UCI WorldTour 2017

[Cannibal72]

(nods, feel free to delete if not deemed worthy of separate topic.)

UCI WorldTour calendar 2017:

2017 UCI WorldTour calendar

New events

- 29 January: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (Australia)
- 6-10 February: Tour of Qatar (Qatar)
- 23-26 February: Abu Dhabi Tour (United Arab Emirates)
- 25 February: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium)
- 4 March: Strade Bianche (Italy)
- 22 March: Dwars Door Vlaanderen / A travers la Flandre (Belgium)
- 18-23 April: Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (Turkey)
- 1 May: Eschborn-Frankfurt « Rund um den Finanzplatz » (Germany)
- 14-21 May: Amgen Tour of California (United States)
- 30 July: Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic (Great Britain)

Current UCI WorldTour events

- 17-22 January: Santos Tour Down Under (Australia)
- 5-12 March: Paris-Nice (France)
- 8-14 March: Tirreno-Adriatico (Italy)
- 18 March: Milano-Sanremo (Italy)
- 20-26 March: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Spain)
- 24 March: Record Bank E3 Harelbeke (Belgium)
- 26 March: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
- 2 April: Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres (Belgium)
- 3-8 April: Vuelta al País Vasco (Spain)
- 9 April: Paris-Roubaix (France)
- 16 April: Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands)
- 19 April: La Flèche Wallonne (Belgium)
- 23 April: Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Belgium)
- 25-30 April: Tour de Romandie (Switzerland)
- 6-28 May: Giro d’Italia (Italy)
- 4-11 June: Critérium du Dauphiné (France)
- 10-18 June: Tour de Suisse (Switzerland)
- 1-23 July: Tour de France (France)
- 29 July: Clásica Ciclista San Sebastian (Spain)
- 29 July-4 August: Tour de Pologne (Poland)
- 7-13 August: Eneco Tour (Benelux)
- 19 August-10 September: Vuelta a España (Spain)
- 20 August: Cyclassics Hamburg (Germany)
- 27 August: Bretagne Classic – Ouest-France (France)
- 8 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec (Canada)
- 10 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (Canada)
- 30 September: Il Lombardia (Italy)

Evans Road Race: Can't see how this can be WT.
Qatar: Bit of a joke for a WT event.
Abu Dhabi: Definitely a joke of a WT event.
Omloop: always should have been WT.
Strade Bianche: fair enough.
Dears door Vlaanderen: a reasonable choice, although I'm not sure it deserves WT status.
Tour of Turkey: cycling-wise, OK. Timing of announcement-wise, not so good.
Eschborn-Frankfurt: it's nice to have a WT race in Germany which doesn't include the word 'Cyclassics', and I think this race has prestige and potential to be worthwhile.
Tour of California: I can see the argument for this, and I think it's sensible. Even so, I'm slightly worried it will reduce prestige of Giro yet further.
RideLondon-Surrey Classic: has no place in the sport's highest tier.

I think these reforms are for the worse. The idea of the WT is now a mess. Before, it was an exclusive tier for the very best events in cycling (and Vattenfall Cyclassics); now, it's been diluted so much as to become meaningless. But it doesn't even work as a less exclusive league, containing all the sport's major events, because it's still missing Paris-Tours and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

Thoughts?

 

[hrotha]

The good news is if they keep expanding it like this it will make the whole thing even more meaningless. Can't have everything be part of your super elite private group of fancy races, ya know?

 

[Samamba]

It has obviously to do with money, money, money... for some of these races.

 

[Cannibal72]

Re:

The good news is if they keep expanding it like this it will make the whole thing even more meaningless. Can't have everything be part of your super elite private group of fancy races, ya know?

It has obviously to do with money, money, money... for some of this races.

Such cynicism! Have either of you even watched the prestigious and historic 1-year-old Abu Dhabi Tour? The racing! The field! The oil!

 

[Anderis]

Turkey would be better in 2nd part of the year IMO. I don't like the fact that climbers have so limited WT options after Tour de France if they don't go to the Vuelta. And there are so many one-week races for them between March and June.

 

[luckyboy]

Minimum of ten WorldTour teams will have to compete in these races btw


http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/professional-cycling-council-agrees-next-steps-the-reform-and-approves-207-uci-worldtour-calendar/

As of 2017 season, all existing UCI WordTour events will have all UCI WorldTeams participating and for new UCI WorldTour events, participation rules which will ensure that a minimum of 10 UCI WorldTeams take part will be proposed by the UCI for approval at the next meeting of the PCC.

