ToB in top 10 stage races in the world?

[Mellow Velo]

As the lists show, the top 10 pretty much pick themselves.
Although a case could be made against Romandie, in it's recent format.
It's become a dud.
I'd plump for Poland, subject to regular visits to the Dolomites.

 

[roundabout]

What the truck? 3 Tour winners winning the last 3 editions of Romandie should say enough about the status of the race.

OT: the junior Peace Race is climbing the Praděd this year. Maybe TdP should consider it sometime in the future as well. But probably not all the way to the hotel.

 

[SKSemtex]

Well, I'm polish and I didn't hear anything about it either

Though I was on holiday with no internet access and when I got it back it was 3 weeks later and the vuelta was on.

But last year the tdp was a disgrace with 2 stages in Italy. 2009-11 it was a very good little race and will get back to that this year I think.

But if we are talking locally entrenched, tdp is bigger in Poland than I think most non gt wt races are in their countries. Pretty much all those other countries hold far bigger events in other sports. In Poland Tour de Pologne is the only real world level sporting event. It's a big deal to have top tier athletes come, even if you don't know any of them, if it's the only time all year it happens.

There were some information that one of the stage should go through Slovakia, which is great, however looking on their homepage, there is no official rate route and stage profiles yet.
Unfortuantely Sagan has to take his "american PR tour" so there is no chance to see him here. I would prefer him to race this one, Eneco and Vueltu as a preparation for WC rather than Colorado and Alberta

 

[Pricey_sky]

Poland is a strange one in that it's current WT iteration is fairly young but the race is enormously old and historic, it's just undergone a radical alteration fairly recently which means a lot of that history is often overlooked when discussing the race.

I like this year's course. I wasn't so keen on last year's. I understand having the race mostly in the south for the hills, but crossing borders in a one-week race is fine only up to a point. In a GT, the distant beginnings (Giro in Denmark, Vuelta in the Netherlands, Tour in Rotterdam etc.) aren't such a problem as even if they have the long transfer (not always needed e.g. Tour in Benelux or UK) they have rest days available and still the scope to have 90% of the race in the host country. But for shorter races, really going that far off-piste is a bit much. If the Tour de Pologne wanted to go into Slovakia like this year, or the Czech Republic to climb, Idunno, Lysá Hora or Zlaté Navrší (actually, I'd mark out like a little girl if they did the latter, especially if they went via the climb to the biathlon course at Jakuszyce out of Poland into CZE and then via Rezek to the base of the final climb), that would be no problem. Even if they went right into the southeast and went for an MTF in the Ukraine on Uzhok Pass, then fine, but all the way to Italy is just unnecessary. I want the Karpacz stage back, too!

Off topic now of course, so back to the ToB. No it isn't within the top 10 stage races in the world. It shouldn't pretend to be. It's fast rising, the courses are no doubt getting better, and it's nice that it's less repetitive as more places seek to involve themselves in cycling, and the lineups for the teams are getting better and justifying the increase in status (though it may be disappointing for some teams like An Post).

There is so much potential in the Tour of Britain that it could feasibly make itself a much more important race; but even with the Milk Race background it can't compete with many races for history to get prestige that way, and there's a long way to go before the fan interest is enough to compete with, say, País Vasco. In order to get prestige without the history they've got to make it so that it is a real bright spot on people's palmarès, which right now, save for perhaps the Britons, it isn't. Therefore, it needs to be a real hard race. There is the scope to make this the stage race par excellence for Classics riders, using some of the great cobbled climbs and Ardennes-like hills that Britain has to offer. That's the way I'd like to see them take it and that could give it a real prestige. It could become a genuine spot of interest with regards to training for the Worlds with several of the world's best Classics riders showing up, and yet the course could still be varied, it wouldn't end up like the Danmark Rundt where everybody knows the all important stage is the Vejle one, or Dunkerque where it's all about Mont Cassel (even if that stage is invariably great).

Completely agree Libertine, there is so much potential for some great 'classic' style stages around Britain and that is the way I hope the race goes in the future. One problem at the moment though, unlike in France and other countries there are some places they can't go as local councils ect need to agree to have the race go through it. I suppose as the race grows more will come on board. I'm happy with how the race has expanded recently and now they are putting in a 'MTF' and TT every year it adds to a better race.

 

[SirLes]

It's interesting to that the ToC is dismissed so quickly. I agree it lacks the history of other races but it seems to be generating more publicity than other races. Or maybe that is just because of the English language connection that means I am more aware of it.
(Also apologies for forgetting a couple of obvious races in my first post should have thought more carefully before posting!)

I suppose what gives a race its standing is at the core of this. With many new markets being opened up and certain races very powerfully backed the ranking won't stand still. Add in the UCI using the race category system for political and financial gain and the waters are muddied further.

Beyond a very small number of very big events I think the race standing is now starting to depend more and more on what nationality you are or your team sponsor is. Back in the day when almost every team and rider was from the same few countries that also staged the races that reduced that part of the argument.. Maybe about the order of importance but not which races were the most important.

 

[eagleofditchling]

Reading the info on the Tour of Britain one of the organisers describes it as one of the top 10 stage races.



What do we think.

April fool?

 

[42x16ss]

Get B1 and B2 doing the commentary and it can be #2 behind the Tour, although that title rotates depending on the month.

I thought that was the TDU, or is it the ToC? Or is the ToC the 4th GT? I get P & P's BS mixed up too often...

Anywho, calling ToB one of the world's top 10 stage races ATM is ridiculous. Netserk and The Hitch have the pecking order about right IMO.

Maybe if the ToB continues to get more creative with routes and stage design (mini L-B-L stages, echelons along the coast, maybe some stretches of larger green roads (if possible, I don't know how feasible this is) or some old country cobbles) then it has a very real chance of moving up.