Who else thinks the UK can handle a one day race now?

[Captain Sensible]

I was thinking about this yesterday. Until 2003 there was the Manx International, 3 laps of the Isle of Man TT circuit and was UCI 1.5 (equivalent to 1.2 now). They could revive that as it definitely wouldn't suit Cav.

If I remember correctly they held theWorld Road Race there in the 50,s or60,s and Coppi said it was the best circuit he had raced on for the WC ,also I think it was Robert Miller,s last victory on that circuit when he won the British Road Race Championship .
Fantastic circuit unless your a sprinter.

 

[theyoungest]

Lol they can have it.

The real question is how long it will take for that race to become prestigious, if ever.

Yeah, wow, because only prestigious races are interesting...

Both the men and the women racing at the Olympics say they've never seen so many people at a cycling race. Of course, it's the Olympics, people will come out for curling and guinea pig throwing and what have you. But still, the Brits seem to have embraced it.

 

[ElChingon]

Yes, lets let them have a one day race, schedule it in February then as each year its raining or just bad weather they nag the UCI to death and then they reschedule it to a month a GT is going on when the weather is better.

Oh wait that's a conflict with a GT where all the quality racers are...

 

[Cult Classics]

Yes, lets let them have a one day race, schedule it in February then as each year its raining or just bad weather they nag the UCI to death and then they reschedule it to a month a GT is going on when the weather is better.

Oh wait that's a conflict with a GT where all the quality racers are...

Well that made sense... So anyway, I think the best time would be around that Tour of Poland/ENECO Tour time of year. In fact just before the ENECO would work very well - do the race on the Saturday and then those who want to race in Belgium/Holland don't have far to go for Monday. Those who don't want to race the ENECO can sit on the beach and have fish and chips and a stick of rock.

 

[Cult Classics]

I dont think there were many cycling fans at all. The place exploded with laughter when they heard a rider called "jack bauer" existed. I stood for a while with some Belgians who were getting the riders names better than the commentator, but I also stood next to people who asked if Gilbert was any good and listened attentively as 1 older man explained gently that Gilbert won everything last year.

1 group when they saw Duarte off the back said that Colombia were crap at cycling to which their friend replied that he heard a Colombian once rode the Tour de France.

People reading the break off their phones had no idea who any of them was.

On the train, 1 group asked their friend if he had heard of this Uran fella, another was consoling themselves with the fact that no one can climb as good as Wiggo and Froome will easily win next years TDF

Many such stories, bottom line, is I think this was a olympic thing very much. People were talking about what other events they had tickets for and they had tickets for everything. hundreds of thousands bought tickets for the cycling because its the olympics and the tickets were cheap. But I dont think most knew any more about cycling than the people packing the beach volleyball stadium know about beach volleyball.

I was there yesterday too. I do agree that most people there didn't know what was going on, but equally there were some there who did. The fact cycling is a free sport (or in the case of Box Hill, not a free sport but not cost prohibitive either) will always attract people who come along just to see what's going on. You're going to have more novices in the UK just because it's not an established sport, though I'd wager a few of those novices might get into the sport now. And while there are fewer novices at races on the continent, you do still get them - especially at Liege-Bastogne-Liege I've been surrounded by folks with very little clue of what's going on, more interested in the village BBQ than the racing and just coming along cos something is going on where they live or cos they've heard of Philippe Gilbert, and it was similar at the Giro in Amsterdam a few years back. Flanders is probably the only place where everyone's nuts about it. Having a crowd full of keen followers is great, but a crowd along the road at all is much better than the funeral type atmosphere we had for the road race of Beijing 2008, where there were a handful of planted flag wavers at the finish line and other than that just a few armed guards around the course every now and then.

 

[Franklin]

No... the BBC is for sure not ready to handle this

Unless they fly in Dutch/Belgian/French tv crews it will suck no matter how fantastic the route can be made. And I'm not sure if the route can be fantastic

 

[DominicDecoco]

I think they could manage.

If the stage ends on top of London Eye that is.

