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More races gone?

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Re: Re:

Maaaaaaaarten said:
Nirvana said:
We have some informations about the brand new Adriatica Ionica Race https://www.adriaticaionicarace.com/gara/

The first edition will start from Venice and end in Ljubjana after five days (and a passage in Austria).
In the second edition will be added Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia.
In the third also Macedonia, Albania and Greece with a finish in Athens after ten days.

Seems a very big project, they already have signed for TV coverage in 54 countries.

#Makethemostserenerepublicofvenicegreatagain

I see that now. As long as they don't revive Giro di Padania I'm fine with it.
 
Rad am Ring appears not to be holding a pro race this year. It seems to be holding a load of novelty races for amateurs, though (https://www.radamring.de/en/).

It's obvious to me that some of these newer races that come and go are just a publicity stunt - they make minimal effort to create a self-sustaining race, make little effort to create a fun race for TV, they run once or twice and then they stop the pro race and create a load of silly little events over the same course for middle-aged men to boast about at work on Monday morning.

If you wanted to curtail such exploitative behaviour I guess you'd make every new race start as a .2 until it had been going for a number of years, unless it was started by a recognised organiser like ASO or Flanders Classics.
 
Re:

TMP402 said:
Rad am Ring appears not to be holding a pro race this year. It seems to be holding a load of novelty races for amateurs, though (https://www.radamring.de/en/).

It's obvious to me that some of these newer races that come and go are just a publicity stunt - they make minimal effort to create a self-sustaining race, make little effort to create a fun race for TV, they run once or twice and then they stop the pro race and create a load of silly little events over the same course for middle-aged men to boast about at work on Monday morning.

If you wanted to curtail such exploitative behaviour I guess you'd make every new race start as a .2 until it had been going for a number of years, unless it was started by a recognised organiser like ASO or Flanders Classics.

Why stop such behaviour? If someone wants to spend money running a pro race for a couple of years and then spends money running amateur events or novelty sportives or whatever instead, why is that a bad thing? Better that than no pro race and no amateur event.
 
Re: Re:

Zinoviev Letter said:
TMP402 said:
Rad am Ring appears not to be holding a pro race this year. It seems to be holding a load of novelty races for amateurs, though (https://www.radamring.de/en/).

It's obvious to me that some of these newer races that come and go are just a publicity stunt - they make minimal effort to create a self-sustaining race, make little effort to create a fun race for TV, they run once or twice and then they stop the pro race and create a load of silly little events over the same course for middle-aged men to boast about at work on Monday morning.

If you wanted to curtail such exploitative behaviour I guess you'd make every new race start as a .2 until it had been going for a number of years, unless it was started by a recognised organiser like ASO or Flanders Classics.

Why stop such behaviour? If someone wants to spend money running a pro race for a couple of years and then spends money running amateur events or novelty sportives or whatever instead, why is that a bad thing? Better that than no pro race and no amateur event.

Well, I did say "if"...

I haven't made up my mind. I guess I do resent it firstly because they dangle a potentially good race in front of us and then snatch it away, and secondly because races that have been going for generations, often a labour of love for the community and volunteers, have been dying out over the last decade, yet the bullsh*t PR companies don't rescue any historic races, they (briefly) create new ones instead. It's out with the romance, history and tradition of cycling that surely attracts people in the first place, and in with the corporate suits vampirically trying to squeeze as much cash out of hobbyists as they can.
 
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pastronef said:
about the RAS not being held 2019

https://www.twitter.com/vincentbennett1/status/1096123346427805696

And cycling has its own domestic and international issues however there are some who have a voice here who could have helped but can't get off the Sky box to give a moment to the Rás in its hour of need.

It’s a complete disaster for the sport in Ireland. The Ras is the focus of the whole domestic season. The whole sport at every level was enormously dependent on An Post sponsorship and the decision of the post office to get out of cycling has created carnage.
 
Zinoviev Letter said:
pastronef said:
about the RAS not being held 2019

https://www.twitter.com/vincentbennett1/status/1096123346427805696

And cycling has its own domestic and international issues however there are some who have a voice here who could have helped but can't get off the Sky box to give a moment to the Rás in its hour of need.

It’s a complete disaster for the sport in Ireland. The Ras is the focus of the whole domestic season. The whole sport at every level was enormously dependent on An Post sponsorship and the decision of the post office to get out of cycling has created carnage.

