Reorganising the GT calendar

[Eshnar]

I would actually like to see the Tour moved backwards one week, the Vuelta shortened to the last two weeks of the three weeks it is now, the Giro in the current position and an extra 2-week stagerace in the last week of March, first week of April. Obviously that new spot will be tricky due to the weather and the inaccessability of high mountains so early in the spring, but for all I care that race is organized in Colombia or California and it doesn't need to be that hard, a sort of expanded Paris-Nice type (like it was before they butchered it) would do fine.

Yeah let's destroy the one race that attracts all the sponsors, that's a brilliant idea.

uhm... so your idea is to destroy the Vuelta basically? I like it.

 

[Echoes]

On Eurosport, Sean Kelly always refers to the Vuelta as the Tour of Spain, [...]. Pretty sure Kelly calls the Giro Tour of Italy too.

?? How else could he name them? He's Irish...

They have sort of brought Lombardia forward a couple of weeks recently though. It should go back where it was.

Maybe the Worlds should go back to late August and before the Vuelta if the weather is that much of a problem, but that will have a bad effect on the Vuelta's field.

I agree that Lombardy should go back where it was. It's only a dirty trick by RCS to attract lazybones who can't keep in form until mid-october.

However the Worlds ought never to come back in August. This has been long debate during the noughties. Many thought that the July specializationists could hence get a chance to become World champion. I think that the calendar ought never to adapt to the whims of some diva stars but those riders have to adapt to the calendar. If the Worlds were held in late September in the eighties, LeMond would never have been a dual World Champion.

 

[LaFlorecita]

?? How else could he name them? He's Irish...
.

Not this **** again

 

[Netserk]

?? How else could he name them? He's Irish...



I agree that Lombardy should go back where it was. It's only a dirty trick by RCS to attract lazybones who can't keep in form until mid-october.

However the Worlds ought never to come back in August. This has been long debate during the noughties. Many thought that the July specializationists could hence get a chance to become World champion. I think that the calendar ought never to adapt to the whims of some diva stars but those riders have to adapt to the calendar. If the Worlds were held in late September in the eighties, LeMond would never have been a dual World Champion.

Do you really think I should call them Italien rundt, Frankrig rundt, Flanderen rundt, Baskerlandet rundt, Sydens rute, Tyrrhenske (hav) - Adriater(havet) etc.?

 

[Dr. Juice]

Do you really think I should call them Italien rundt, Frankrig rundt, Flanderen rundt, Baskerlandet rundt, Sydens rute, Tyrrhenske (hav) - Adriater(havet) etc.?

Pais Vasco, Volta a Catalunya, Vuelta a Espana, Giro d' Italia, Ronde (van Vlaanderen), Liège - Bastogne - Liège are all pretty common?
I agree that it is not necessary to pronounce small sh!t races in the original language. But for the big races it's not uncommon or do the examples sound bad ?

 

[ILovecycling]

Pais Vasco, Volta a Catalunya, Vuelta a Espana, Giro d' Italia, Ronde (van Vlaanderen), Liège - Bastogne - Liège are all pretty common?
I agree that it is not necessary to pronounce small sh!t races in the original language. But for the big races it's not uncommon or do the examples sound bad ?

yep, but not all folks here seem to understand it

 

[roberttazman]

Pais Vasco, Volta a Catalunya, Vuelta a Espana, Giro d' Italia, Ronde (van Vlaanderen), Liège - Bastogne - Liège are all pretty common?
I agree that it is not necessary to pronounce small sh!t races in the original language. But for the big races it's not uncommon or do the examples sound bad ?

In my head I could only hear Bob Roll describing the "Tour DEE' France"

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Pais Vasco, Volta a Catalunya, Vuelta a Espana, Giro d' Italia, Ronde (van Vlaanderen), Liège - Bastogne - Liège are all pretty common?
I agree that it is not necessary to pronounce small sh!t races in the original language. But for the big races it's not uncommon or do the examples sound bad ?

What part of Szlakiem Grodów Piastkowskich don't you understand?

 

[roberttazman]

Option A: keep the Giro where it is, move the Tour 2-3 weeks later, move the Vuelta 2-3 weeks. Keep the Vuelta as a lower key end-of-season GT, not a training ride for guys doing the worlds. Move the Giro Lombardia later, to when the leaves are actually falling, and keep the world's close to it.

Option B: merge all three GTs so that it is one giant 9 week long race across Italy, Spain, and France.

 

[Red Rick]

What part of Szlakiem Grodów Piastkowskich don't you understand?

Sorry, but most of us don't know every name in 121 different languages like you seem to do

 

[ILovecycling]

What part of Szlakiem Grodów Piastowskich don't you understand?

ten characters

 

[Arnout]

uhm... so your idea is to destroy the Vuelta basically? I like it.

Well, I don't think it would change much. I don't see the difference between three and two weeks for the Vuelta, as they don't make use of the three weeks anyway: in two weeks one can allow the winner to be the rider who best climbs those finishing climbs too. Moreover, they often skip large parts of the country, so the argument that in two weeks they can't visit every part of Spain is void too. In fact, it might help the race in attracting more riders.

 

[Red Rick]

Well, I don't think it would change much. I don't see the difference between three and two weeks for the Vuelta, as they don't make use of the three weeks anyway: in two weeks one can allow the winner to be the rider who best climbs those finishing climbs too. Moreover, they often skip large parts of the country, so the argument that in two weeks they can't visit every part of Spain is void too. In fact, it might help the race in attracting more riders.

