Mental or random cycling statistics

[hayneplane]

There was a 0.6km prologue today in a 2.2 ranked stage race. Is this the shortest ever stage in a professional bike race?

 

[SHAD0W93]

There was a 0.6km prologue today in a 2.2 ranked stage race. Is this the shortest ever stage in a professional bike race?

God I might have been able to do a great time in that

 

[Samu Cuenca]

There was a 0.6km prologue today in a 2.2 ranked stage race. Is this the shortest ever stage in a professional bike race?

The Tour de Kumano used to have a 0.7 km prologue of about 0.7 km which only took about 50 seconds for the winners to complete. Before that it was 0.8 km for a few editions, but I guess the riders complained about having to ride for more than a minute on the first day.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

0.7 km prologue of about 0.7 km

That's not really unusual in my oponion

 

[Devil's Elbow]

There was a 0.6km prologue today in a 2.2 ranked stage race. Is this the shortest ever stage in a professional bike race?

Here’s every prologue of 1k or less PCS has in its database: https://www.procyclingstats.com/rac...200&rt=&filter=Filter&p=uci&s=stages-database

Today’s prologue is joint sixth shortest of that list, tied with the 2016 Kitzbüheler Horn mountain prologue in the Tour of Austria. Oddly, the top four were all in Canada: the prologue of the 2002 Tour de Beauce was 0.35k, narrowly beating the prologues of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions of Tour de l’Abitibi at 0.4k. Number five is the 1981 Tour of Cantabria prologue at half a kilometre. The kings of the ultrashort prologue are undoubtedly Massimo Strazzer and Mario Cipollini, who won the Millemetri del Corso di Mestre, a TT (technically not a prologue as it was a one-day race) of exactly one kilometre held annually in the 80s, 90s and 00s, six and five times respectively.

Edit: Some reporting on that possibly shortest-ever prologue, it looks like they started in pairs because it clearly wasn't odd enough otherwise:

Cyclingnews (with results)

Friede speeds to street sprints win​

By Giana Roberge, Team Saturn

The 17th annual Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce got off to a rousing start in the Old Towne section of Quebec City in the French Province of Canada Monday evening with a 300 meter prologue street sprint event. Riders were paired but rode only once for an overall classification time up a gradual incline finishing very near the Grand Parliament building. Jaromir Friede of the Wustenrot-ZVVZ Squad topped the leader board with a time of 24.42seconds with Canadians Alexandre Cloutier of Volkswagon-Trek and Charles Dionne of 7-up-Nutrafig second and third only hundredths of a second off giving the local crowd something to cheer about. Saturn's Jay Sweet was a 1.25 seconds off which placed him 18th so all in all the times were very close with only nine seconds separating the entire field in the end.

Pezcyclingnews

Prologue:

A 350 meter two up sprint with actual times recorded to determine GC. The sprint was mostly uphill, making it more than just a pure sprinters event.

1st: Jaromir Friede- Wusteenrot ZVVZ
2nd: Alexandre Cloutier-Volkswagon Trek
3rd: Charles Dionne-7UP

Canadian Cyclist

Beauce Pre-stage Report

Kris Westwood has just called in an update as the GP Cycliste de Beauce has begun with a two-up sprint in Quebec City. Halfway through the start list, Jaromir Friede (Wüstenrot - ZVVZ) has the fatstest time of 24.3 seconds, followed by Charles Dionne (7UP Nutra Fig) with 24.46 seconds. Gord Fraser (Mercury) is currently 7th.

The weather is cold (about 10C) and a light drizzle is falling - not the best conditions. The riders race head to head, in pairs, along a 300 metre strip of Rue St-Jean, finishing under one of the gates to the old city. Kris reports that there is a good crowd (partially since the route is lined with restaurants and bars...). The 'real' race will start tomorrow with the first road stage, which is also the men's Commonwealth Games Trial. The stage, from Levis on the outskirts of Quebec City to Sainte Marie is 153 kilometres.

Other news:

- Mroz has not shown up. No word, nothing. They were at Philly last weekend, but no word or sign of them since. There is some speculation that they accepted transportation money from GP de Beauce to get to Philly and have now skipped back to Europe.

