Giro di Lombardia Moves to September in 2012
by Jen See on Oct 10, 2011 12:27 PM EDT
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The UCI announced today that the calendar will shift next season, and Giro di Lombardia will move to September. The race, renamed Il Lombardia, will take place on the first Saturday after the World Championships. For 2012, that decision puts the Italian fall classic on 29 September. The Giro d'Italia will announce its route for 2013 on the following day.
The Giro di Lombardia, nicknamed the Race of the Falling Leaves, has traditionally marked the end of the road racing season. The calendar change may make the race more competitive as riders come to Italy with World Championship form, but it means an end to Lombardia's role as road racing's grand finale. The date change came as a result of discussions by the Professional Cycling Council at the Copenhagen World Championships.
It is not clear just yet what races will replace Lombardia at the end of the calendar, or if Paris-Tours will also shift position. The move may reflect an effort from the UCI to raise the prominence of its new Tour of Beijing stage race, which this year ran the week before Paris-Tours. Is there another new race in the offing? We'll have to wait and see.
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is chris still alive?
"Wizard's first rule. People are stupid. They will believe anything they want to be true or fear to be true." -- Terry Goodkind
He is likely sitting in a city square
in Copenhagen threatening to light himself on fire (ok, maybe not his actual self, but he may burn a basket of frites in protest).
"In road cycling tires 25mm is the new 22mm"
-Chris Fontecchio, PdC April 2011-
Great
Next, Paris-Roubaix adds mountain-top finish…
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Oct 10, 2011 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions
and
they descend La Redoute at 10km
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Oct 10, 2011 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions
I think you mean "Le Roubaix"
I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it
by plinytheelder on Oct 10, 2011 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions
I've thought about it long & hard
& this is my considered view.
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
well, if not towards the UCI
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
UCI, teams and organizers
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...
by TheFigurehead on Oct 10, 2011 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions
It's easy to find and slaughter a scapegoat
Sponsored and presented by Twitter
by RollinRollinRolland on Oct 11, 2011 5:33 AM EDT up reply actions
He is the president
Even if it wasn’t his sole decision, he carries responsibility.
"Beer helps." -- Ant1.
President of the AIGCP
But PCC? (And I forgot to add riders above.)
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...
by TheFigurehead on Oct 11, 2011 7:54 AM EDT up reply actions
Ah crap
I thought it was about Michele Acquarone and didn’t even check the link. Sorry!
"Beer helps." -- Ant1.
To expand,
Vaughters and the team fight for something to be the racing and the schedule easier on them, and they get blasted for it. They can’t win at all with fans can they? Do you really think they had a chance of the UCI agree with their protests over canning Beijing as WT? So here they are tackling an easier problem against the UCI…and coming out of it with a “win”.
And as someone pointed out (I can’t remember where sorry) you could see this as a shrewd move by the teams. They send their strong squads to the Vuelta to build up worlds form and now autumn classics form, all the stars ride these races…and end their season. So who shows up for Beijing next year? Certainly not any headline acts. Which mean the UCI might resort to exposing its queen again (aka leaking threatening emails that don’t paint them in a positive light).
by RollinRollinRolland on Oct 11, 2011 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions
From the teams' point of view, fine.
From the UCI’s point of view, fine.
From Michele Acquarone’s point of view, fine. I assume he also felt he had no choice, too.
But from my point of view, as a fan, of cycling & of other sports, I am sick of this kind of insiduous acceptance of things as inevitable or unavoidable, when they aren’t.
Lombardia is the traditional last big race of the season. As a fan I want it to stay that way.
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
Or, to put the same point differently...
…you don’t fuck with monuments.
So you would rather teams and riders becoming exhausted having to juggle Beijing and Lombardia?
Why does everything about cycling have to be some version of a Teams v Riders v UCI v Fans Battle Royale?
I doubt very much there is anything of the sort of acceptance you’re presuming. Why would the UCI have to threaten sponsors if things were all ‘Happy Days’?
It does sucks that a race with the tradition of Lombardia is being moved but before leaping to the OUTRAGE, WHAT ABOUT THE FANS!!!!111 comments how about people think of the larger scope and why the Teams organisation wanted this changed.
by RollinRollinRolland on Oct 12, 2011 7:32 AM EDT up reply actions
You miss the point
Giro di Lombardia was always there, since 1905, never a problem. Now after 1 (one) year of a smog-filled Tour of Beijing, an upstart race in a remote place with hardly any spectators, it has to move. Fuck that shit.
