Paris-Tours

[Cult Classics]

Noticed that a year or two ago this disappeared from the Pro Tour/World Tour calendar. Why was this? It's probably the 2nd most-prestigious sprinters' classic after San Remo, is well over 100 years old, is clearly more highly thought of than races like Hamburg that are still on the top calendar, is run by ASO (so no shortage of money or publicity), former World Cup race, the 2nd biggest one day race in France (in my opinion it does edge Plouay) and comes at a time of year where a couple of weekends of classics round off the season following the World Championships - not exactly a flurry of huge cycling races to compete with for riders, especially rouleur type riders. There's Beijing this year (no comment) but P-T was dropped from the top calendar before that race came in.

I don't particularly care about a race's rank, I like the races I like and that's that - a win at the Omloop trumps a win at Hamburg anyday in my book. But it seems odd it was dropped and of course when a race isn't in the World Tour these days, the fact that so many other races are and big teams have obligations means the quality of the field is likely to suffer and there's also less chance I'll get to see the race on TV.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

I don't particularly care about a race's rank, I like the races I like and that's that .

Damn right. The UCI can't just decide that Quebec and Hamburg are Classics and Paris-Tours isn't. It doesn't work like that.

Any sprinter would give their right arm to win this one.

 

[Cult Classics]

Damn right. The UCI can't just decide that Quebec and Hamburg are Classics and Paris-Tours isn't. It doesn't work like that.

Any sprinter would give their right arm to win this one.

Classics are like democracies - if a race has the word 'classic' in its name, that usually means it isn't a classic!

 

[royalpig180]

Classics are like democracies - if a race has the word 'classic' in its name, that usually means it isn't a classic!

+1!!




Though to be fair, I for one really enjoy the two Canadian races and think they deserve their place on the WorldTour. Should they have been given that status immediately? Probably not, but they are a couple of nice races.

That said, Paris-Tours will always be a big deal because of its place on the calendar right after worlds. Status, shmatus.

 

[maltiv]

+1!!




Though to be fair, I for one really enjoy the two Canadian races and think they deserve their place on the WorldTour. Should they have been given that status immediately? Probably not, but they are a couple of nice races.

That said, Paris-Tours will always be a big deal because of its place on the calendar right after worlds. Status, shmatus.

Mostly because of its history.

Paris-Tours is right below the 5 monuments in prestige, a lower status doesn't change that.

 

[Midnightfright]

What wait a minute Paris-tours isn't world tour? what a joke. Still a great race though.

 

[Arnout]

I think it was partly an organizers decision. The race has a bit of a problem on the calendar, the few guys that still have late season goals are usually not the sprinters but the puncheurs and they prefer staying in Italy at the moment.

So every year a lot of teams without any motivation came to the start, that's why they decided to drop down so they could have a bigger influence in the selection process.

Also, do they still finish on the Avenue de Grammont? It's a bit of a let-down that the finish location will move sooner rather than later (due to tram tracks iirc).

 

[Cult Classics]

Also, do they still finish on the Avenue de Grammont? It's a bit of a let-down that the finish location will move sooner rather than later (due to tram tracks iirc).

I think they're still finishing on the Avenue de Grammont, but the tram tracks mean they'll turn onto it quite a lot later than usual. There won't be the 2.6km long finishing stretch like before, something like 600m to go.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Classics are like democracies - if a race has the word 'classic' in its name, that usually means it isn't a classic!

Primary exception: Donostia Klasikoa.

 

[Kvinto]

you may find it stupid but i've always wanted to ask what's the difference between classic and semi classic race? i've got into the way of treating every one day race as a classic but sometimes the term "semi classic" occurs...
edit: according to the Wikipedia Het Volk is a classic but Giro del Piemonte is a semi classic

 

[Tuarts]

you may find it stupid but i've always wanted to ask what's the difference between classic and semi classic race? i've got into the way of treating every one day race as a classic but sometimes the term "semi classic" occurs...
edit: according to the Wikipedia Het Volk is a classic but Giro del Piemonte is a semi classic

You have your 5 monuments then you have everything else. "Everything else" gets subjectively ranked from fanboy to fanboy, there's no real distinction although I guess you could use the UCI categories. (WT, .HC, .1)

 

[Kvinto]

You have your 5 monuments then you have everything else. "Everything else" gets subjectively ranked from fanboy to fanboy, there's no real distinction although I guess you could use the UCI categories. (WT, .HC, .1)

hmm... well, point taken, but that's not exactly what i'm looking for. i want to conceive the meaning of the term "semi classic race" and highly doubt that it's just a display of low evaluation of a one day classic race in someone's personal point of view.

