I agree but the best u/23 riders would probably ride the open race anyway.............
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Tomorrow
Showers
15°C-19°C
Wollongong for Friday. Cloudy. Very high chance of showers, most likely in the morning and afternoon. Winds NE 15 to 25 km/h turning N 20 to 30 km/h in the evening.
Chance of Rain
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Amount of Rain
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Showers
15°C-19°C
Wollongong for Friday. Cloudy. Very high chance of showers, most likely in the morning and afternoon. Winds NE 15 to 25 km/h turning N 20 to 30 km/h in the evening.
Chance of Rain
90%
Amount of Rain
1-5mm
Different coloured bib numbers would be a no brainer. Could also apply to national championships that are raced together. Makes it easier for riders, viewers and Rob Hatch..
Really not a fan of guys like the Van Dijke brothers being at the start of the u23 race. I know there's technically nothing wrong with it but 22 year olds that have basically been riding a full Pro schedule with the best WT team in the world for 2 years now shouldn't be at the start of a u23 worlds. Not that they are the only ones (Waerenskjold for example is also a bit meeh, Fabio Vandenbossche riding for Belgium 2 years in a row as a full time pro is also beyond stupid), but they are probably the best out of them. And Kooij is obviously also a full time pro, he's not 22 years old yet, but you shouldn't be riding a u23 race when you have 14(!) pro wins already. Feels dumb. Go sprint against guys like Philipsen, De Lie, Groenewegen, Ewan, etc. in some .1 and .Pro races instead of racing between little kids.
I never get the problem people have with this.
Change the name into something else than U23, and I would probably have a different opinion.
The only slight problem I have is Kooij on the startlist, but he’s unproven on a course like this, and it’s not like those riders have been lighting the world up anyways.
This doesn't make any sense. Why would they do this? U23 and pro riders can have an influence on each others race. They can help each other, drag each other along, not to mention the chaos this creates to find out who is who.
This is the World Championship. This makes the UCI look extremely unprofessional.
Which is equally ridiculous.
Kopecky already said, if I can't win because the best Elite riders rode away from me, I'm going to help Julie De Wilde trying to win U23. How is that even fair?
I have a rather outspoken opinion about this.
I think at this point they should lower the age to U21. First of all, it doesn't make sense to have a potential 4 year gap between contenders when the entire point of this division is to have an age bracket to begin with. Secondly, this might have made sense back in the day when young riders were riding on their fathers instructions with beefsteaks in their pants, and doing a bit of alcohol in their bidons because it was thought to help when it rained or that it was good before doing a sprint. Today not only the science behind training has evolved, the knowledge is also easily shared over the internet. Riders can rely on a bikecomputer giving them info about how hard they are going, how many calories they are burning, the watts they are pushing. Trainers across the world can follow up the progress over Strava and other tools. This is all valuable info that help riders stay within their limits and improve in a focused and scientific way. They don't have to rely on their father's advice and race for 6 years to find out their father's advice was completely wrong. All these tools help them to rely on facts and numbers whereas a decade or two ago, young riders had nothing to rely on and needed to build up their own experience and get to know their own body and its limits in a much less efficient way. It's the reason why so many kids are this good coming out of the juniors recently. But lower the age to u21 and you get a division that makes a lot more sense. You get to eliminate riders winning prestigious races on age difference rather than talent.
But other than that, i am a firm believer that they should not exclude pros from this division. It is an age bracket. There is a full amateur circuit for rider who rather not face pros. They can go race other amateurs if that is what they want. But we are talking about an elite bracket here after all. This is supposed to be the stepping stone towards a pro career, not towards an amateur career. Furthermore, i think by excluding the most talented riders from this bracket, that you are only diluting the pool, and this is not helping the riders in the long run, that you (the people who are in favor of excluding the pro riders) are trying to "protect". I think you get better by facing the best. These riders will have a better understanding of how much they still need to improve. They will be able to race against the best in their age bracket and get a much better understanding of what is waiting for them after turning pro.
What good is it to have Tour de l'Avenir winners who only won because the big talents were not eligible to compete due to having signed a pro contract. You get a race with a lot less prestige. Same for the "world championships". The names on the winners list will increasingly feature future no-names since the best in the division will not compete as they will have signed a pro contract. There is no rewinding the clock or putting the genie back into the bottle. Young riders get to perform to their full potential much sooner (as explained) so the pro teams will start signing them much sooner. This is not going to change back it will only increase. Excluding them and you exclude the best from this age bracket. Then what is the use of it anyway? You get a U23 division filled with riders who will at best have a pro career as a 2nd level domestique, and all the others are ready to join the amateurs. Congratulations, you are the first winner of Tour de l'Avenir, baby Giro and worldchampionship in history, see you next year at the amateur races! Because we all know you only won because the best riders weren't allowed to race. It doesn't help the lesser riders, it's actually insulting in a way. They would otherwise get a much better understanding of their actual talent, get to race future stars, and in turn the races themselves would remain prestigious, would remain a benchmark and be worthy of the attention they get. Who is going to watch a WCC or Avenir filled with 3rd rate riders who next year won't be riding as a pro but rather finishing their college degree to become an accountant or join the family farm. Would you rather look back at this period in your life, having been able to race in the same races as Bernal, Pogacar or Uijtdebroeks, or being among the best in a division nobody cares about filled with amateurs?