It's a cautionary tale for any sport or team that allows a single sponsor to have such an enormous influence. As much as you can say "An Post really could have handled it better," it does come down to cycling in Ireland needed to keep other sponsors in the tent, so one of them might have been able to step up to the level as An Post dropped back.

Interesting take from Dan Martin;
http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/dan-martin-ras-tailteann/

I have to say, I don’t disagree with him. As great as it is to have a UCI ranked race in Ireland, it’s surely more important that the Rás survive in some format, than that it continue as a low-ranked international event. The Aussies just ran Warnambool for the millionth time with a field of local competitors and even women on the same start line as the men.
 
My biggest concern is that the Deutschland Tour always tried to be like the Tour rather than utilize what it could potentially do with German terrain, and ASO being in charge of the revival will only exacerbate that. You can have a real all-rounder's week-long race in Germany all over the place, from echelon-baiting carnage in the north, brutal, cobbled ex-DDR roads in Sachsen-Anhalt, real Classics hardman terrain in Saxony, the Nürburgring's history of the sport, some tough-but-not-too-tough mountain stages in the Schwarzwald, and some chaotic puncheur's terrain around the Rhine-Mosel area and the Saarland. And the Berchtesgadener Land is there if they want to hire Angelo Zomegnan.


I agree. I would even say the initial Deutschland Tour was an awful race, well at least the 9-day Protour(was it called like that?) version of it.
Before it was still acceptable if a bit disappointing. So from 1999 to 2004, it was a 7-day race with a rather light profile, usually, one queen stage which was on the level of an intermediate mountain stage, the rest was flat with a few non-decisive hills somewhere along the route. I believe it was ranked on HC level/the equivalent of it back then, so maybe it didn't need to be a very tough race.

After 2005 they made it a highest level race over 9 days, pretty much like the Tour de Suisse, but in fact nothing like it. The weak profile continued, but now each and every queen stage was held entirely in Austria, as well as around 2,5 stages (Tirol was a major sponsor). Nobody cared about the race there, the roadsides were empty. So it was that one high mountain stage (usually 1, sometimes 2 HC like climbs) plus a rather easy intermediate mountain stage held in Germany, the rest was pretty much for the sprinters except from the one TT.
Now I have nothing against going abroad every once in a while, but not to that extent for a 9-day race and not for the most difficult part of the parkour AND not all that for every single year! They maybe could have made up for it a bit if they had another or 2 tough stages in Germany (and yes as the race designers of those forums have shown there are in fact enough tough ascends in Germany to make it possible.) And why not make it the trademark of the Deutschland Tour that it maybe doesn't have 3 stages with HC climbs every year but only 1 and 2 or 3 very though intermediate stages with plenty 2nd Category climbs and yes have a tough stage with cobbled sections regularly. It could have been a very unique and exciting race.

I know it was cos of the doping scandals but just cos of what poor race it has been it was just appropriate it was discontinued after 2008.
 
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The UCI has published the 2020 calendar so we could take a preliminary look at the races missing. Already in january there aren't Tachira and San Juan, the Hammer Series have lost Stavanger, Belgrade-Banjaluka has gone after only two years and Quinghai Lake has been cut almost in an half with only seven days.

On the other hand there are some new races, but usually i'm doubtful about new races because we have every year cases of races that disappear before even starting, one more day for Vuelta a Murcia and the return to UCI level of Vuelta a Colombia.
 
Looks like the Rás is back in 2020, although probably trimmed down to five days or so. Better than nothing, though.
Great news and I think a shorter race is a good idea in terms of both organisation and I assume it will help in terms of getting teams over to it.

I wonder if they have any big sponsors lined up. It's profile is really low in terms of the public so it would need plenty of money to advertise and also get it into the big population centres. In general the race could do with a makeover but that's for the future for now it's just great to hear Ireland's got a race again
 
The Spanish calendar seems to be bettering again.
Only the early part of the season, after Itzulia there is still almost nothing until the (short) pre Vuelta block, the late season is non existent (but that is an older issue) and there are still no .2 races after they were completely swept away by the economic depression around 2008-2011.
Looks like they are going into the extreme concentration way like in Italy where almost everything has concentrated in the fall.
 
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