 

[Netserk]

Hopefully, they will continue the expansion the year after as well. Whatever it takes to make the WT collapse, I'll accept. A real shame though that ASO ended up not pulling its races.

 

[roundabout]

seems a bit weird to have London where it is in the calendar. would probably require 24 riders for a team to field a full squad in San Sebastian, London and Poland.

 

[luckyboy]

They should add some events later in the season to balance this calendar, like Milano-Torino or the Arctic Race. Tour of Britain deserves it a lot more than RideLondon, though making it WT would expel the British Conti teams. Or keep Abu Dhabi late in the season if it must be WT...

Strade Bianche and Omloop are good moves anyway. DDV doesn't deserve it but it's better than the other races at least.

 

[Pentacycle]

Re:

Hopefully, they will continue the expansion the year after as well. Whatever it takes to make the WT collapse, I'll accept. A real shame though that ASO ended up not pulling its races.

Let's hope the mediteranean cycling scene in feb-mar is not extinct by the time the WT has become obsolete.

 

[Gigs_98]

Where is the point of having a WT if every shitty race is part of it. Qatar, okay they have money and the racing can at least be decent; Strade and Omloop, great additions since both are very prestigious races; California, also no problem because I see they want a WT race in the US; I'm not even complaining about London Surrey classic since Britain absolutely deserves a WT event due to their big cycling hype.

But besides that:
-Cadel Evans race? WTF, how did they even get that idea.
-Abu Dhabi isn't really surprising but thats the most boring race of the season
-Dwars Door Vlaanderen, would be okay but there are 4 more cobbles races with an extremely similar route in Belgium which are also WT and that is already almost too much.
-Tour of Turkey? Great idea to bring the WT into democratic countries to help them to move forward...oh wait
-Eschborn Frankfurt, would also be okay for me if they would remove the Cyclassic instead

Moreover that rule with 10 WT teams is complete bs. The point of a WT event is to have the best of the best fighting against each other and a guaranteed good field. Just that some ET events already had more than 10 WT teams so the competition won't get any better, but some people will now think to win those races is now suddenly worth more

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

Hopefully, they will continue the expansion the year after as well. Whatever it takes to make the WT collapse, I'll accept. A real shame though that ASO ended up not pulling its races.

Let's hope the mediteranean cycling scene in feb-mar is not extinct by the time the WT has become obsolete.

yep. to name a few:

Marseillaise, Challenge Mallorca, Besseges, Tour Med, Laigueglia, Valenciana, Andalucia, Murcia, Algarve, Haut-Var, Tour de Provence.

hard to fight against the oil money

 

[El Pistolero]

Tour of Turkey should be cancelled now that Erdogan has become dictator. And Cadel Evans Road Race is WT over Paris-Tours? What a farce.. I'm sorry but the only new races on this list that I'll take seriously are Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen...

 

[Samamba]

Re:

Minimum of ten WorldTour teams will have to compete in these races btw


http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/professional-cycling-council-agrees-next-steps-the-reform-and-approves-207-uci-worldtour-calendar/

As of 2017 season, all existing UCI WordTour events will have all UCI WorldTeams participating and for new UCI WorldTour events, participation rules which will ensure that a minimum of 10 UCI WorldTeams take part will be proposed by the UCI for approval at the next meeting of the PCC.

How are they gonna arrange that? How are they gonna find 10 WT teams that want to start in f*cking Turkey?

 

[Cannibal72]

Re: Re:

Minimum of ten WorldTour teams will have to compete in these races btw


http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/professional-cycling-council-agrees-next-steps-the-reform-and-approves-207-uci-worldtour-calendar/

As of 2017 season, all existing UCI WordTour events will have all UCI WorldTeams participating and for new UCI WorldTour events, participation rules which will ensure that a minimum of 10 UCI WorldTeams take part will be proposed by the UCI for approval at the next meeting of the PCC.

How are they gonna arrange that? How are they gonna find 10 WT teams that want to start in f*cking Turkey?

