Reorganising the GT calendar

[Ricco']

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.

Do you want to kill the classics too? What makes Ronde and Roubaix (to not talk of the Ardennes) more beautiful is the uncertainty of the weather, the cold, the rain, etc. I'm dreaming for years of a Roubaix in the rain, and if in April we don't get that since 2002 imagine if it was in summer (ok, this year in Le Tour we got rain, but that was once in a lifetime shot).

 

[42x16ss]

Do you want to kill the classics too? What makes Ronde and Roubaix (to not talk of the Ardennes) more beautiful is the uncertainty of the weather, the cold, the rain, etc. I'm dreaming for years of a Roubaix in the rain, and if in April we don't get that since 2002 imagine if it was in summer (ok, this year in Le Tour we got rain, but that was once in a lifetime shot).

Huh? The Tour regularly gets rain. The 2012 and 13 Tours were very unusual getting such little rain.

 

[Sciocco]

Move the Giro to June, delete the Tour, and Vuelta can stay roughly where it is.

PERFECT!

 

[JohnNordin]

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

Now you are talking! Furthermore, make it a relay race. A team enters 9 for each GT, but they are linked up into three man group where each one races one GT and we combine the times for the triad into an overall grand grand winner. Be even better if they have to carry a baton and pass it at the end of a tour.

 

[JohnNordin]

On a more serious note - has it always been these three for the GTs? Has there ever been another race put up with these for the "GT" designation? Historians comment?

 

[The GCW]

3 full 3 week Tours stay put.

Keep them where they are, it seems a natural. I get disappointed when some Giro stages get altered and such but the schedule feels right.

The worst possible thing I've been hearing lately is making the Vuelta and Giro shorter. 3, 3 week Grand Tours is what We have and it should remain. Having 3 of them is ideal. 3 is like a magic number. With only 1, 3 week Grand Tour it will not be the same.

3 is complex. Interesting photos often have 3 of what ever...

 

[Albert Fishwick]

The Tour will never move by more than a few days as long as it continues to have the financial importance it currently has. ASO will always want it to straddle 14th July and any later finish would put it into prime French holiday season when it's already hard enough to move about the country at weekends.

Swapping the Giro and Vuelta makes sense to me but I doubt the organisers would swallow it.