Road Cycling 2023 Discussion Thread

[Grassmarket 3,448]

12 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

The Giro Donne, starting in two days, was about to be cancelled last minute, although it seems it will start. The organization seems to have no idea what they're doing, they're missing 750k and it seems like things will barely even be broadcast anywhere.

 

Besides, riders are still waiting for the prize money of last year (!), so it's a classic mess in the organization. Without TV images, the race would probably be taken out of the World Tour next year, and honestly, deservedly so. It's always felt a bit messy, and the women's Tour and Vuelta have really dwarfed the Giro Donne in recent years anyway.

Well, it’s all scheduled to be live on Discovery from Friday so…but we’ve already list the Women’s Tour of  so things are spread a bit thin.  They did expand very fast in only about five years. I can remember when practically the whole live TV year was a week in Sweden in August & the Worlds.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Grassmarket

[heywoodu 15,174]

2 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

Well, it’s all scheduled to be live on Discovery from Friday so…but we’ve already list the Women’s Tour of  so things are spread a bit thin.  They did expand very fast in only about five years. I can remember when practically the whole live TV year was a week in Sweden in August & the Worlds.

 

It's still scheduled on Discovery/Eurosport, but they don't actually have any idea yet if or when they'll get any footage, according to one of the commentators. For now it's basically just there as a sort of placeholder spot.

 

Yeah, women's cycling is expanding greatly, it's just the Giro Donne organizers who seem to have dropped the ball massively the past years (just like the French Pyrenees race recently, where they couldn't even provide a somewhat safe course....safe as in, not having all kinds of regular traffic on the course).

[Grassmarket 3,448]

On 6/28/2023 at 5:28 PM, heywoodu said:

 

It's still scheduled on Discovery/Eurosport, but they don't actually have any idea yet if or when they'll get any footage, according to one of the commentators. For now it's basically just there as a sort of placeholder spot.

 

Yeah, women's cycling is expanding greatly, it's just the Giro Donne organizers who seem to have dropped the ball massively the past years (just like the French Pyrenees race recently, where they couldn't even provide a somewhat safe course....safe as in, not having all kinds of regular traffic on the course).

Good news: It started.

Bad news:  Torrential rain, so way too dangerous for electrics etc.

[Grassmarket 3,448]

Van Vleuten & Longho Borghini both come off on the same stretch of new-laid tarmac in the Giro Donne - both remounted & finished, but Longo Borghini was well shaken up.

[Grassmarket 3,448]

 

Great news - the UCI joins swimming & athletics in creating a defined category for women.  Men will now compete in a Men/Open category.

 

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/38009574/transgender-women-cyclists-being-moved-new-men-open-category

[heywoodu 15,174]

Meanwhile in the Tour de Wallonie today, Filippo Ganna did the leadout for Elia Viviani in the bunch sprint....but Viviani was so mediocre that he didn't manage to pass Ganna....and nobody else did neither, so Ganna won a bunch sprint  (and a desperately sprinting Viviani didn't know what to do so just raised his hands in 'victory' for Ganna )

[Olympian1010 7,990]

Weather catching a couple riders out in the Tour De France Femmes. The rain stayed away at the TdF for the most part, but it definitely found the women’s race yesterday. Kopecky looked good for the double with that lead out, but Lippert had a far better sprint. 
 

Similar stage on offer today, so I assume it will be much of the same. Stage 4 might create some excitement in the GC battle, but it really looks like everyone will be chasing a few second here to there before the last two stages blow the race apart.

[Olympian1010 7,990]

Yara Kastelijn  is having a great tour. Phenomenal solo breakaway win for her today 

 

Vollering continued the proud tradition of Dutch women celebrating second place finishes as well 

[Olympian1010 7,990]

A young cyclist from  passed away after crashing on a decent during a race in Austria.

 

Link: https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/38051953/cyclist-jacopo-venzo-17-dies-crash-austria-race

[Olympian1010 7,990]

If the Tour de France was a bad example of fan interactions this year, then the Tour de France Femmes is a horrible example for team cars 

 

Another breakaway win after the peloton left it too late, and many riders got caught in a big crash just before 1km to go.