National Championship Discussion/Results

[TatryTour2013]

Common Championship of Czech republic and Slovakia

This year in Slovakia, not that far from Czech border. 190 km, 10 rounds with the following profile:

Notable riders:
Sagan brothers (SVK)
Velits brothers (SVK)
Jurco (SVK)
Kreuziger (CZE)
Stybar (CZE)
Barta (CZE)

Last year was under control of Peter Sagan who totally destroyed other riders, this year Peter said that we is going to work for his brother. We will see.

 

[will10]

Stannard FTW

He was pretty astonishing at the London Nocturne.

 

[Justin Pain]

Common Championship of Czech republic and Slovakia

Never heard of that before. I like the idea!

 

[williamp78]

Do we have a profile for the British Champs? And why are the british TT champs towards the end of the season as opposed to the same weekend as the RR like the other national champs?

 

[TatryTour2013]

Never heard of that before. I like the idea!

This is the way how to save money, prepare more interesting and chalenging race - interesting for smaller countries. And at the end of the day there will be 2 champions - on from each country - means that it make sense to fight for the 2nd place too.

Main organizer of this year is father of Velits brothers.

http://www.msrpuchov2012.originals.sk/

 

[el_angliru]

Denmark's course includes a very steep hill: 5-600 m @ 9-10%. It's not a very long climb but it could still cause some problems, especially since the circuit is quite short. They're doing 20 laps of 10 km.

The course is situated in CAS's native area. The profile will of course suite him and Fuglsang. Matti Breschel will probably be very motivated too (like Fuglsang), since he won't go to the Tour.

Danish Championships are almost always very tactical races with a lot of subtexts and subplots (like preferring that the title goes to one of the Tour-riders), but this year's course may be too tough for such speculations. Will be interesting...

 

[ruswilks]

Do we have a profile for the British Champs? And why are the british TT champs towards the end of the season as opposed to the same weekend as the RR like the other national champs?

I'm sure someone who knows for definite will confirm this is the reason, but time trials in the UK are largely overseen by CTT rather than British Cycling. The national TT championship is a joint BC-CTT event, but I expect the date is due to when CTT historically held the event before BC got involved.

 

[eric_vv]

I don't know about British cycling, but it's not unusual to have the TT at another time. The Dutch national TT was seperate from the road race for a couple of years, but they changed it back.

The Belgian national TT was in August the last 2 years.

The only reason I can think of is commercial reasons, the field certainly suffers from a date late in the season.

 

[Gloin22]

I don't know about British cycling, but it's not unusual to have the TT at another time. The Dutch national TT was seperate from the road race for a couple of years, but they changed it back.

The Belgian national TT was in August the last 2 years.

The only reason I can think of is commercial reasons, the field certainly suffers from a date late in the season.

Not really, this year none of British riders would come to the TT if it was this week.

And now in September it will allow likes of Wiggins, Froome, Thomas to compete if they want.

 

[eric_vv]

Not really, this year none of British riders would come to the TT if it was this week.

And now in September it will allow likes of Wiggins, Froome, Thomas to compete if they want.

Only if they don't compete in the Vuelta, but I actually meant the effect it had on the Dutch TT. The Dutch TT isn't the most competitive race around and it doesn't help if contenders don't show up because they are racing the Vuelta.

The Britisch situation is different, but has the same potential problem.

 

[will10]

I'm sure someone who knows for definite will confirm this is the reason, but time trials in the UK are largely overseen by CTT rather than British Cycling. The national TT championship is a joint BC-CTT event, but I expect the date is due to when CTT historically held the event before BC got involved.

The bottom line is that BC have not yet opened their wallets and got the BTTC on closed roads. It should be brought into line with other countries and be midweek this week. As it is it's on a course open to traffic (although v quiet this year at Harby, Leics) and as a result is a much less professional event than it should be.

 

[Andy99]

The bottom line is that BC have not yet opened their wallets and got the BTTC on closed roads. It should be brought into line with other countries and be midweek this week. As it is it's on a course open to traffic (although v quiet this year at Harby, Leics) and as a result is a much less professional event than it should be.

The RTTC are involved. end of.

