Make a change?

[Zam_Olyas]

With Global climate change/global warming as it is, Should the racing calendar/schedule be move...like have the last race of the world tour (the great tour of beijing) in November. Discuss.

 

[Telmisartan new]

Er....no Zam.

Its worthy of debate but you need the historical races retaining their place as it is in the calendar.I wouldn't be a fan of changing dates for races too much,its already a scandal my favourite race Il Lombardia has moved to accomodate Tour of Beijing.

 

[spalco]

I'm not sure it's really predictable yet, in what way exactly global warming will shift the climate/weather in a specific region at a specific date.

Was what happened in the Giro a fluke or will it be a regular occurance? I don't think anybody can actually say with any authority.

 

[Pippo_San]

The Giro organizers should change the Giro start at least a week later...it seems like they're pushing it sooner and sooner as someone else noted...the Giro 2000 for example started the 13th May and ended the 4th of June, and to me this looks absolutely perfect, and you're almost sure to avoid trouble in the last important week.

Regarding the other races I don't really foresee problems, and in any case I don't think you can assume global warming is causing such a "retarding" effect.

 

[ILovecycling]

Imo Giro should start 2 weeks later,Suisse&Dauphine 1 week later,and Tour 1 week later.Vuelta 1 week later (and in the colder parts) to have a smaller gap to WC.
As for the spring classics,its really difficult

 

[RHRH19861986]

Next year, maybe we have 20 degree from February on... Subjectively, I don´t see a real climate change; at least, it´s happening really slowly.

Giro is just completely in May, Tour will be completely in July in 2014 again I think, Vuelta, after being moved to autumn, has always been end August to mid September. I think it´s good this way.

Moving Beijing to November would be good, though, so December would be only month without WT racing. And they still try to set up this Houangzhou Tour.

Even if nothing changes, it´s OK. Normally, in November, there is still 2.1 racing somewhere around, and December 2.2 races. Moving Lombardia to September was a real mistake, I don´t like that at all. And it would be so great to have GP Zurich returning. I don´t know why Andy Rihs has no interest to care for that.

 

[SafeBet]

Imo Giro should start 2 weeks later,Suisse&Dauphine 1 week later,and Tour 1 week later.Vuelta 1 week later (and in the colder parts) to have a smaller gap to WC.

I like it.


10c

 

[icefire]

The Giro organizers should change the Giro start at least a week later...it seems like they're pushing it sooner and sooner as someone else noted...the Giro 2000 for example started the 13th May and ended the 4th of June, and to me this looks absolutely perfect, and you're almost sure to avoid trouble in the last important week.

Regarding the other races I don't really foresee problems, and in any case I don't think you can assume global warming is causing such a "retarding" effect.

I'd support this but it's not a fail safe solution. Back in the day when the Vuelta was in late April/early May, the Giro started 2 or 3 weeks later than it does today. Gavia 1988 was on the 5th of june and it was stage 14.

 

[RHRH19861986]

One has to say also that in Alpine terrain, there´s possibility of snowfalls even in July and August, down to 1000-1500 metres.

 

[Afrank]

I don't know that there is a ton that could be done to avoid all adverse weather. Spalco makes a good point, that it's not really predictable where and when adverse weather like we saw at the Giro will be caused.

I'm not sure it's really predictable yet, in what way exactly global warming will shift the climate/weather in a specific region at a specific date.

Was what happened in the Giro a fluke or will it be a regular occurance? I don't think anybody can actually say with any authority.

What we can expect is to see is extreme weather conditions progressively get worse (I.E. more intense storms, floods, hurricanes, etc.). Warming will also increase evaporation so we can also expect to see more of it. But climate science can't predict the individual times and places where these events will occur. Making it difficult to plan races around them. We can predict where things like most warming will occur/is occurring, but not individual weather events.

Perhaps the only way to try to avoid them is move the race schedule or just individual races down a couple months or to times where they region generally experiences better weather. But again, it's not sure thing that we would get better weather at those new dates. And, personally, I think it would be a mistake to drastically alter the dates of too many races.

 

[contessador]

The weather has been strange but it is too hard to tell what to do, or know what it will be like next year. Impossible to plan a calendar based on what the weather might be. maybe Europe is the new North pole.

 

[cycladianpirate]

Errr...it's not called "global warming" anymore (they had to concede that this was utter bs). They now refer to it as "climate change". Obviously, when that is proven to be utter bs, they'll call it something different again.

I wouldn't make too many changes to the racing calendar (or anything else for that matter) based on bad science. But that's just me.

