Tour of Britain 2023 (September 3-10)

[Keldergoat]

To be honest the organisers deserve the Dutch Mareczko winning 6 stages for making such a mickey mouse route.

Dutch Mareczko? I get the grumpiness about the route, but Olav Kooij doesn't even closely look like him. Top-10 in Gent-Wevelgem, second in de Panne, was the only one who could follow MvdP at the nationals and can sprint after a fairly hilly route. He can't be blamed for the poor route design and doing his job.

 

[RedheadDane]

Dutch Mareczko? I get the grumpiness about the route, but Olav Kooij doesn't even closely look lik him. Top-10 in Gent-Wevelgem, second in de Panne, was the only one who could follow MvdP at the nationals and can sprint after a fairly hilly route. He can't be blamed for the poor route design and doing his job.

Ilmaestro calls Van Aert "Belgian Pozzato".

 

[ashhutch1997]

Im pretty sure these foreign riders from hotter countries who race in hotter countries across the world will be fine.

This BBC forecast is showing 32 somewhere around Milton Keynes

https://twitter.com/x/status/1699298160663736639

View: https://twitter.com/bbcweather/status/1699298160663736639

Meanwhile, In the Norwegian part of Scotland, it's just 15 degrees Celcius

 

[yaco]

I suspect the peleton have to change their tactics by wearing down Jumbo - You need to get multiple riders in the break and make Jumbo chase and rinse and repeat - There is no point in the peleton being LAZY because Jumbo will pace at the front.

 

[tobydawq]

This is the dumbest race ever. I mean, seriously what the hell?

Fortunately, if Kooij proceeds to clean the next two stages, the organisers probably will realise that this is not ideal, so it might get better next year.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Truth to be told, its barely cycling when you serve up 6 straight sprints

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Is there no bonus seconds in this race? At PCS they all have the same time in GC?

 

[awavey]

Truth to be told, its barely cycling when you serve up 6 straight sprints

How so though? its what the spectating general public who aren't massively into cycling races like, it's what the councils who host the stages like. Is it sweetspots fault that Jumbo Visma have the best lead out riders and a fairly handy sprinter ? whilst none of the other wt teams looked at the stages it seems and brought serious sprint challengers, well Bora kind of did, and it's left to pro conti riders to challenge them.

Fwiw the quotes from the riders I've seen is JV make it look easy but they are having to work hard still for it.

And then GC is all up for grabs going into the last two stages at the weekend.

I think people risk losing the bigger picture by focusing on it negatively.

No it's not a race for the memory, yet, like anyone can remember EBH winning 4 stages on the go either, that doesn't mean it's not fulfilling it's role as a race

 

[Didinho]

So British people die whenever it gets over 30 degrees?

It’s in miles there so you have to time it by 1.6.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Is there no bonus seconds in this race? At PCS they all have the same time in GC?

55 other riders on the same time as the race leader after four stage of the Procession of Britain

 

[awavey]

Is there no bonus seconds in this race? At PCS they all have the same time in GC?

No there aren't, see most editions of the Women's Tour to see how races like this turn out with bonus seconds and why it's probably a sensible idea.

Recent editions of the ToB, though we didn't get to see it finish properly last year, they backend the GC deciding stage to the end. Because we don't have 6 other equally challenging routes to really test people who ride up mountains for a living.

So the rest of the race is really just about getting to the final deciding stage, and trying to do it in a way that suits the people putting the money up for it.

It's not ideal, but the cost to run the race is measured in millions of pounds now, so you are forced to compromise to get the race even on

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Tour of Boring?

 

[Izzyeviel]

Tour of Boring?

No, that was the Giro. the brits have an excuse for having race... the Italians don't.

 

[tobydawq]

How so though? its what the spectating general public who aren't massively into cycling races like, it's what the councils who host the stages like.

