• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Race Design Challenge II

Yes, it is official. It is coming. :cool:

I will announce the theme of the challenge in the upcoming days*, I still have to work out some rules.

I will give some information though, mainly recollecting stuff I already said in other threads:
- It will be about a whole new stage race.
- It will be bigger than a regular GT (roughly one month of duration)
- It will give more leeway to players wrt UCI rules... ;)
- The start of the competition itself will probably be in August

There are already a few players registered and a couple of judges... but the more, the better, so don't hesitate and join the biggest race design competition in the world! :cool:


*:...when I have time


EDIT:
Here's the theme.

This will be the Tour of the Roman Empire (the actual name will be up to you).

A stage race that will last 32 days, with 28 stages and 4 rest days. It is the Tour of the Roman Empire, but it is intended to be raced in the present. With present-day roads. BUT every stage should start and end in roman age cities or landmarks (using their ancient name will get you style points). They do not HAVE to be roman (as all GTs, you could have stages abroad... but they must be of that time). This will mean a few things.
First of all, basically MTFs will be very hard to make, because you would need to find some kind of roman sanctuary on a mountain, maybe. Surely you won't find towns up there.
Secondly, the Roman Empire was a pretty big place. Covering it in 28 stages will be tough, especially considering you can't just start or finish a stage anywhere. To alleviate your burden, the Roman Cycling Union has granted you special permission to ignore the riders' complaints and go full pre-WW2 heroic cycling. You will have a transfer limit of 150 km between stages (no limits during rest days), and the length limit of each stage will be 300 km (100 km for TTs of any kind). Furthermore, you'll have the possibility to break this limit, up to 500 km, for three stages (we will refer to these as "Ultra-stages"), as long as they come just after or before a rest day. These stages cannot have more than 6000m of altitude gain though.
The overall length of the race shall not be higher than 6000 km.

Unlike the last edition, I will come up with a penalty system for those who will break the rules. Let's say you didn't find any roman settlement to finish your stage in. Fear not, you can still submit your stage, but you'll get a penalty and lose some points. Same goes for the km limit. I'm still thinking of the actual amount of points, so I won't say the details yet. The voting system will remain similar to last year, with technical and cultural points, with slight modifications depending on the number of players involved and the number of judges. The only real change will be that the final evaluation of each week will also include a cultural voting (instead of only the technical one). Furthermore, I will introduce a small points bonus for the best write-up of each round, so put some effort into it and you'll get rewarded :p


So that's it, the challenge is made. The competition will start on August 20th (the starting date has been postponed).

Please write here to confirm your participation. You'll be able to register up to the very start of the competition.

EDIT#2: Judges and rules:
http://forum.cyclingnews.com/viewtopic.php?p=2004265&sid=8b3e1fd996b7507aff051cd4fcd21243#p2004265
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
Probably not your first, second or third priority, but if you need people, Im game as a ref
You're in the list of candidates for the jury :p I haven't decided yet, but the more the better :)


Red Rick said:
Eshnar, we're desperately waiting
Alright, I won't have more time any time soon anyway, so let's get this over with.

Here's the theme.

This will be the Tour of the Roman Empire (the actual name will be up to you).

A stage race that will last 32 days, with 28 stages and 4 rest days. It is the Tour of the Roman Empire, but it is intended to be raced in the present. With present-day roads. BUT every stage should start and end in roman age cities or landmarks (using their ancient name will get you style points). They do not HAVE to be roman (as all GTs, you could have stages abroad... but they must be of that time). This will mean a few things.
First of all, basically MTFs will be very hard to make, because you would need to find some kind of roman sanctuary on a mountain, maybe. Surely you won't find towns up there.
Secondly, the Roman Empire was a pretty big place. Covering it in 28 stages will be tough, especially considering you can't just start or finish a stage anywhere. To alleviate your burden, the Roman Cycling Union has granted you special permission to ignore the riders' complaints and go full pre-WW2 heroic cycling. You will have a transfer limit of 150 km between stages (no limits during rest days), and the length limit of each stage will be 300 km (100 km for TTs of any kind). Furthermore, you'll have the possibility to break this limit, up to 500 km, for three stages (we will refer to these as "Ultra-stages"), as long as they come just after or before a rest day. These stages cannot have more than 6000m of altitude gain though.
The overall length of the race shall not be higher than 6000 km.

Unlike the last edition, I will come up with a penalty system for those who will break the rules. Let's say you didn't find any roman settlement to finish your stage in. Fear not, you can still submit your stage, but you'll get a penalty and lose some points. Same goes for the km limit. I'm still thinking of the actual amount of points, so I won't say the details yet. The voting system will remain similar to last year, with technical and cultural points, with slight modifications depending on the number of players involved and the number of judges. The only real change will be that the final evaluation of each week will also include a cultural voting (instead of only the technical one). Furthermore, I will introduce a small points bonus for the best write-up of each round, so put some effort into it and you'll get rewarded :p


So that's it, the challenge is made. The competition will start on August 13th (the starting date is negotiable).

Please write here to confirm your participation. You'll be able to register up to the very start of the competition.
 
Re:

Netserk said:
Awesome.

Will it end on a Sunday? Do we have a rough placement calender-wise?

Are we allowed to have 6k+ of vertical meters in the short stages (sub 300km)? :D
the placement of the calendar and all that kind of stuff is up to the designer.

Yes, there's no altitude gain limit for short stages :cool:

@Red Rick:
Yes, as I said, MTFs will likely be minimal. But I do think there will be enough mountains for the climbers to be happy :D
 
Jul 24, 2014
150
0
0
Visit site
Wow this is going to be an insane challenge... :eek:

I'm going to try and give it a go but I have a feeling it will take a long time to come up with a route I'm satisfied with. :p

Would it not make more sense to have it at 27 days, i.e. a full GT plus a Monday rest day and then a final, fourth week of 6 days culminating in a Sunday? Or is it not that structured?
 
Re: Re:

Cannibal72 said:
Cannibal72 said:
That is an awe-inspiringly cool idea.

Might as well confirm my involvement. One question (not that I'm already planning it...): can we put an 'ultra-stage' as the last stage?
Good question. The end of the race does not count as a rest day, so you can only if it follows a rest day (that is, if you have a rest day just before the final stage :D )
 
Gigs_98 said:
Hahaha this is going to be awsome. I hope I have enough time this summer. If yes, i will surely participate, if no I will maybe participate as a judge if there is still one needed. Btw, any idea of a points system already?
not really. As I said, it will resemble last year's, but the actual numbers will depend on the number of players.
 

TRENDING THREADS