There should be a National Stage Race!

[newbiefan]

Wouldn't it be awesome to see National Teams line up to race a stage race! I realize this would be almost impossible to fit on the current racing schedule but think about the amount of press, and speculation that it would generate for cycling worldwide.

So many questions:
Who would the team leaders be,
Who would be on the team,
Who would be the directors,

Who would have he strongest team for a stage race similar to the Tour or Giro if it were national teams. Would Armstrong lead the American team.

So many questions!

 

[David Suro]

If stage racing were an Olympic sport, then it would happen. Fun to think about.

 

[David Suro]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...our-de-France-considering-national-teams.html

 

[blaxland]

the top three teams/nations would be italy,spain and australia,just not in that order....

 

[usedtobefast]

the tour de france has done that in the past.fyi.

 

[rgmerk]

What about at the Olympics?

It occurs to me that you could do this at the Olympics.

Rather than a separate TT and road race, what about:

Day 1: a flat crit around the host city for the sprinters. Great for the spectators too.
Day 2: an ITT.
Day 3: a hilly, long stage, either around a circuit like the Worlds course, or perhaps a mountaintop finish if there's a decent climb not too far from the host city?

Award gold, silver and bronze medals to the stage winners, and an overall winner's medal. Perhaps the overall medal should go to the team, not just the individual?

 

[Ferminal]

There have been some threads/posts about this in the past (have a search, a bit before TdF time), it's a great topic for the imagination.

 

[ak-zaaf]

the top three teams/nations would be italy,spain and australia,just not in that order....

Euh, USA? Russia?

 

[Animal]

The Olympics last a long time. There could be an Olypmic stage race. A one week stage race with time trials, sprints and mountains. Could be very good.

 

[flicker]

National Teams

Really the only way to save the Grand Tours. The trade teams are stacked with well trained specialists,as with Astana, their riders and coaching were unbeatable in the tour.
For the tour we need 4-6 man National squads, they could be A/B etc.
This could make for some interesting racing.
I think that the consequences of positive drug test would have negative national consequences therefore inhibiting the enhancers!

 

[Swingtop]

I would suggest rotating the "National Team Grand Tour" every year, so one year it's the Vuelta, the next it's the Giro and next up is the Tour.

 

[usedtobefast]

nationalism needs to go away.

 

[Boeing]

This sounds like a team sky topic.

 

[Anonymous]

It occurs to me that you could do this at the Olympics.

Rather than a separate TT and road race, what about:

Day 1: a flat crit around the host city for the sprinters. Great for the spectators too.
Day 2: an ITT.
Day 3: a hilly, long stage, either around a circuit like the Worlds course, or perhaps a mountaintop finish if there's a decent climb not too far from the host city?

Award gold, silver and bronze medals to the stage winners, and an overall winner's medal. Perhaps the overall medal should go to the team, not just the individual?

I was thinking the exact same thing when watching the Beijing Olympics!!

Great idea!

It's perfect for the road racers becoz the track guys can compete in 3-4 events, but the roadies (at the moment) only get 1-2.

I would maybe suggest 4 days:

Day 1: Intermediate stage that may make a selection (120km)
Day 2: ITT, at least 40km
Day 3: Difficult hilly stage, that will make a selection, around 200km, hill top finish would be ideal
Day 4: Short 50km Criterium (the glory day for the leaders of the Maillot Olympique)

As you said, I think the leader's jersey/medal is awarded to the whole team. So gold, silver, bronze for the stages. Team Gold, Team Silver, Team Bronze for the overall classification

Also, someone suggested alternative national races between giro/tour/vuelta - love that idea to, but difficult to imagine happening given corporate investment in teams. In another thread, we discussed how to cement the vuelt'a position in the calendar, perhaps they could try a national race once in the future!

 

[rgmerk]

II would maybe suggest 4 days:

Day 1: Intermediate stage that may make a selection (120km)
Day 2: ITT, at least 40km
Day 3: Difficult hilly stage, that will make a selection, around 200km, hill top finish would be ideal
Day 4: Short 50km Criterium (the glory day for the leaders of the Maillot Olympique)

As you said, I think the leader's jersey/medal is awarded to the whole team. So gold, silver, bronze for the stages. Team Gold, Team Silver, Team Bronze for the overall classification

The trouble with this is that at the Olympics you can't award multiple gold medals for the same thing, and it would be difficult to come up with an instantly-digestible way to differentiate between the day 1 and day 3 medal titles.

If you want to make it 4 days, you'd probably have to throw something obviously different like a TTT in there...which as we've discussed from the Tour, has issues. However, if you made it short enough it might be feasible.

The schedule might conceivably be

day 1 15-20 km TTT
day 2 long hilly stage.
day 3 long ITT (40km)
day 4 crit.

 

[Anonymous]

The trouble with this is that at the Olympics you can't award multiple gold medals for the same thing, and it would be difficult to come up with an instantly-digestible way to differentiate between the day 1 and day 3 medal titles.

If you want to make it 4 days, you'd probably have to throw something obviously different like a TTT in there...which as we've discussed from the Tour, has issues. However, if you made it short enough it might be feasible.

The schedule might conceivably be

day 1 15-20 km TTT
day 2 long hilly stage.
day 3 long ITT (40km)
day 4 crit.

good call actually. national TTT in olympics would fit well. 4 medals for 4 different events = perfect!!