Which stage race's are most important? (not GT's)

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Paris - Nice is for stage races what MSR is for one day races - the real start of the season.

Of all the races mentioned P-N is the only one with a longstanding structure: start in Paris' suburbs, two to three (cross-)windy stages in central France, short trips into the Massif Central or High Provence, Promenade des Anglais, Col d'Èze.

Is there any remarkable focal point in Tirreno, Catalunya or even Eneco? Just by including dozens of silly 20% climbs into one stages doesn't make T-A a prestigious race. It's not. It had a long time reputation of having bad roads, bad hotels and bad weather. I don't think that this has changed significantly.

Catalunya changed its position in the calendar far too often to be recognized at all. It's now - for me - prestigewise in the same category as the defunct Setmana Catalana.

Suisse has always been the fourth GT for me, but racing there lacked that extra bit of excitement in the last years. And they made this ridiculous Cancellara course some years ago. So it fell even behind P-N for me.

Dauphiné is a great race, no doubt. It's just too close to the Tour for being raced properly.

No need to discuss Down Under, Poland, California or Eneco. They are minor races.

 

[Opalius]

snip

Nice work. Very interesting. Seems to confirm what most people have been saying.

 

[happytramp]

Nice work. Very interesting. Seems to confirm what most people have been saying.

It does seem to confirm that high level of interest in T-A from both riders and fans (it's leading the poll) is a relatively new thing.

 

[ElChingon]

They are all the same, sure one year you'll get a very good race out of one of them but overall, they're all the same. Same as in only a select few will peek for it and actually race it, other times contenders go to train before the Classics or GT. Its not like you ever get all the contenders there to win, but its a nice show.

 

[wwabbit]

It does seem to confirm that high level of interest in T-A from both riders and fans (it's leading the poll) is a relatively new thing.

I suspect that many people would be saying that T-A was boring and unimportant if Froome had won it...

Picking just the top 5 is just an arbitrary thing. T-A would have rank quite a lot higher if I had counted top 6, since Joaguim Rodriguez was 6th in 2012.

 

[Netserk]

I suspect that many people would be saying that T-A was boring and unimportant if Froome had won it...

Picking just the top 5 is just an arbitrary thing. T-A would have rank quite a lot higher if I had counted top 6, since Joaguim Rodriguez was 6th in 2012.

 

[greenedge]

T-A is the best one- for the poll question
Then
Pais Vasco
Dauphinie
Suisse
PN

Oman and Burgos- should be on here too.
The most important one is Dauphinie- to answer the thread Q.

 

[The Hitch]

I had some time on hand so I compiled a list of all the top 5 GC riders (from WT teams) for each 2012 World Tour stage race, and added up the 2012 World Tour points total scored by each of these riders for each of the stage race. The idea is to test the hypothesis that important stage races are attended by better riders, and better riders score more WT points.

So here are the results:

Criterium du Dauphine = 1590
Vuelta al Pais Vasco = 1573
Tour de Romandie = 1342
Paris - Nice = 1338
Volta a Catalunya = 1147
Tour down Under = 1116
Tirreno - Adriatico = 922
Tour of Beijing = 837
Eneco Tour = 767
Tour de Suisse = 716
Tour de Pologne = 638

Due to the Olympics tdp took place during the tour de France last year. So it's score on this method for 2012 is significantly lower than it will be 75% of the time. Edit in fact maybe even more considering next Olympics start 2 weeks after the tour. Though due to jet lag maybe tdp won't fit in there, either.

 

[cineteq]

The most important is Dauphiné on paper.
The bests in the last few years T-A, P-N and Pais Vasco.
Voted Pais Vasco.

 

[Ferminal]

I suspect that many people would be saying that T-A was boring and unimportant if Froome had won it...

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=16711

 

[The Hitch]

Paris - Nice is for stage races what MSR is for one day races - the real start of the season.

Of all the races mentioned P-N is the only one with a longstanding structure: start in Paris' suburbs, two to three (cross-)windy stages in central France, short trips into the Massif Central or High Provence, Promenade des Anglais, Col d'Èze.

Is there any remarkable focal point in Tirreno, Catalunya or even Eneco? Just by including dozens of silly 20% climbs into one stages doesn't make T-A a prestigious race. It's not. It had a long time reputation of having bad roads, bad hotels and bad weather. I don't think that this has changed significantly.

Catalunya changed its position in the calendar far too often to be recognized at all. It's now - for me - prestigewise in the same category as the defunct Setmana Catalana.

Suisse has always been the fourth GT for me, but racing there lacked that extra bit of excitement in the last years. And they made this ridiculous Cancellara course some years ago. So it fell even behind P-N for me.

Dauphiné is a great race, no doubt. It's just too close to the Tour for being raced properly.

No need to discuss Down Under, Poland, California or Eneco. They are minor races.

funny how you threw an 85 year old race in with 3 races created in the last few years.

 

[jens_attacks]

The most important is Dauphiné on paper.
The bests in the last few years T-A, P-N and Pais Vasco.
Voted Pais Vasco.

no it's not. it's paris-nice with the history and all of that. on paper

for me, itzulia

 

[Descender]

I used to like Tirreno back when it had some personality. Now it's just another big one-week race.

 

[will10]

Paris Nice, Tirreno or the Dauphine. Changes year on year, really.

 

[Afrank]

TA, since it's become my favorite; and Pais vasco in 2nd, PN 3rd.

 

[the asian]

Tierriano Adriatico, without a doubt.

Like CQs new ranking system which gives T/A, P-N, Dauphine, Suisse and Pais Vasco a higher ranking than other stage races.
Would prefer if the UCI follow suit.

 

[iZnoGouD]

They're all about the same

 

[BlenJones2]

I think from the first stage today we can safely so Not Giro del Trentino.

 

[wwabbit]

I think from the first stage today we can safely so Not Giro del Trentino.

Trentino is a 2.HC race, we are only looking at 2.WT races

 

[kingjr]

misleading title, there's a difference between "best" and "most important".