The press coverage for the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey would be excellent, at least. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/30/turkey-journalists-arrest-nation-shock-coup

 

[pastronef]

- 6-10 February: Tour of Qatar (Qatar)
- 23-26 February: Abu Dhabi Tour (United Arab Emirates)

will Dubai Tour slot between the 2 races?

is Tour of Oman cancelled for 2017?

 

[Cannibal72]

- 6-10 February: Tour of Qatar (Qatar)
- 23-26 February: Abu Dhabi Tour (United Arab Emirates)

will Dubai Tour slot between the 2 races?

is Tour of Oman cancelled for 2017?

Apparently they're struggling for funding, but it shouldn't be.

Edit: http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/02/news/tours-of-qatar-oman-likely-to-continue-in-2017-and-beyond_396197

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Wait... What?

 

[Alexandre B.]

Why is UCI promoting Velon's race in F1 circuit and no public instead of cycling?

 

[luckyboy]

Re: Re:

Minimum of ten WorldTour teams will have to compete in these races btw


http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/professional-cycling-council-agrees-next-steps-the-reform-and-approves-207-uci-worldtour-calendar/

As of 2017 season, all existing UCI WordTour events will have all UCI WorldTeams participating and for new UCI WorldTour events, participation rules which will ensure that a minimum of 10 UCI WorldTeams take part will be proposed by the UCI for approval at the next meeting of the PCC.

How are they gonna arrange that? How are they gonna find 10 WT teams that want to start in f*cking Turkey?

Who knows? AIGCP weren't keen on the 10 team minimum when UCI announced it either

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

Tour of Turkey should be cancelled now that Erdogan has become dictator. And Cadel Evans Road Race is WT over Paris-Tours? What a farce.. I'm sorry but the only new races on this list that I'll take seriously are Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen...

While I don't think it should be in the top tier the Cuddles RR might have gotten the upgrade thanks to a request from the teams, they are traveling all that way for the TDU and might of wanted another WT race to compete in while in Australia

 

[trevim]

- 29 January: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (Australia)
- 6-10 February: Tour of Qatar (Qatar)
- 23-26 February: Abu Dhabi Tour (United Arab Emirates)
- 25 February: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium)
- 4 March: Strade Bianche (Italy)
- 22 March: Dwars Door Vlaanderen / A travers la Flandre (Belgium)
- 18-23 April: Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (Turkey)
- 1 May: Eschborn-Frankfurt « Rund um den Finanzplatz » (Germany)
- 14-21 May: Amgen Tour of California (United States)
- 30 July: Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic (Great Britain)


The bolded races must be a sick joke from the UCI, nobody cares for that crap.

It's a comedy that races like Paris-Tours, Giro d' Emillia, Tre Valli Varesine, Milano-Torino, Giro del Piemonte or Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne are out out the supposed big league of races. Even Bro Leon deserves to be in the WT ahead of those stupid races held only to satisfy big money oil dictators and the UCI anglo lobbies.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Tour de Yorkshire and Tour of Great Britain are also races with more appeal to the cycling fan than Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic but, hey, it's not Velon.

 

[hrotha]

California and Turkey are fine races, even if somewhat devalued the last few years. If nothing else, they've been many seasons building up and paying their dues in the Pro Conti calendar, so it's unfair to put them in the same league as those other super new races.

 

[burning]

- 29 January: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (Australia)
- 6-10 February: Tour of Qatar (Qatar)
- 23-26 February: Abu Dhabi Tour (United Arab Emirates)
- 25 February: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium)
- 4 March: Strade Bianche (Italy)
- 22 March: Dwars Door Vlaanderen / A travers la Flandre (Belgium)
- 18-23 April: Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (Turkey)
- 1 May: Eschborn-Frankfurt « Rund um den Finanzplatz » (Germany)
- 14-21 May: Amgen Tour of California (United States)
- 30 July: Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic (Great Britain)


The bolded races must be a sick joke from the UCI, nobody cares for that crap.

It's a comedy that races like Paris-Tours, Giro d' Emillia, Tre Valli Varesine, Milano-Torino, Giro del Piemonte or Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne are out out the supposed big league of races. Even Bro Leon deserves to be in the WT ahead of those stupid races held only to satisfy big money oil dictators and the UCI anglo lobbies.

I really think that Qatar is not a joke promotion in bolded as the field in this race is usually really good. The rest of them has no place in WT when there is races like Paris-Tours, Strade Bianche and Tre Valli Varesine in HC level.