Yeah, might be, but it's not a GT anymore

 

[pink_jersey]

For me, the calendar is perfect.My only concern is about Lombardia.I hope next year Lombardia will again,finish the cycling season.
About GT's maybe they should put back Vuelta at the start of September(3th or 4th of September) and put TdF in 6th or 7th of July(in this case the riders who rode the Giro will have a higher recovery period).

 

[doperhopper]

- 18 stages with no rest days

- May: Vuelta
- July: Giro
- September: Tour

...and voila, ASO/UCI mafia boring Tour loses its primary vacation-time advantage, so Giro becomes most popular

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It would never happen, but it would mean that suddenly those high altitude Giro stages of sexy awesomeness would happen.

Imagine Zomegnan with full access to all the high altitude mountains around his country and nearby.

Jaufenpass-Rombo-Rettenbachferner here we come!!!
Fauniera-Sampeyre-Agnello time!!!
Nivolet!

 

[hoolaparara]

Wow there's a lot of the operation was a success but the patient died type of ideas here!

 

[rswans14]

GT Options

I like a lot of the ideas posted here. Here's my take:

I know there's speculation about how reorganizing the three Grand Tours will wreak havoc on the other races of the season, but I think there is something to be said about riders who are built for grand tours, and we should cater to those guys because it's cool as hell. I would definitely want to keep the GT races 21 days - I get some sort of sick twisted joy watching those guys maintain form into the last week.

Ultimately however I think, along with many others, that the real path to success for GT races is to get all of the aspiring GC riders to participate in all Grand Tours. I like the Tinkoff idea of offering an end of year GT classification/award, but maybe in a less greasy way.

I see two options to promote universal participation:

01 - Flip-flop - Move the Vuelta to start the last week of April, and the Giro to start the first week of September. That makes better sense to me in regards to the time-of-year and geography and also adds a week between all three races. Is that enough recovery time to entice a hattrick? I have no idea.

02 - Is pretty much what Bavarianrider said: Kill the Vuelta as a Grand Tour and shift the Giro and Tour up a week or two, add a week or two between them. I like watching the Vuelta, and it's a nice net for riders who crashed out in spring, but ultimately, it's a mixed bag of talent. Somebody else already wrote, and I agree, nobody targets it. Why have it? Then the GC guys can focus on doing the double in top form - YES!

I hadn't given it much thought until today, but I like option 02 the best. It might also give an added boost in attendance and popularity to some of the shorter 1 week races.

Anyway, I'm glad there is so much speculation about the flip-flop/shuffle from fans, because this kind of "what's gonna happen?!" stuff gets me all fired up!

 

[screaming fist]

- 18 stages with no rest days

- May: Vuelta
- July: Giro
- September: Tour

...and voila, ASO/UCI mafia boring Tour loses its primary vacation-time advantage, so Giro becomes most popular

...and voila, cycling loses most of its money and there won't be any GTs more anyway. problem solved.

 

[Angliru]

Well, I don't think it would change much. I don't see the difference between three and two weeks for the Vuelta, as they don't make use of the three weeks anyway: in two weeks one can allow the winner to be the rider who best climbs those finishing climbs too. Moreover, they often skip large parts of the country, so the argument that in two weeks they can't visit every part of Spain is void too. In fact, it might help the race in attracting more riders.

IMO by cutting it to 2 weeks it loses its grand tour designation and along with that its prestige. Yes I think winning the Vuelta is a prestigious achievement in cycling. It would be a greater loss to the sport in general and to the culture of cycling in Spain than it would be a benefit.

 

[offbyone]

Personally, I think this talk is absurd. This schedule has worked for what 75 years now?

I don't think this schedule was ever set up with the intention of all riders participating in all the events and I don't know why that is important. In fact, I would push the opposite point of view. Trying to shorten the events just results in a small subset of riders becoming the superstars in cycling with all focus on them. This puts too much attention on too small a group of riders.
The current schedule forces teams to pick and choose goals for riders and give opportunities to different riders. It results in variety. If we had Nibali, Contador and Froome riding every big event last year we would never see up and coming young guys like Aru step forward.

I think UCI's only motivation in this is money. More Froome/Contador = more money. But I think this is a narrow point of view. Adjusting the schedule might give them a small kick up in revenue but it isn't going to create the stable revenue stream cycling needs. They need to be willing to make major changes.

 

[Ricco']

Personally, I think this talk is absurd. This schedule has worked for what 75 years now?

20 years in 2015.

Until 1994 the schedule was Vuelta, then Giro, then Tour, Vuelta being in March.

 

[pastronef]

20 years in 2015.

Until 1994 the schedule was Vuelta, then Giro, then Tour, Vuelta being in March.

Vuelta began last week of April

 

[offbyone]

20 years in 2015.

Until 1994 the schedule was Vuelta, then Giro, then Tour, Vuelta being in March.

Well I was more referring to the length of the races, but you are correct. So I would be ok with them flip flopping the Giro and Vuelta, but otherwise I don't like changing the structure of three grand tours Spring, Summer, Fall.

 

[42x16ss]

Just for sh!ts and giggles I'd like to see the Vuelta go to a late March start, Giro starting in late May with the biggest classics (northern classics and Ardennes) taking the Tour's spot, then put the Tour in the Vuelta's September slot

That way everyone gets to see the best races (the classics ) and the Tour gets a stacked field, with everyone that's had a poor season so far going to the Tour hungry.