- Navigators had some problems at the USA-Canada border when their two fast men - Vassili Davidenko and Oleg Grishkine - had visa troubles and could not come into canada. It is not expected to be a serious problem, and they should be up in time for the road stage tomorrow. The organizers have agreed to let them start, with the times of the slowest rider tonight.

Kris also spoke with Gord Fraser and Mark Walters.

Fraser - "Obviously, I want to win tomorrow, but I want to do that always. It would be nice to get it (Commonwealth Games selection) out of the way (by winning). Hopefully, some of the other Canadians, like Charles' team will help us keep the bunch together for a sprint."

(Note: Thurlow Rogers, director sportif for Mercury, said that they would be working to help Fraser get the selection, but that "we do have other goals here as well." In other words, they will work for Gord, but not completely ignore other possibilities to put a rider in the leader's jersey)

Walters - "I'm qualified (for Commonwealths), so my main objective is filling in carding criteria. I'm carrying some good form from last week, so we will see how it goes."

GP de Beauce - Stage 1

Jaromir Friede (Wüstenrot - ZVVZ), the early leader during the two-up sprint opener to the 2002 Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce, has hung on to take the leader's jersey. Friede, the Czech national road champion, finished just ahead of Canadian track rider Alexandre Cloutier (VW-Trek), who was a last minute addition to the team, and Charles Dionne (7UP Nutra Fig). Another Canadian, Pierre Olivier Boilly (Équipe du Québec) was fourth, and Alex Candelario (Prime Alliance) rounded out the top 5.

Friede is attending his first Beauce, but has heard about how hard it is from his teammates. He calls himself a "sprinter and a time trialist". At this year's event he will be going for stage victories.

 

[RedheadDane]

That's not really unusual in my oponion

I suppose the unusual thing was that it was only about 0.7 KM, as opposed to exactly 0.7 KM.

I wonder what the shortest a prologue could be before it would start getting silly. 100 metres? Shorter?

 

[tobydawq]

The Tour de Kumano used to have a 0.7 km prologue of about 0.7 km which only took about 50 seconds for the winners to complete. Before that it was 0.8 km for a few editions, but I guess the riders complained about having to ride for more than a minute on the first day.

You know that 0.6 is shorter than 0.7, right? Or has RhD infected you with her math skills?

 

[tobydawq]

I suppose the unusual thing was that it was only about 0.7 KM, as opposed to exactly 0.7 KM.

I wonder what the shortest a prologue could be before it would start getting silly. 100 metres? Shorter?

No stage ever is exactly the official distance.

 

[RedheadDane]

You know that 0.6 is shorter than 0.7, right? Or has RhD infected you with her math skills?

I knew that! I thought Samu was just using it as an example of another short prologue, not a shorter-than-this-particular-prologue proloque.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

You know that 0.6 is shorter than 0.7, right? Or has RhD infected you with her math skills?

I know, but it took less time to ride than the Linz prologue.

 

[BigCoward]

No stage ever is exactly the official distance.

Statistically some must be, if even by accident.

 

[tobydawq]

Statistically some must be, if even by accident.

Statistically, the probability for a stage to have exactly the correct distance is 0, so I don't agree. That is of course taking the most literal meaning of the word exact.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

No stage ever is exactly the official distance.

And yet many sites still try to give average speed to 3 decimal places.

 

[Anderis]

Statistically, the probability for a stage to have exactly the correct distance is 0, so I don't agree. That is of course taking the most literal meaning of the word exact.

It's a bit more than 0, but it's indeed so low that it has probably never happened. Unless we have billions of planets in this universe that are doing bike races.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Mark Cavendish won a prologue once. A 3.5km prologue of about 3.5km at the Tour of Britain.

Can anyone else remember where he won his only other time trial?

 

[SHAD0W93]

Mark Cavendish won a prologue once. A 3.5km prologue of about 3.5km at the Tour of Britain.

Can anyone else remember where he won his only other time trial?