No it isn't.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I don't see the logic either. How's a sprinter procession preferable when you can have riders like Van Aert and Pidcock go at it 10-20 km from the finish? Or at the very least do as the Tour of Denmark did and have some decent hills in the final to at least shake it somewhat up and make you wonder if its gonna be a sprint or not.

Havent watched a second of the race so far tbh.

 

[theyoungest]

I don't see the logic either. How's a sprinter procession preferable when you can have riders like Van Aert and Pidcock go at it 10-20 km from the finish? Or at the very least do as the Tour of Denmark did and have some decent hills in the final to at least shake it somewhat up and make you wonder if its gonna be a sprint or not.

Havent watched a second of the race so far tbh.

Haha, well what's the worth of your criticism then?

I don't think it's the course so much as the strength of the Jumbo team, compared to the rest, which has made this race quite predictable. Try getting away from a train of Affini-Van Hooydonck-Van Aert if you're a British continental rider. Adding a few hills might even make it easier for them.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I don't see the logic either. How's a sprinter procession preferable when you can have riders like Van Aert and Pidcock go at it 10-20 km from the finish? Or at the very least do as the Tour of Denmark did and have some decent hills in the final to at least shake it somewhat up and make you wonder if its gonna be a sprint or not.

Havent watched a second of the race so far tbh.

I think awavey has said before about the Women's Tour (which has the same organisers) that a lot of the host towns want to make an event of the race happening in their roads, and so ideally they want pictures they can promote of a big dramatic looking sprint finish in front of major local tourist attractions, monuments etc.. And it's usually towns and cities that are paying for the race, so organising out-of-town hilltop finishes and the likes is far harder than it would be in, say, Spain or France where the sport is long ingrained in the public conscience. The Brits do get some really good crowds, but there's also a lot of curious bystanders who don't really know anything about bike racing but want to support something cool coming to their local community - a mindset that also proliferates among many of the councils paying for the race to come to town - and the thinking is that sprint finishes are more exciting and enticing to those people on the spot than seeing riders coming in in dribs and drabs.

Obviously for the fans watching on the TV, it really doesn't sell the race or the hosts and it makes for a miserable spectacle that really doesn't showcase either the sport at its best or what a bike race in Britain could be. Things had been improving in the mid-2010s, with things like the Burton Dassett HTF, the Tumble and some better stage designs, and possibly also catalysed by competition from the Tour de Yorkshire which, with ASO's backing, was a lot more competent in providing a spectacle for both those watching on the roadside and those watching at home, but in the last few years British races have been getting progressively worse again and ironically enough all the young British talent is now coming through the road or off-road, eschewing the track program and the warm embrace of British cycling and succeeding by going overseas.

 

[Izzyeviel]

That is one sweet bike livery.

 

[awavey]

No it isn't.

I'm afraid it is

 

[awavey]

and the thinking is that sprint finishes are more exciting and enticing to those people on the spot than seeing riders coming in in dribs and drabs

Totally, I've chatted with a councillor at a finish to one of the stages on these Sweetspot races, who had made the decision to fund hosting a stage finish, and all he was interested in was a sprint finish, because to him that was exciting and an event, which could attract tourists to the area and thats why they'd funded it.

He didn't care about the rest of the race, or what the stage meant for the race, or cycling really, it literally was just about him being able to hit the boards at the finish as a mass bunch of riders passed and watch something akin to a horse race basically

 

[RedheadDane]

Pretty sure flying bikes are against the rules!

 

[Axel Hangleck]

"He who pays the piper..."
Without a large title sponsor, the organisers have to go where they're offered most money; one of the media team actually tweeted a response to people complaining about the repetitive route.....

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Yawn a three man break

 

[Izzyeviel]

currently hottest day of the year in the UK. I made the mistake of going out to get something to eat & now i'm glued by my own sweat to the sofa

 

[MartinGT]

"He who pays the piper..."
Without a large title sponsor, the organisers have to go where they're offered most money; one of the media team actually tweeted a response to people complaining about the repetitive route.....

You can still make a decent parcours. That's a lame excuse.