tour of Oman

 

[Nirvana]

From yesterday's stage (and that's pretty close to Fujairah were Dubai Tour finished in the past).

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Recently around the world of .2 races, Grega Bole won the Tour of Sharjah GC in the UAE and Alessio Martinelli won the Grand Prix Alanya in Turkey.

 

[SafeBet]

Close finish in Antalya. Malucelli wins the bunch sprint in front of Kuba Mareczko.

 

[RedheadDane]

Hindsgaul wins in Antalya.

Spoiler

There are no Uno-X riders in either Provence or Murcia!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Hindsgaul wins in Antalya.

Spoiler

It's up to the Danish/Norwegian duo of Würtz and Hagen to get job done in France

Considering I've compared Hindsgaul to Vingegaard because of his Coll de Rates record, it was quite funny that Boulting and Millar couldn't recognize him during the final (but to be fair they couldn't spot Rajovic yesterday either).

 

[SafeBet]

Hindsgaul wins in Antalya.

I just noticed his birthplace: Middelfart. Interesting name for a town.

 

[RedheadDane]

I just noticed his birthplace: Middelfart. Interesting name for a town.

You know "fart" means "speed" in Danish, right? Or in this case more like "on the way".

 

[Netserk]

I just noticed his birthplace: Middelfart. Interesting name for a town.

Think of rundfahrt, or to fare (as in farewell).

"Old English fær, faru ‘travelling, a journey or expedition’, faran ‘to travel’, also ‘get on (well or badly’), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch varen and German fahren ‘to travel’, Old Norse ferja ‘ferry boat’"