 

[ultimobici]

No... the BBC is for sure not ready to handle this

Unless they fly in Dutch/Belgian/French tv crews it will suck no matter how fantastic the route can be made. And I'm not sure if the route can be fantastic

Why does the BBC have to be involved at all? ITV have done a fine job with the Tour & the Tour Series of races.

 

[Cult Classics]

Why does the BBC have to be involved at all? ITV have done a fine job with the Tour & the Tour Series of races.

Yeah I'd rather shut the BBC out too. I'm sure when I was a kid the BBC used to be the best coverage for sport in this country... maybe it was or maybe it's just I was a kid and didn't understand. But it's awful now - for practically everything. ITV's often been poor too but they comfortably beat the BBC at Euro 2012 this year, and you'd never have said that 10 years ago.

What happens on the races in Canada/Poland/other countries where they are not used to broadcasting cycling either? Do they get 'experts' in or just do a bad job?

 

[taiwan]

The weather here is such that we could have a spring classic in June.

 

[Caruut]

ITV were terrible for football and do nothing but hire a dreadful Phil and Paul feed for the Tour. ASO might want to set it up - after all they have invested in promoting the sport in the UK by providing a Wiggins-friendly parcours.

 

[taiwan]

Let's see a 1.1 race on this parcours every year. The riders make the race.

Could they cordon off enough of London every year? Might be better to have it somewhere that would benefit more economically...

 

[Izzy eviel]

If London does have a race, I do hope it's around Hampstead Heath. Lots of short steep stuff.

 

[Captain Sensible]

Never mind the BBC or ITV , Sky will do the tv rights to it .

 

[rgmerk]

How could it possibly not be a great thing for Britain to have its own high-profile one-day race? A populous and prosperous country with an economy that, while not super-healthy, isn't in the toilet in quite the same way as Italy and Spain, and easy and cheap for the teams to get to so you get a good field. What's not to like?

No, you wouldn't get the same crowds as you get at an Olympic road race, but you'd get good crowds.

However, I don't think finishing at Buckingham Palace every year is practical; Londoners might tolerate roads being closed for a special occasion, but every year?

I don't know Greater London well enough to suggest a route, but surely it's not impossible to find a course that's a) relatively easy for spectators to get to, b) has some feature selective element or elements, c) looks good on television, and and d) doesn't require half of central London to be shut down.

 

[Swifty's Cakes]

BBC were not providing the pictures yesterday just the commentary, all TV companies take a feed from the Olympic Broadcaster. Hard to talk knowledgably when there is no info at all about the time gap.

Any Race that finished in London with 8 man teams and radios would not be remotely selective. Something like Manchester to Sheffield via the Peak District and Staffordshire Moorland would deliver a nice selective race and would have a big city start and finish. The peloton going up Winnats Pass would be great to see.
Of course there are loads of other hilly routes around Snowdonia, The Lake District, and North Yorkshire in the North but less likely to get commercial backing in those rural places

 

[Froome19]

If London does have a race, I do hope it's around Hampstead Heath. Lots of short steep stuff.

+100000

I ride there a lot and it would be an absolutely brilliant course, though there would be issues with footpaths etc, but the terrain would be perfect if the aim was an ardennes type of race which imo is the only style which would possibly result in a successful race.

There are two roads in particular just coming up to the Heath which would be perfect for a Mur style finish.

Though originally the ORR was supposed to go around the heath, yet it then got changed due to it being too easy, it seemed like the organisers in their infinite stupidity did not bother to utilise the proper terrain in the area.

 

[Caruut]

How could it possibly not be a great thing for Britain to have its own high-profile one-day race? A populous and prosperous country with an economy that, while not super-healthy, isn't in the toilet in quite the same way as Italy and Spain, and easy and cheap for the teams to get to so you get a good field. What's not to like?

No, you wouldn't get the same crowds as you get at an Olympic road race, but you'd get good crowds.

However, I don't think finishing at Buckingham Palace every year is practical; Londoners might tolerate roads being closed for a special occasion, but every year?