 

[trevim]

Tiago Machado won't ride the portuguese nationals. What a surprise

http://www.tiagomachado.com.pt/wp_pt/posts/descanso/

 

[CasperVg]

Why is it that, for example, the UK Nats have such a "bad field" (not much top riders participating, half of Sky not going) compared to the Belgian Nats (where the all the OPQS-belgians start, for example)?

 

[Sum_of_Marc]

Why is it that, for example, the UK Nats have such a "bad field" (not much top riders participating, half of Sky not going) compared to the Belgian Nats (where the all the OPQS-belgians start, for example)?

For starters, theres less top Brits than there are top Belgians.

Wiggins, Froome and Cavendish arent riding in order to focus on the Tour de France. See Valverde and Samuel Sanchez for others doing the same.

While Thomas and Kennaugh, who podiummed both of the last 2 years, have been only doing Track training since the Giro, as preparation for the Olympics. Riding a RR like this isnt really beneficial to their track form.

This is how the British champs course looks in the Pro Cycling Manager game:

The course is 3 laps of:

Followed by 6 laps of:

 

[rghysens]

Why is it that, for example, the UK Nats have such a "bad field" (not much top riders participating, half of Sky not going) compared to the Belgian Nats (where the all the OPQS-belgians start, for example)?

Because all belgian pro cyclists are compelled to race the nationals from their national federation, while the uk cycling federation is so smart to let their racers prepare for the tour as they like.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Italian Juniors - Umberto Orsini

Great win by this Italian Junior (with a famous-ish Uncle)
at Sant'Orsola Terme: Umberto Orsini

He has a climbing style quite like Andy S.
He has the same voice/accent as Cunego.

(not sure this is the right thread)

 

[Parrulo]

this is the right place indeed,

sticked the thread and changed the tittle a bit so people also know results go here from the tittle.

if any1 wants to create individual race threads for the bigger national races (belgium, france, italy and spain) please fell free to do it and i will sticky them as well but too be honest the massive posting on the national championships thread with results from all over the place during the entire weekend is what makes this thread one of the best of the year.

it's up to the posters tho.

 

[CasperVg]

Because all belgian pro cyclists are compelled to race the nationals from their national federation, while the uk cycling federation is so smart to let their racers prepare for the tour as they like.

Really? They have to ride it? Jeez, stupid rule from Belgian federation there.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Meeeh Zurlo totally deserved the win @ Italian Juniors, he is not even in the top 10 I see, or did he somehow not compete today?

 

[will10]

The RTTC are involved. end of.

Or moreover: British Cycling are happy to let a voluntary organisation run their National TT Champs.

 

[hoerpi]

The Swedish nationals are held in my hometown on Sunday. 18 laps on a course that might look simple on the profile but there are a lot of technical corners in the last kilometers.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why is it that, for example, the UK Nats have such a "bad field" (not much top riders participating, half of Sky not going) compared to the Belgian Nats (where the all the OPQS-belgians start, for example)?

Even taking the compulsory-attendance feature out of it, you have that, with very few exceptions, the top British riders are all in the same team. They probably feel they're not in any danger of losing the jersey even if they take their top riders out to prepare for the Tour/Olympics, because they just need to be strong enough to outmuscle the Continental teams; the only British Continental team really strong enough to be a major challenge on paper is Endura, but they have a number of non-Brits, so they won't have the advantage of numbers either. So unless Jonathan Tiernan-Locke is in good form, I don't see anybody outside Sky getting it, simply because I can't see them letting Steve Cummings or Tomas Metcalfe get up the road against their numbers.

 

[will10]

Before Sky the British RR was a great race, because the full time Continental pros were often isolated on different teams, and you'd have the best domestic squads playing the numbers game with 8-9 guys. Made for fantastic racing. Now, unless it's an easy parcours, Sky will ride away with it most years.

 

[Froome19]

Before Sky the British RR was a great race, because the full time Continental pros were often isolated on different teams, and you'd have the best domestic squads playing the numbers game with 8-9 guys. Made for fantastic racing. Now, unless it's an easy parcours, Sky will ride away with it most years.

Last years was a fantastic race where the top Sky riders went head to head without any team loyalties to get into the way.
I dont see what Sky has got to do with how the quality was lowered.