Over rated races

[Parrulo]

the eneco tour could be indeed some sort of stage race with classics course. with a hilly parts and pave parts. but as it is right now its overated. it even gets eurosport coverage -.-

it was sad to watch tiago machado attack on 100 meters long ramps with every1 else watching him and just waiting for the flat to come and the sprinter teams to catch him and devoulder ofc

 

[jsem94]

Eneco was fairly good this year, but could be even better. They need to have cauberg and mur de huy as stage finishes, would bring the crowds too - not have the decisive climbs 70km from the finish

 

[Archibald]

To those saying the ENECO Tour or (to a lesser extent) Qatar... How can those races be 'over-rated'? Noone rates them in the first place.

same goes for the Tour Down Under...


as for the ToC being called "the 4th GT"... f*(kin' laughable!!

 

[Rocksteady]

Ahh... Just what I was expecting from this thread: Bash the TOC. I'm going to stick up for it (a little). Will it ever be a GT, of course not. Anyone who believes that listen to Paul and Phil way to much. Will it be able to hold its own with other 1 week PT races? I think so.

I think the TOC is trying to make its course more interesting. They moved the date last year, and have now realized that what worked in February (purely a training ride) doesn't work in May, so they are making it harder with a MTF. With the Giro becoming a trip through hell every year, you might see PT teams that will use the TOC instead of the Giro to prepare for the Tour (and 2nd tier people like DZ, Mick Rogers, Jens will target it for a chance at leadership, which I think is fun to see).

This years TOC was boring because the race was built for February, but I think it just hasn't found its place yet. I think it will be a great race (Not a GT, but worthy of some interest) once its course catches up with its time of year.

PS. (All opinions in this post have been skewed by Pro-American thinking. Please factor that into your opinion)

 

[LugHugger]

You beat me to it.

And me!

 

[ak-zaaf]

Gold Race.

Sundays in April have Vlaanderen, Roubaix, LBL and that thing.
Good race but nowhere near those 3.

 

[Vonn Brinkman]

Could we maybe get a poll?
Eneco Tour and Tour of California for me.

 

[L'arriviste]

Gold Race.

Sundays in April have Vlaanderen, Roubaix, LBL and that thing.
Good race but nowhere near those 3.

A bit surprised at that. It was good this year, I thought. Last time I saw it before that was maybe 1994, but it looked much better this year.

 

[Mellow Velo]

TOC, TDU, Vattenfall, Paris-Bruxelles and................Gila.

 

[The Hitch]

Tour of Poland...far too much publicity, tv coverage and column inches!

Bite me.

 

[The Hitch]

To all those saying Poland, i guess your right

Lets just have Paris Tours, Paris Brussels, Paris Nice ,Paris Roubaix and Tour de France (which ends in Paris )

Giro d Italia, Giro di Lombardia Giro di Trentino Giro di emilia Milan San Remo and Tirreno Adriatico.

Also Tour of Flanders, Liege Bastogne Liege, Flech Wallone KBK E3 Prijs, Gent Wegvelghem, Le Samyn, Nokere Koerse, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Grote Scheldeprijs, Tour of Wallonia, Tour of Belgium and the last 3 days of Eneco Tour.

Oh and if you want you can also add Vuelta a Espana Vuelta a Castille y Leon Vuelta a Murcia Vuelta a Pais Vasco Vuelta a Burgos Vuelta a Andalucia Vuelta a Asturias Vuelta a Catalunia and Classica San Sebastian.


Nothing else though (unless the race is close by) . Any other races are overated

 

[Cobblestoned]

What's the definition of "over rated race" ?

 

[Deagol]

TDF is over-rated. It is a great race, but they (media) act like it’s the ONLY race. I would much rather see the Giro than the Tour for several reasons.
Also, Tour of California. I think that is a good race, but with the attention it gets (at least in USA), you would think it is more important than the Giro.

 

[khardung la]

Overrated: Tour of California. Tour down Under. Criterium International. Tour of Poland. Eneco Tour.

Underrated: Vuelta a Burgos. Paris-Tours. Clasica San Sebastian. Tour of Germany.

 

[ttrider]

California and Eneco for sure
Also cant stand cobbles sorry but flanders and roubais are ****, theres mountain biking if you want rough surfaces, there such gimmicks fair enough to have them but i dont believe they should be held in high esteem

 

[LugHugger]

California and Eneco for sure
Also cant stand cobbles sorry but flanders and roubais are ****, theres mountain biking if you want rough surfaces, there such gimmicks fair enough to have them but i dont believe they should be held in high esteem

charlatan Rvv and P-R have been in existence since before mountain biking's grandfather had a twinkle in his eye! they're held in high esteem because they are harder than the hardest hard can get

 

[El Pistolero]

Yeah, the Ronde and Roubaix are the most prestigious monuments.

 

[Polish]

The Amgen Tour of California is arguably THE Biggest Race in North America.
It is hard to rate ANY best race in any Continent as "over rated".

To many North American Pros, this is the big race of the year.
And to many Euro Pros it is an extremely popular Training Race.
(Many many BIG names have raced here in the six year history.....sprinters, climbers,world champs,GTwinners,cipo)

The race works well on both levels, for fans and riders alike.

The FACT that the race gets so much media attention is a CREDIT to its organizers.