Tour de Romandie 2008 Prologue results

Mark Cavendish is the winner of Tour de Romandie 2008 Prologue, before Daniele Bennati and Michael Albasini. Mark Cavendish was leader in GC.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[tobydawq]

And yet many sites still try to give average speed to 3 decimal places.

Yes, that is so dumb...

 

[RedheadDane]

It's a bit more than 0, but it's indeed so low that it has probably never happened. Unless we have billions of planets in this universe that are doing bike races.

I suppose the shorter a race is, the easier/more important it is to get at least somewhat exact.
If a race is 250 KM, a metres variation either way isn't gonna make much of a difference. A 100 metres variation probably isn't gonna make much of a difference.
However, if a race is below 1 KM, a metres variation either way could make a difference. A 100 metres variation could make a huge difference.
(CM, though, nobody's gonna bother.)

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I suppose the shorter a race is, the easier/more important it is to get at least somewhat exact.
If a race is 250 KM, a metres variation either way isn't gonna make much of a difference.(0.0004%, since you didn't ask) A 100 metres variation probably isn't gonna make much of a difference. (0.04%, so no. Like if someone told you they would call at the same time tomorrow, but called 34 1/2 seconds later)
However, if a race is below 1 KM, a metres variation either way could make a difference. A 100 metres variation could make a huge difference. (C'mon, even you could work that one out: 10%)
(CM, though, nobody's gonna bother.)

I ran the numbers for stage 12 of the Giro. Assuming the times are absolutely exact (equally unlikely) a ten metre variance either way on the stated race length of 185km makes a difference to the second decimal place of average speed, yet alone the third: absolutely untenable to claim accuracy to that degree.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I suppose the shorter a race is, the easier/more important it is to get at least somewhat exact.
If a race is 250 KM, a metres variation either way isn't gonna make much of a difference. A 100 metres variation probably isn't gonna make much of a difference.
However, if a race is below 1 KM, a metres variation either way could make a difference. A 100 metres variation could make a huge difference.
(CM, though, nobody's gonna bother.)

Riders aren't riding in a straight line, so the difference in actual length will always be larger in a 250 km race.

 

[Breh]

Skyneos have won a WT stage race every year since 2011.
At the moment it looks like Poland, Guangxi or the renowned RENEWI-tour will have to save them.

 

[RedheadDane]

Here's a quick overview of the winning countries of 1 week WT races this year:

Slovenia:
3. P-N, T-A, and Catalunya.

Denmark:
3. Basque, Dauphine, and Suisse.

Australia:
1. TDU.

Belgium:
1. UAE.

UK:
1. Romandie.

 

[BigCoward]

Here's a quick overview of the winning countries of 1 week WT races this year:

Slovenia:
3. P-N, T-A, and Catalunya.

Denmark:
3. Basque, Dauphine, and Suisse.

Australia:
1. TDU.

Belgium:
1. UAE.

UK:
1. Romandie.

There was probably over 100 years where Slovenia and Denmark didn't win 6 between them in total.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

There was probably over 100 years where Slovenia and Denmark didn't win 6 between them in total.

Bearing in mind there is over 100 years of recorded bicycle racing where Slovenia did not exist as an independent nation, certainly their side of the bargain is being kept. Denmark has a proud tradition however, even when they were peripheral in pro cycling they have had some prominence in amateur cycling, such as when they dominated the Peace Race in the early 50s or won back to back amateur Worlds titles in the late 60s.

However, most of the most prominent Yugoslav cyclists were Slovenes, especially in the 70s and 80s - August Prosenik, Primož Čerin, Vinko Polončič, Janez Žirovnik, Bojan Ropret, Janez Lampič (father of Anamarija and Janez Jr), Franc Škerlj, Rudi Valenčič, Jure Pavlič and Sandi Papež all examples.

Only a few such as Aleksandar Zorić and Veselin Petrović (Serbs) and Bruno Bulić, Nevio Valčić and Cvetko Bilić (Croats) serve as exceptions.

 

[Netserk]

Still, of the biggest stage races, I think Rolf Sørensen was the first Danish winner in the 1987 Tirreno - Adriatico.