Paris - Tours 2022: Chartres > Tours 10/09/2022 - 213,5 km

[tobydawq]

With four podium finishes in the race, Terpstra will also be remembered as the greatest rider never to win Paris-Tours

I think Merckx will be remembered as the greatest rider never to have won it

 

[Mayomaniac]

Last rider to finish: Niki Terpstra.

Another mulitple monument winner who ends his career after this weekend. Going by today's result, he seems more ripe for retirement than Alejandro.

He crashed (apparently pretty hard) today.

 

[Red Rick]

More or less.

It was better for the attackers than Sanremo was at the time, in any case. Didn't need to be changed imo, the only decline was from the race no longer being WT, not the finale failing.

I really think the decline was just about status and place on the calendar. It's lonely place on the calendar just ensures it will get skipped very often by the best riders for that race.

I also think sprint races have become so controlled that with the old parcours it's just too easy to control anyway. It would have nothing to stand out. It would just be a boring sprint race. Flat races are super hard to make selective without wind or a huge amount of hard cobbles. Even some cobbles like GP Denain just ends in a reduced sprint most of the times. While I think gravel adds some entertainment to the race, I also think small amounts of gravel are heavily overrated in terms of the selection they can bring. In PTs case it really only adds punctures.

PT has no shot for regaining prestige with the calendar as it is I think. A non monument race sorta needs to be prep for a monument to work.

 

[gavia88]

I really think the decline was just about status and place on the calendar. It's lonely place on the calendar just ensures it will get skipped very often by the best riders for that race.

I also think sprint races have become so controlled that with the old parcours it's just too easy to control anyway. It would have nothing to stand out. It would just be a boring sprint race. Flat races are super hard to make selective without wind or a huge amount of hard cobbles. Even some cobbles like GP Denain just ends in a reduced sprint most of the times. While I think gravel adds some entertainment to the race, I also think small amounts of gravel are heavily overrated in terms of the selection they can bring. In PTs case it really only adds punctures.

PT has no shot for regaining prestige with the calendar as it is I think. A non monument race sorta needs to be prep for a monument to work.

maybe we should add as well not only the race has been down graded, the place on the calander also got worse. I remember riders using it as ultimate test before the world championship. But also that some new created races have been added to the calander that really quickly won on prestige, biggest example of course is Strade Bianchi which is together with Amstel and WP maybe the race that is closest in importancy after the monuments (and world championship) nowadays, but also classic riders can go to Canada late in the season. The Italian races seems attract a somewhat more international field nowadays as well.

 

[gavia88]

Between this and the Tour de France Femmes stage earlier this year, it's very clear ASO have no idea where the line should be drawn for unpaved sectors in road races. Really dislike what this race has become, just about top of my list when it comes to races that need a rethink. Went into a bit of detail on this for the abortive Race Design Challenge:

In all honesty, I expect ASO to persevere with this route for a bit longer, but I could also see them pulling the plug rather than redesigning. Would be one of the biggest losses of history this sport has ever seen, but then again this iteration is a mockery of what Paris-Tours should be.

Züri-Metzgete is probably the most important race that disappeared 'recently'??

Another big race that lost lot of impartancy is Paris-Brussel. This decline happened already much earlier however. Already in the 90's I think it lost most of it importancy. However, even in the 90 I rember riders like Museeuw targeting the race. Since this century it's really only a sprinters race. Even less worth watching since it changed it's name.

 

[Red Rick]

maybe we should add as well not only the race has been down graded, the place on the calander also got worse. I remember riders using it as ultimate test before the world championship. But also that some new created races have been added to the calander that really quickly won on prestige, biggest example of course is Strade Bianchi which is together with Amstel and WP maybe the race that is closest in importancy after the monuments (and world championship) nowadays, but also classic riders can go to Canada late in the season. The Italian races seems attract a somewhat more international field nowadays as well.

Italian races have benefitted a lot from Lombardia becoming the climbers monument in my opinion.

 

[gavia88]

Italian races have benefitted a lot from Lombardia becoming the climbers monument in my opinion.

well, I think it also helps that Lombardia and the other Italian classics are really bundles in 2 weeks time nowadays, while they were more scattered around the end of the season > 10 years ago. Besides, the current GC riders seems more sateless compared to the riders <2010. I mean, I can't remember GC riders early in this century fighting for 2 weeks in Italian autum classics. So, besides the classic riders, a strong GC fiels shows up as well.