Also, for that one week in May, it is so cool to watch the Giro and then the AToC. DoubleHeader Week. That does not happen on that scale any other time during the yearly schedule. Cant wait.

 

[LugHugger]

The Amgen Tour of California is arguably THE Biggest Race in North America.
It is hard to rate ANY best race in any Continent as "over rated".

To many North American Pros, this is the big race of the year.
And to many Euro Pros it is an extremely popular Training Race.
(Many many BIG names have raced here in the six year history.....sprinters, climbers,world champs,GTwinners,cipo)

The race works well on both levels, for fans and riders alike.

The FACT that the race gets so much media attention is a CREDIT to its organizers.

Also, for that one week in May, it is so cool to watch the Giro and then the AToC. DoubleHeader Week. That does not happen on that scale any other time during the yearly schedule. Cant wait.

Biggest = Best. There's a stereotype in there somewhere

 

[Willy_Voet]

What's the definition of "over rated race" ?

Good question.

For me, here in the US, where most races don't get shown at all, it's hard to imagine anything but the TdF and ToC (or whatever Lance is riding) being over rated. We simply don't get exposure to anything else, let alone too much hype surrounding the event.

Saying that MSR, Ghent or Paris-Tours is overrated is crazy-talk. Just look at the list of winners...in terms of years these races have been run as well as the quality of the competition.

I suspect there is some interesting underlying psychology for the races we say are overrated. For example, a certain American made the TdF a very predictable affair. McEwen made Paris-Brussels a sprinter's race despite a decidedly lumpy end to a long race.

 

[Descender]

Overrated: Tour of California. Tour down Under. Criterium International. Tour of Poland. Eneco Tour.

Underrated: Vuelta a Burgos. Paris-Tours. Clasica San Sebastian. Tour of Germany.

It's hard not to be underrated when you don't exist.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

To all those saying Poland, i guess your right

It wasn't about whether the race is a good or necessary thing for the ProTour. It's that the race has suffered from being in a bad place in the calendar (was coterminous with Vuelta and had terrible weather, now is immediately post-Tour, so seldom gets big names), and that the country is mostly flat. It's only really this year that they've managed to sort it out, and this year they provided a pretty good race - unfortunately they were still coterminous with Burgos and Portugal, which are two very exciting races and two of my personal favourites in the calendar.

Poland isn't a bad race... but it may benefit a bit more from being .HC so that the likes of CCC Polsat, DHL-Author, Mróz-ActiveJet and Aktio Group-Mostostal Pulawy can compete - as it is, the home interest is in watching the occasional big rider who goes (Basso in 2009 for example) and hoping that Marek Rutkiewicz can get himself up in the top 5 again.

But then, if you lose the PT status, you aren't relevant for UCI rankings anymore and the PT teams don't show up. It's a catch-22.

 

[happychappy]

To those saying the ENECO Tour or (to a lesser extent) Qatar... How can those races be 'over-rated'? Noone rates them in the first place.

I don't think Peter Noone is into bicycle races.

 

[The Hitch]

It wasn't about whether the race is a good or necessary thing for the ProTour. It's that the race has suffered from being in a bad place in the calendar (was coterminous with Vuelta and had terrible weather, now is immediately post-Tour, so seldom gets big names), and that the country is mostly flat. It's only really this year that they've managed to sort it out, and this year they provided a pretty good race - unfortunately they were still coterminous with Burgos and Portugal, which are two very exciting races and two of my personal favourites in the calendar.

Poland isn't a bad race... but it may benefit a bit more from being .HC so that the likes of CCC Polsat, DHL-Author, Mróz-ActiveJet and Aktio Group-Mostostal Pulawy can compete - as it is, the home interest is in watching the occasional big rider who goes (Basso in 2009 for example) and hoping that Marek Rutkiewicz can get himself up in the top 5 again.

But then, if you lose the PT status, you aren't relevant for UCI rankings anymore and the PT teams don't show up. It's a catch-22.

I prefer the PT tbf. I like having the big teams there. Its not like the top riders go anyway, but when they dont, i think its nice to have once in a while a pt stage race which lesser guys can win and enjoy.

This year their best rider was something like 25th in the PT rankings. The "biggest rider" was between Greipel, former Tour winner Oscar Pereiro (though no doubt had Landis been there in his stead, they would have said the same of him) and Alessandro Ballan. Possibly the worst line up for a pt stage race this year, but it gave lesser riders a chance to win a pt race and also possibly contributed to the good racing. As it turned out, the eventual winner was a very good rider, and could arguably end up better than all 3 of the above.

Also, while Poland may be "mostly flat" so is France. There are 2 mountain ranges in Poland Karpaty and Sudeten, and difficult mountains can definately be found. Starting in flat Warsaw gives the sprinters stages for first 3 days, before hitting climbers territory, kind of the way all stage races go these days.

Also, for that one week in May, it is so cool to watch the Giro and then the AToC. DoubleHeader Week. That does not happen on that scale any other time during the yearly schedule. Cant wait.

Paris Nice, Tirreno Adriatico. Dauphine, Tour de Suisse. VUelta, 2 canadian races. Tour de France, Tour of Austria.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Tour of cali
Eneco is fun to watch not really overrated( not in our parts at least)