 

[spalco]

I do think the distinction between classic and semi-classic is simply based on how prestigious you rank one one-day race or another.

If there's a more objective criteria to that I'd like to hear about it too.

 

[Cult Classics]

Maybe the distinctions have become a bit more blurred now with the expansion of the calendar and all these various 'Tour' programmes. But I always thought it was something to do with the race distances, though I might be wrong. As in the ones that were roughly 200km long would be semi-classics and the ones that were getting towards or above 250km would be the classics (those often being the older/more prestigious races anyway, including all 5 monuments).

Agree that the San Sebastian classic is a decent race, but it's still quite a young race by relative standards, isn't it? I guess when Roubaix and San Remo were being invented the term 'classic' was yet to be coined.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Donostia is pretty young (1981) but it's hard to say that it isn't a Classic.

To me, Classics include all the Monuments (obviously) plus the relatively high prestige races outside of that, so Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Tours, San Sebastián, Amstel Gold, E3, Gent-Wevelgem, Omloop.

Semi-Classics are then the other prestigious one-day races, but ones that aren't as often shouted about on the palmarès, so the likes of Milano-Torino, Nokere-Koerse, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, Rund um Frankfurt, GP Miguel Indurain, Brabantse Pijl, Giro dell'Emilia. Vattenfall and Plouay are elevated to this status more by the presence of World Tour riders than anything else.

 

[Kvinto]

So that, what Tuarts posted, appears to be true: there are some guesses like lenth, history etc but in the end there's no exact partition in this case so everyone can create his own list of true classics

 

[Matthijs]

So that, what Tuarts posted, appears to be true: there are some guesses like lenth, history etc but in the end there's no exact partition in this case so everyone can create his own list of true classics

no there isn't. That's the fun of cycling: it's so complex

 

[Cult Classics]

Interestingly, I remember around the time of Gilbert winning his Ardenne treble this year one of the race websites saying Liege would be his "eighth win in a Classic".

They didn't elaborate but I'm guessing they meant:

2 x Amstel
2 x Lombardia
2 x Paris-Tours
1 x Fleche Wallonne
1 x Liege

He wouldn't have won San Sebastian at that point, but they obviously didn't consider the Omloop or Piemonte (Gilbert's won each twice) to be classics. Not commenting on it, just posting it.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

you may find it stupid but i've always wanted to ask what's the difference between classic and semi classic race? i've got into the way of treating every one day race as a classic but sometimes the term "semi classic" occurs...
edit: according to the Wikipedia Het Volk is a classic but Giro del Piemonte is a semi classic

Volk's a semi too... Imo you have the 5 Monuments, then you have Paris-Tours, Scheldeprijs, Fleche, Amstel, San Sebastian, Emilia and Piemonte or so as classics... I'm prolly forgetting some though...

EDIT: Libertine has put it quite well imo

 

[El Pistolero]

Volk's a semi too... Imo you have the 5 Monuments, then you have Paris-Tours, Scheldeprijs, Fleche, Amstel, San Sebastian, Emilia and Piemonte or so as classics... I'm prolly forgetting some though...

EDIT: Libertine has put it quite well imo

Scheldeprijs is not a classic.

 

[Mambo95]

What wait a minute Paris-tours isn't world tour? what a joke.

It's not on the World Tour because ASO (who own it) don't want it to be. They want more control over who they invite (there were two or three French continental teams invited last year).

 

[El Pistolero]

Paris-Tours is more prestigious than half the World Tour events anyway. Doesn't matter.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Scheldeprijs is not a classic.

It is, just a boring one

 

[powerste]

Scheldeprijs is not a classic.

It is, just a boring one

Paris-Tours is more prestigious than half the World Tour events anyway. Doesn't matter.

Proof that whoever coined the terms classic and semi-classic did so in order to keep the Internet forum home fires burning.

no there isn't. That's the fun of cycling: it's so complex

Or to put that another way - we get to make it up as we go along

 

[Matthijs]

Volk's a semi too... Imo you have the 5 Monuments, then you have Paris-Tours, Scheldeprijs, Fleche, Amstel, San Sebastian, Emilia and Piemonte or so as classics... I'm prolly forgetting some though...

EDIT: Libertine has put it quite well imo

Gent-Wevelgem above Scheldeprijs, emilia and piemonte. Scheldeprijs is like het Volk I think. I rate Sebastian above Gent-Wevelgem and stuff, but I can't call it a classic...