 

[Afrank]

Errr...it's not called "global warming" anymore (they had to concede that this was utter bs). They now refer to it as "climate change". Obviously, when that is proven to be utter bs, they'll call it something different again.

I wouldn't make too many changes to the racing calendar (or anything else for that matter) based on bad science. But that's just me.

I'd just like to point out that the reason that "climate change" is now the preferred name instead of "global warming" is because the name global warming creates and unrealistic expectation of what it actually is. And it is not bad science.

 

[spalco]

Actually the term "climate change" was invented by a US right-wing spin doctor to distract from the gravity of the situation.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Just what i was afraid of ...the global warming/global climate change thing.

 

[Afrank]

Actually the term "climate change" was invented by a US right-wing spin doctor to distract from the gravity of the situation.

I can't speak to the validity of this, but I do know that scientists prefer the term climate change. Global warming, refers to the increase of surface temperature, while climate change refers to everything that increasing greenhouse gas amounts will affect.

The most accurate term to use, both in life and for this discussion would be global climate change. As we're not really talking about races being canceled due to high temperatures.

Edit: and here's a little history on the terms if anyone is interested. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/climate_by_any_other_name.html

 

[cycladianpirate]

I'd just like to point out that the reason that "climate change" is now the preferred name instead of "global warming" is because the name global warming creates and unrealistic expectation of what it actually is. And it is not bad science.

My mistake and I apologise. I broke my own rule of never, ever discussing religion.

 

[Netserk]

Take it to the Cafe. Stay on topic.

 

[Afrank]

My mistake and I apologise. I broke my own rule of never, ever discussing religion.

Your response just shows an ignorance of climate change.

Edit: just saw Netserk's post, My bad Netserk. I won't discuss it anymore.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Climate change is the devils work, and since the Giro was made in Gods finest hour the devil will do all he can to ruin it, there is no help in changing the date

 

[ElChingon]

Planning for the weather is as a wild guess as picking who will post next. Sure you have better odds at certain times of the year but you still can't guarantee it. For example Tour of Cali, Feb. was considered to be overall a bad weather choice, then they move it to May and in 2011 we get a snowed out stage, that worked out, sure it was at a known bad weather spot Lake Tahoe but it is usually not snowed out in May (usually). Then this year it was freaking hot and riders were literally falling off due to heat exhaustion. Then the le Tour is in July, perfect weather! Nope, we've had snow some years or just a ton of rain other years and then super hot years.

That is another factor in cycling races, the weather. A rider can prepare as much as they can but they can never prepare for the weather as it is random and it has made the race for some and lost it for others.

Races just need to pick a date and stick to it, weather will never be the same year to year.

 

[BroDeal]

Go back to racing the Vuelta in the early season with the Giro moved foward a little.

 

[asdfgh101]

What about swapping the Giro and Vuelta?

Vuelta: 4-26 May

Tour: 30 June-21 July

Giro: 17 August-8 September

WCC RR 29 Sep

Would mean shifting some Italian Autumn races (CA, CB, TVV) to late July/early August.

 

[Archibald]

what El Ching said.

there are baselayers and wet weather gear - they're not just for the Brits and Scandinavians...

maybe consider questioning timings of races if the same conditions continue for a few years straight, as that could be considered a trend instead of just random occurances.
Haven't had a wet Roubaix for a while, but you know one's coming...

 

[karlboss]

How would a world tour program run that looked more like this. Nothing to do with the weather, but I think you can see what I tried to do.

Milan San Remo 16 March
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke
Gent - Wevelgem
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Scheldeprijs
Paris - Roubaix
26 march-13 April
Brabantse Pijl
Amstel Gold Race
Flèche Wallonne
Liège - Bastogne - Liège
16-27April
Giro d'Italia 3 May-25 May
Vattenfall Cyclassics - Hamburg
Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt
Rund um Köln
31 May-8 June
GP de Fourmies
Paris - Tours
Tour de Vendée
Paris - Bruxelles
GP Ouest France - Plouay
11 June-22June
Tour de france 28 Jun-20 Jul
ToC or Colorado 27 Jul-2Aug
Philadelphia International Championship
GP de Montréal
GP de Québec
8 Aug-14 Aug
Clasica de Almeria
GP Miguel Indurain
Circuito de Getxo - Memorial Ricardo Otxoa
Prueba Villafranca - Ordiziako Klasika
Clasica San Sebastian - San Sebastian
16 Aug-24 Aug
Vuelta espana 31Aug - 21Sep
Worlds week 27 Sep-5Oct
Gran Piemonte
Giro dell'Emilia
Montepaschi Strade Bianche
Tre Valli Varesine
Il Lombardia
11-19 Oct