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New -> Arctic Race of Norway

Good potential for some decent racing in Norway this year. There is already Glava Tour of Norway that became 2.1 last year and now not only Artic race of Norway but also Tour de Fjords both of which will also be 2.1 races. I'm really looking forward to seeing what types of parcours they will manage to find. There is potential for not only good racing but spectacular scenery as well.
 
ingsve said:
Good potential for some decent racing in Norway this year. There is already Glava Tour of Norway that became 2.1 last year and now not only Artic race of Norway but also Tour de Fjords both of which will also be 2.1 races. I'm really looking forward to seeing what types of parcours they will manage to find. There is potential for not only good racing but spectacular scenery as well.

The Gava tour was not good imo. Long, flat stages ending in a sprint with poor online coverage etc.

Hopefully they can do a better job with the Artic parcours etc.
 
The Glava Tour is basically a Tour of the Oslofjord, partly to attract the top Norwegian riders (EBH, Hushovd, Kristoff) and partly because that's where the major population centres are. The Arctic Tour has a bunch of payment coming in from the County of Troms, which bodes well for my hope for a stage around Tromsø. We have to be realistic in our expectations for parcours for these Norwegian races though - the place is not the most densely populated in the world. There are lots of possibilities for some interesting stages but we should walk before we run.

That said, I would adore an MTT or final mountain pursuit race at Lysebotn, like the epic rollerski race.
 
Dazed and Confused said:
The Gava tour was not good imo. Long, flat stages ending in a sprint with poor online coverage etc.

Hopefully they can do a better job with the Artic parcours etc.

Ya, I wasn't thinking of the Glava Tour when I was speculating about potential of the races. The only real thing Glava Tour has going for it is that it's 2.1 instead of 2.2 which Ringerike GP was so there is at least a chance for some known riders to show up as opposed to just continental riders.
 
Libertine Seguros said:
The Glava Tour is basically a Tour of the Oslofjord, partly to attract the top Norwegian riders (EBH, Hushovd, Kristoff) and partly because that's where the major population centres are. The Arctic Tour has a bunch of payment coming in from the County of Troms, which bodes well for my hope for a stage around Tromsø. We have to be realistic in our expectations for parcours for these Norwegian races though - the place is not the most densely populated in the world. There are lots of possibilities for some interesting stages but we should walk before we run.

That said, I would adore an MTT or final mountain pursuit race at Lysebotn, like the epic rollerski race.

They could probably include a couple of gravel roads as well.

Without live coverage they should be able to do what they want, but if they want to invest in TV production for a post tour race, the parcours needs to be exciting otherwise even the core fans will *****.
 
ingsve said:
Ya, I wasn't thinking of the Glava Tour when I was speculating about potential of the races. The only real thing Glava Tour has going for it is that it's 2.1 instead of 2.2 which Ringerike GP was so there is at least a chance for some known riders to show up as opposed to just continental riders.

getting more sprinters to turn up for the Glava showdown will not make it more exciting. Look to Tour of Oman parcours this year for some ideas. It really doesn't have to be big mountains.