Qatar Worlds 2016

[kottila]

says something about the naivety of Norwegians, thinking that having the best application is what mattered. Two years we spent on this application, first an internal competition between several cities to decide which city to get the official nomination and then a year of preparing the application. Recently they were actually optimistic about our chances saying that we were the only ones to officially have applied yet and maybe we would not be challenged. Little did we know that UCI had no intention of actually having a real competition for the event. Just wished they would let us now two years earlier, so we could've saved a lot of money and time.

The interest of cycling in Norway has exploded over the last years with the good results of Hushovd, Boasson Hagen and others and our world championship would've had a big crowd around a hilly course, which will probably be the oppoite of what Qatar can offer.

 

[Fidolix]

Been there, trust me, the heat will surely be a factor, its the dry heat that makes your throat hurt and scream for water, it´s simply terrible, you don´t sweat, it´s burned of your skin before it evaporates, and with a bit of wind (and it´s always windy, thank god!) you get a nice sand cake to, cheers, this is not gonna be an easy ride if you normally suffer with the high temperatures, and the wind could also become a main factor.

 

[The Hitch]

Chris Froome ftw.

 

[Old School]

Landed there at 2 in the morning once (coming thru from Iraq)....it was 107 degrees....that was in September....it's hot there. Stayed for 6 months there....I'm still sweating!!!

 

[avanti]

It has been prety hot during the Vuelta in recent years.

I bet there was no input from teams regarding the Qatar worlds - probably Qatar offered big money to the UCI.

 

[Parrulo]

i don't know what is the big deal with the heat, a lot of the volta and vuelta stages are ridden with 40 degrees of hit.

hell the stage to Serra da Estrela of the 2010 volta was ridden through fires that were destroying the mountain that year.

 

[whittashau]

Surely with the amount of money they have there they could BUILD a mountain or two for this race.

 

[Fidolix]

i don't know what is the big deal with the heat, a lot of the volta and vuelta stages are ridden with 40 degrees of hit.

hell the stage to Serra da Estrela of the 2010 volta was ridden through fires that were destroying the mountain that year.

Course it´s not 40 degrees, but 50+, and the dry sand just takes out all humidity in the air, you can´t breath, go there and you will know.
It´s hell on earth.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

"There is no other candidate for 2016, only Qatar," the source said. "Qatar and the UCI agreed to secure an exclusive application. The date might be delayed to avoid the heat but it's moving ahead."

What's this now, wasn't Norway applying as well?

But to be honest, even though the Tour of Qatar is a really nice race; I'd much much much prefer Norway though, because the only way to have good racing in Qatar is echelons, which you can't really assume because of being dependend on the wheather. Norway on the other hand has hills.

 

[Pentacycle]

i don't know what is the big deal with the heat, a lot of the volta and vuelta stages are ridden with 40 degrees of hit.

hell the stage to Serra da Estrela of the 2010 volta was ridden through fires that were destroying the mountain that year.

Are there any 280 km stages there? If the riders 'only' have to do 4 hours most would be able to handle it,
but when you're in 40+ degrees for 7 hours riding 50 kph on average, the pressure on most of the riders' bodies becomes too great.

It will simply become an endurance fest, the one who can ride fastest with the least amount of water wins.
That would be a great race with a great winner, wouldn't it.

 

[William H]

I wonder if they might be able to scrape up a couple of hundred spectators for the World Champs.

 

[Cult Classics]

Pretty clear no thought went into this at the UCI whatsoever besides the dolla. I suppose McQuaid will probably be able to pay homage to more traditional cycling countries by buying himself some nice holiday cottages in France, Italy and Spain now.

 

[Caruut]

I can't decide which form of corruption I prefer. FIFA tell you they're legit and then screw you, the UCI just screw you.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

So I tried making a course as hilly as possible in Qatar.

Best I could come up with is this, 260km and 2000+ height meters

At least it starts and finishes in a village, so not in te midde of nowhere, making it just a little it more realistic

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1536782

 

[Arnout]

So they're talking about date change. I'm sure the WC before/after that will like that. "Yes you won the WC but you can only wear the jersey for three months because we like oil money, sorry."

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Surely with the amount of money they have there they could BUILD a mountain or two for this race.

They're building clouds for the World Cup apparently

 

[Tank Engine]

Echelons less likely on a circuit course, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's just up and down a corniche either to be honest, but that is our main hope.

After all, the parcours is gonna make København look like Mendrisio so we'd better hope for wind.

Good point about echelons on a circuit. Maybe they could do something like the Aussies did and have a "point to point" with circuits at the end.

We'd get to see more of the glorious Qatar countryside that way as well

 

[Finn84]

Wouldn't be too surprised if in a few years we hear about some up-and-coming super sprinter from Qatar...

...who is originally from somewhere else?

 

[Armchair cyclist]

...who is originally from somewhere else?

Well, let's face it, Isle of Man isn't really part of UK.

 

[the asian]

Money talks big in Sports. The Qataris must have made a generous offer to Pat.
I though that Qatar will host a WC in the future, but didn't think it would be in 2016.
Richmond, USA is due to host he 2015 WC and that means there will be two successive WCs outside Europe.
I remember Pat saying that they will only host a WC outside Europe once in five years. It seems he has forgotten his principles once he met the Qataris.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/qatar-closes-in-on-2016-road-world-championship-slot

And we were thinking Cav would only have one shot at a Worlds in his career....

Hope it's windy

Did Cavendish know this when he started talking about how much he'd like to be in the Rio team pursuit?

 

[Cult Classics]

I remember Pat saying that they will only host a WC outside Europe once in five years. It seems he has forgotten his principles once he met the Qataris.

Guess that depends on how you count once in five years. Only one WC outside Europe in the 2011-2015 timeframe, could be that it's only once in 2016-2020 too, just that five years happens to start with the non-Euro one.

On a side note, it's a little ridiculous how long it is since either France or Belgium have hosted it - two of the major cycling nations

 

[Echoes]

A country that is essentially a band of billionaire bedouins destabilizing the situation in countries like Syria after doing the same in Lybia has nothing to do with our sport. It's a disgrace.

What's more, no political parties are allowed and no trade unions.

 

[avanti]

Confirmed
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/qatar-awarded-2016-uci-road-world-championships

Given the current unrest and probale future unrest in the middle-east the WC location could be changed between now and 2016.

 

[Ferminal]

"The UCI later sent out a press release with the UCI Sport and Technical Director Philippe Chevallier saying: "The management of the Qatar candidature presented an extremely interesting project which incorporated innovative solutions which allowed for the designing of a technically interesting course , we are greatly looking forward to working with them."

Yeh ok... So they will be building climbs?

Going to be funny to see no crowds there and then have all the "what a fantastic event it has been".