I don't know Greater London well enough to suggest a route, but surely it's not impossible to find a course that's a) relatively easy for spectators to get to, b) has some feature selective element or elements, c) looks good on television, and and d) doesn't require half of central London to be shut down.

North London is good. Connected well enough to major stations in London, has lots of short sharp hills and is by definition not Central London. Hampstead looks nice on TV too.

 

[Pippo_San]

A populous and prosperous country with an economy that, while not super-healthy, isn't in the toilet in quite the same way as Italy and Spain, and easy and cheap for the teams to get to so you get a good field.

Actually you just gave me another reason to think Italian and Spanish classics should have more coverage and success.

 

[ultimobici]

+100000

I ride there a lot and it would be an absolutely brilliant course, though there would be issues with footpaths etc, but the terrain would be perfect if the aim was an ardennes type of race which imo is the only style which would possibly result in a successful race.

There are two roads in particular just coming up to the Heath which would be perfect for a Mur style finish.

Though originally the ORR was supposed to go around the heath, yet it then got changed due to it being too easy, it seemed like the organisers in their infinite stupidity did not bother to utilise the proper terrain in the area.

The problem with Hampstead & Highgate is that all of that area is quite densely populated and road closures that would be accepted in Belgium or Italy would irritate the NIMBY brigade.

A variation of the Brighton course of the Wincanton Classic of 1990 would work better and provide far more challenging terrain. The crowds we saw in 1990, 94 & 2007 as well as this weekend are proof that it is viable, IMO.

 

[cabbagetom]

This reminds me of that race London was supposed to have which "we hope in 5 years will be as big as Paris Roubaix"

This reminds me of people who said Britain could have a Tour winner within 5 years...how deluded were they?

 

[Parrulo]

This reminds me of people who said Britain could have a Tour winner within 5 years...how deluded were they?

way to miss the point, good job. do you even know what paris roubaix is without having to use wikipedia?

GB is reminding me a lot of the Aussies last year, they had a brilliant 2011 with a tour winner, a monument win, several medals at the worlds, and many stage races wins so they thought they were at the top of the world and were the new dominant nation in cycling. looking at them this season far from an unsuccessful season with a MSR win just like last year, but nowhere near last years level mostly because on rider is underperforming.

same could happen very easily with wiggins next season.

besides it is obvious to any1 with half a brain that at the end of the day on the long run Belgium, Italy and spain will still dominating while the aussies and the british could be praying to the gods for another Generation like this one.

 

[Froome19]

besides it is obvious to any1 with half a brain that at the end of the day on the long run Belgium, Italy and spain will still dominating while the aussies and the british could be praying to the gods for another Generation like this one.

Maybe this is a fluke, but is it not more likely that it is the start of the "Anglos"
becoming more influential and developing into fully accredited nations in Professional cycling?

 

[Froome19]

The problem with Hampstead & Highgate is that all of that area is quite densely populated and road closures that would be accepted in Belgium or Italy would irritate the NIMBY brigade.

A variation of the Brighton course of the Wincanton Classic of 1990 would work better and provide far more challenging terrain. The crowds we saw in 1990, 94 & 2007 as well as this weekend are proof that it is viable, IMO.

Agreed, the bulk of the race if not effectively the entire thing would have to be raced outside London especially as there is some good terrain there.

Though a finish in North London would not be all to unrealistic, if they took a direct route cutting straight across.

 

[Parrulo]

Maybe this is a fluke, but is it not more likely that it is the start of the "Anglos"
becoming more influential and developing into fully accredited nations in Professional cycling?

it is also possible but how many times before have the anglos started "becoming more influential and developing into fully accredited nations in Professional cycling" only for things to go back to normal a couple seasons later.

ofc they won't vanish from the map and have no results, saying that is just stupid, but most likely they will have a few tip top riders and domestiques(much like they do now) but won't truly dominate the sport like the big 3 do.

just look at the italian, belgium and spanish u23 scene and name me an anglo country with clearly more signs of u23 super talent then them.