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well, the teams can decide. Some U23 riders will end up helping the elite ones, others may get help from them.
There just aren't enough participants for a pure U23 race, and if they still did one, teams would still line up the strong riders for the elite race instead, because there's not much depths in that one either. The only better solution I could think of is doing it at another time of the year.
* * * * * Jan Christen
* * * * Romet Pajur, Emil Herzog
* * * Menno Huising, Vlad Van Mechelen, Mathieu Kockelmann
* * Antonio Morgado, Max van der Meulen, Jorgen Nordhagen, Paul Magnier
* Dario Igor Belletta, Oscar Chamberlain, Artem Shmidt, Pavel Novak, Michael Leonard
This is what I've cooked up for the juniors. It's all based on who I think has the highest chance to win. Pajur getting four stars therefore doesn't mean I think he'll be 2nd or 3rd. In fact, I believe he will not survive Mt. Pleasant. If he does, however, and we're going to a sprint, the race is done and he'll most likely win. In any case, it has been my belief for a while one of these eight will win and fill the podium: Christen, Herzog, Huising or Van der Meulen, Van Mechelen, Kockelmann, Morgado and Nordhagen. Jan Christen gets the 5 stars because he is always at his best at championships. Magnier is the biggest dark horse of the race. He is a mountainbiker with little road experience, but he has been in incredible form. Oscar Chamberlain is Australia's biggest talent in quite some time, but I fear these worlds come just a year too early for him to really have a crack at the title.
* * * * Romet Pajur, Emil Herzog
* * * Menno Huising, Vlad Van Mechelen, Mathieu Kockelmann
* * Antonio Morgado, Max van der Meulen, Jorgen Nordhagen, Paul Magnier
* Dario Igor Belletta, Oscar Chamberlain, Artem Shmidt, Pavel Novak, Michael Leonard
This is what I've cooked up for the juniors. It's all based on who I think has the highest chance to win. Pajur getting four stars therefore doesn't mean I think he'll be 2nd or 3rd. In fact, I believe he will not survive Mt. Pleasant. If he does, however, and we're going to a sprint, the race is done and he'll most likely win. In any case, it has been my belief for a while one of these eight will win and fill the podium: Christen, Herzog, Huising or Van der Meulen, Van Mechelen, Kockelmann, Morgado and Nordhagen. Jan Christen gets the 5 stars because he is always at his best at championships. Magnier is the biggest dark horse of the race. He is a mountainbiker with little road experience, but he has been in incredible form. Oscar Chamberlain is Australia's biggest talent in quite some time, but I fear these worlds come just a year too early for him to really have a crack at the title.
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For those interested, a 17 minute press conference in English with Wout and Remco (video at the bottom):
sporza.be
"Ja, ik wil!": Wout van Aert en Remco Evenepoel spreken trouw aan elkaar uit | sporza
Op een kalme en bij momenten plezante manier hebben de Belgische kopmannen voor de geschreven pers van de hele wereld hun eed gezworen. Komende zondag beloven Wout van Aert en Remco Evenepoel in perfecte symbiose te rijden: voor elkaar, voor België en voor de ploeg. "We zouden dom zijn, mochten...
they did that in the ITT already (white numbers on black, instead of the other way around), so I guess it'll be the case during the road race as well.
No 5-star favourite because I would have to give 5 stars to 3 guys, which is too many.
4-stars: Pogacar, WVA, MVP
3-stars: Evenepoel, Alaphilippe
2-stars: Consnefroy, Matthews, Girmay
1-stars: more guys there, it's a one-day race and a lot of strong guys, who are able to win under some circumstances.
4-stars: Pogacar, WVA, MVP
3-stars: Evenepoel, Alaphilippe
2-stars: Consnefroy, Matthews, Girmay
1-stars: more guys there, it's a one-day race and a lot of strong guys, who are able to win under some circumstances.
Good post, but I'm not a cycling historian so please tell me more about this.
Well, you know what they say about the Mongols, they used to put the meat under their saddle so it would be already tenderized after riding all day long...
Do you realise there are 11 under 23's in the field - Yes, you would get more riders if it's a stand alone event BUT the depth of the field would be lacking.
DNP Old is right about Oscar Chamberlain - He's already a massive 193cm and is a Classics rider of the future - Has been racing in Europe since he was 12 and this year won the juniors E3 Harelbeke - Will ride on for the AGR2 under 19 squad in 2023 - He'll end up in a European WT team.
I didn't know that. How did that happen? There were 50 U23 riders in the time trial.
This list suggest a much higher number of U23.
Youngest competitors | ProCyclingStats
If I'm not mistaken, it's 40, with Le Net being the oldest.
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