Why no mountain classics?

[William H]

How that makes a mountainous one day race different from a hilly one completely escapes me. Tactical battles can't take place in a mountainous one day race?

Tactics are less important on a mountainous course, because the difficulty of the course places the emphasis on sheer strength.

Though if you kept to some of the less challenging climbs and avoided a mountain top finish, that might work OK.

But the other point is that you get great mountain racing in stage races - and the climbers get their glory by finishing up high in the classification - so what are you gaining by adding one day races?

 

[cineteq]

Tactics are less important on a mountainous course, because the difficulty of the course places the emphasis on sheer strength.

Though if you kept to some of the less challenging climbs and avoided a mountain top finish, that might work OK.

But the other point is that you get great mountain racing in stage races - and the climbers get their glory by finishing up high in the classification - so what are you gaining by adding one day races?

Excellent point +1

 

[Escarabajo]

I liked Classique des Alpes.

What really happened to it? what was the problem?

 

[ultimobici]

On the calendar, there are flat classics, cobbled classics, hilly classics. Grand Tours and one day races feature flat, hilly, mountainous, and the occasional cobbled or dirt stage.

So why aren't there any mountain one-day races of note? I know we've got San Sebastian and Lombardy, which get close, but a race with a long climb or two would have a chance of dropping the puncheurs like Gilbert if they're not on absolutely top form. Nothing against Gilbert - he's great to watch - but variety is the spice of life.

Obviously, they can't happen in the spring because of the weather, nor in July because of the Tour. But surely there would be room somewhere in the calendar for one, and surely there must be somewhere in Europe where you could conveniently stage such a race (to wit, near a decent-size city with climbs).

There is. Lombardia is based in a mountainous area with climbs that range from 4km to 10km with average gradients of 10%. If you have only seen the race on TV it may look like a less than challenging course but San Fedele d'Intelvi is a 10km climb to 700m with 12% ramps at the beginining and end, Civiglio is 6km at 8%, Ghisallo is 9km at 10& average but there is a 1km section of around 14%. Sormano is similarly steep & not much shorter.

Your wish for an epic course using roads like you see in the Hautes Alpes is not practical as they are all in the back end of beyond. The Classique des Alpes was an attempt to do this but failed probably for this reason.

 

[staubsauger]

they should make a mountain classic from the plan de corones mtt to crone king of corones every year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

will that do you?

Though you couldn't necessarily put many towns on top of mountains and thus it would be difficult to do it that way, if it WAS a mountaintop finish you could bet your bottom dollar it would be a 'down to the final climb' kind of race, like the Mur de Huy but with probably less suspense once the status quo is set. In this respect, various short stage races that are designed to keep people close before the deciding mountain stage are probably close to mountain classics (Vuelta a Burgos, for example, would be one, with gaps between GC candidates seldom more than 45 seconds before they hit Lagunas de Neila). Or alternatively, given that the ITT is so short, the climb to the Col d'Ospedale in the Critérium International is more or less a mountain classic at the moment.

Of course, nobody said a classic had to finish on a mountain, and certainly the 250+km of the 2009 Giro stage to Pinerolo would make for an excellent Classic (of course the Tour saw the closing stages used):

As would stage 9 of the 2008 Tour:

 

[El Pistolero]

they should make a mountain classic from the plan de corones mtt to crone king of corones every year.

A mountain time trial classic would actually be a pretty good idea

 

[William H]

It's not really a mountain classic, but if you want a one day race with a good chance for the pure climbers, there's the Giro dell'Emilia. Recent winners include Gesink twice, Simoni, Basso and Frank Schleck.

 

[hrotha]

You'd think the Trophée des Grimpeurs would be something like this, but looking at the palmares it's like, what grimpeurs?

 

[El Pistolero]

It's not really a mountain classic, but if you want a one day race with a good chance for the pure climbers, there's the Giro dell'Emilia. Recent winners include Gesink twice, Simoni, Basso and Frank Schleck.

Meh, I can see Gilbert winning there and he's not a climber. Definitely one of the tougher one day races out there though and should be added to the World Tour to spicen things up a little.

 

[roundabout]

You'd think the Trophée des Grimpeurs would be something like this, but looking at the palmares it's like, what grimpeurs?

Misleading advertising. But it was a fun race in it's own way even in a Paris suburb.

 

[El Pistolero]

You'd think the Trophée des Grimpeurs would be something like this, but looking at the palmares it's like, what grimpeurs?

The final winner got fourth this Tour

 

[Hairy Wheels]

Subida a Urkiola (sp)...they still have that race? The winners list back in the 80's/90's was pretty much all climbers as I recall...Hampsten won 3 or 4 times.

 

[online-rider]

Wasn't the GP of Zurich a fairly mountainous classic circa 2001 2004. Ullrich, Frigo ..etc

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Wasn't the GP of Zurich a fairly mountainous classic circa 2001 2004. Ullrich, Frigo ..etc

Züri-Metzgete profile:

 

[El Pistolero]

Wasn't the GP of Zurich a fairly mountainous classic circa 2001 2004. Ullrich, Frigo ..etc

But the likes of Flecha, Museeuw and Bettini also won there.

 

[Anonymous]

Mountains classics Nepal would be awsome lol