Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt 2014 (1.HC), 1. May.

[Dazed and Confused]

Teams and riders involved:
1. Team Katusha (Kristoff, Kolobnev)
2. Team Giant-Shimano (Degenkolb, Arndt)
3. AG2R La Mondiale (Dumoulin, Gretsch)
4. Belkin-Pro Cycling Team (Kelderman, Boom)
5. IAM Cycling (Pelucchi, Haussler)
6. Team NetApp – Endura (Huzarski, Thwaites)
7. Bretagne - Séché Environnement (Sepúlveda, Delaplace)
8. CCC Polsat Polkowice (Paterski, Honkisz)
9. MTN - Qhubeka (Ciolek, Teklehaimanot)
10. Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise (Van Asbroeck, Jacobs)
11. Wanty - Groupe Gobert (Kreder, Baugnies)
12. Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela (Belletti, Zilioli)
13. LKT Team Brandenburg (Schafer, Willwohl)
14. MLP Team Bergstraße (Baldauf, Bruno)
15. Team Heizomat (Droste, Weber)
16. Team Kuota (Monreal, Retschke)
17. Team Stuttgart (Krieger, Walsleben)
18. Team Stölting (Dieteren, Saggiorato)
19. Rad-Net Rose Team (Reinhardt, Buchmann)
20. Bike Aid - Ride for Help (Craven, Meron)
21. Germany (Wegmann, Klemme)

Complete list here: http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Rund_um_den_Finanzplatz_Eschborn_Frankfurt_2014-Startlist

Official race site: http://www.eschborn-frankfurt.de/de/aktuelles/

Race starts 12:00 (CEST) and ends around 17:00. I understand a local station will broadcast from the race, so perhaps streams will be available.

Going with Dan Craven from a seriously long range attack.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

One of my favourite one-day races, and the race that helped turn me on to the sport when I used to live in Mainhattan. Any race where with 1km to go you can't tell who will finish first out of Domenico Pozzovivo and André Greipel has got the balance right.

The extra Mammolshain ascent added as a response to the 70-strong group sprint in 2011 has been a definite success, with Martin attempting a long one in Moser's win in 2012, and a good group getting away to only just hold on last year. Not a super strong team lineup this year (surprised at no Cannondale) but still a pretty reasonable field for Germany's biggest and best race.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Mainhattan, lol.

Agree, a very good parcours. Actually a very nice area just outside of Frankfurt from what I can remember.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Everybody loves the Mammolshainer Berg. The estimates are about 2,6 or 2,7km at around 7%, but the maximum is well over 20% - some estimates give 26% as the max!

 

[manafana]

Germans showing live cycling? hardly

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Germans showing live cycling? hardly

HR have been broadcasting the race live in almost its entirety for the last several years, even in the darkest post-Puerto days.

Part of the reasoning for that could be that Frankfurt is by far the biggest city in Hesse, the race is held on a public holiday, and a four to five hour telecast in the middle of the day on said public holiday probably reduces the number of people they need at work that day.

 

[Astana1]

I love this race. First time I saw it, I was living in nearby Wiesbaden. I got in from a flight from Chicago the morning of and I saw in newspaper that it was happening. Jet lagged, I hopped into my car and less than an hour later I was standing on the side of road that I had ridden on to see the pack come by. You will find no shortage of steep gradient hills in that part of Germany.

 

[thequestionmark]

As mentioned, Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) will broadcast the race. That's the regional channel of Hesse. They don't do it to save money because normally they rarely broadcast live and it's a pretty big thing to them. They want to support local sport events like this race or the Frankfurt Marathon.
There will be an official live stream by HR. However the quality is pretty meeh and it will be likely georestricted to Germany.

In a world tour race the 30 flat kms after the last hill would guarantee a sprint finish. But since teams are weaker, strong attacks have got a better chance of succeeding.

Imo, Degenkolb and Kristoff are the favourites. I'll cheer for Degenkolb as he's the local (of my home town).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It's a shame they picked up on the georestricting because in 2010 and 11 the race could be seen anywhere via HR. The 2010 edition was really good to see in full too, as Voss and Milram made the race from early on, attacking on the Großer Feldberg (even though not all of it was climbed that year due to road damage after snow) to prise out Tony Martin and wear out HTC's engines so that they wouldn't have anybody to help Greipel get back after the Mammolshainer Berg climbs.

In 2011, the race was one of the weaker editions with the sprint field being far larger than usual, and the additional Mammolshain loop at the end putting it twice back to back was brought in as a direct response to this, and so far has resulted in two very nice races.

 

[theyoungest]

Why would you even georestrict it? It isn't broadcasted anywhere else, no clash of tv rights.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Why would you even georestrict it? It isn't broadcasted anywhere else, no clash of tv rights.

You wouldn't:

http://www.hr-online.de/website/fernsehen/sendungen/livestream.jsp

Choice of two quality streams.

 

[thequestionmark]

Because they usually georestrict their whole programme. But if Libertine says they didn't do in the past, there is a chance.

Edit: Good News

 

[manafana]

HR have been broadcasting the race live in almost its entirety for the last several years, even in the darkest post-Puerto days.

Part of the reasoning for that could be that Frankfurt is by far the biggest city in Hesse, the race is held on a public holiday, and a four to five hour telecast in the middle of the day on said public holiday probably reduces the number of people they need at work that day.

thats good to hear, sounds like really good race too, hopefully one day Germany realises cycling was only part of the doping not the only one and we more racing in a country with plenty financial clout.

 

[Mellow Velo]

They are on the roll out, now.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Race in progress....

Stream here: http://www.hr-online.de/website/avplayer.jsp?mt=2&ch=1&w=512&h=316

 

[thequestionmark]

Race coverage has started. Quality of the live stream better than expected.

 

[thequestionmark]

Two commentators. One is the standard moderator of HR and has absolutely no idea of cycling. Makes it funny.

 

[thequestionmark]

40km raced. Still no breaks. Wet roads lead to many crashes. Weather now better.

 

[Ruudz0r]

I think Herklotz will show himself today, his form is good and he is an incredible talent!

 

[thequestionmark]

Breakaway of 10 riders with 1min 25 sec gap after Großer Feldberg.

 

[thequestionmark]

Giant Shimano is chasing. Gap is down to 55 seconds.

 

[theyoungest]

Kelderman uses it as a nice training ride for the Giro, I see.

 

[thequestionmark]

Wilco Kelderman, Mirco Saggiorato, Marel Rutkiewicz, Ben Gastauer , Anthony Delaplce, Mirko Selvaggi, Eduard Vorganov, Paul Voss and Christoph Pfingsten are in the break. Giant Shimano almost alone chasing. MTN - Qhubeka now help a little. Gap around 75 seconds.

 

[Ferminal]

Kelderman uses it as a nice training ride for the Giro, I see.

A test maybe, being active early isn't a bad thing if it splits up behind.

 

[thequestionmark]

Sport+ is now showing the race as well. Here's a live stream: http://www.stream-foot.tv/channel3.html

HR has got worldwide broadcasting rights and produces a live image which other tv channels are allowed to use without paying.