"Beer helps." -- Ant1.
Another issue, equally questionable
is the “the season is too long argument” . Yes, it is probably true that Jan-Oct is too long but that situation has been created by sticking another big money race (TDU) on the calendar forcing teams to get their riders out 1,5-2 months earlier than before.
First you create the problem , then present the half-crappy solution and present it as inevitable.
Um...
I don’t think anything I’ve written here, however inept or ill-argued, could really be described as a “OUTRAGE, WHAT ABOUT THE FANS!!!!111” comment.
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
Let Beijing move.
It will suck somewhat similarly in any month.
"It is unfortunate that the Wall is not plugged in correctly."
Oh come on.
Vaughters is choosing to communicate that way. (And, I should add, good for him. At least he engages with fans, even when they profoundly disagree.)
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
Not sure how to feel
tradition is sometimes tough to let go but I think it will improve the startlist and the race itself. The WC form thing is indeed a big gain, especially if guys didn’t have a good WC or a course which they didn’t like.
"Weltmeister!!" Zwei mal: 2010-2011...und weiter gehts
Yep
I hear ya on that. It’d be great to see Lombardia with a full field of frothing on-form dudes. But I do like it as the finale, too. So eh, I’m… indecisive.
~ Gavia ~
I'm sorry, what's been wrong with this race in recent editions that needs fixing?
Truly, I fail to understand the problem here.
It's been mostly Italian dominated
of course when Gilbert gets in there things change, but the field hasn’t been as strong as say LBL. Both are monuments and should have almost all classics guys going for it. The new slot may allow that more.
"Weltmeister!!" Zwei mal: 2010-2011...und weiter gehts
yeah, a field with maybe 5 contenders has been the problem of recent years
BUT . . . for the “taking advantage of Worlds form” meme to work, it means Worlds course will have to come to resemble Lombardia . . .
and that might not be a bad thing.
don't agree with this
Both fields will benefit, whatever the World’s course.
The World’s is special enough that many leaders who aren’t suited to the course nevertheless ride hard for their national teams. Even if World’s is pan-flat, having Lombardy a week away is added incentive to be peaking around then – to ride for your national team one week, for yourself the next.
Can't see that this will help
when Worlds is held out of Europe. 2015 anyone?
Jens Voigt doesn’t know where you live, but he knows exactly where you will die.
Agree completely.
There’s no reason to engineer the season so the same handful of hand picked guys can peak for every darn race. Teams and riders need to put energy into planning their seasons, not lobby for changes to the season.
"It is unfortunate that the Wall is not plugged in correctly."
riders make the race
So I suspect they’ll keep doing so. Honestly, this doesn’t hurt much, nothing like the loss of the Muur.
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Oct 10, 2011 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions
non mi piace
why would a monument need to change anything? this race is the end and always has been, even if that’s not always true technically. Screws up the autumn double too — from now on continuity with past is all f’d up, “oh but the double was different then,” blah blah blah.
I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it
This decision will make it easier to marginalize the Beijing Tour. ( If that is desired.)
I thought I read somewhere this weekend that Phat wanted to move the Beijing race to the end of the calendar. So either the real (read VDS) season can still end at Lombardia and the riders still lacking results can go to China or maybe it becomes a better race when some higher caliber riders who aren’t sure it’s a good idea to travel that far before the final Monument decide they want to race there.
yeah
I think the idea is to push Beijing down the calendar so the travel isn’t sandwiched between major European races.
~ Gavia ~
yeah great point actually. this just screws everything up to me.
I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it
by plinytheelder on Oct 10, 2011 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions
How about that one they do in Australia at the end of the season from now on.
Now the Jayco race is sitting pretty again, is one of McQuaids relatives involved with that race?
I could be wrong, but I think the Jayco race has always been in October...for the last 50 years?
"How strange it was to see men doing something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant." Tim Winton, 'Breath'
Jayco was supposed to move to January or February this year.
They didn’t race last fall. There was a big brouhaha when they announced the change because Adelaide was worried that they (the Jayco organizers) were trying to steal their race. So why didn’t they race earlier this year?
[ If I was into conspiracies I’d bet that Gerry Ryan is somehow involved and that the Jayco race will emerge as the World Tour race when the Tour Down Under “mysteriously” loses funding. If I was into conspiracies I would also believe that Ryan was behind the collapse of the Pegasus project. Conspiracies! Don’t you love them? ]
Don't know about Ryan
but it was said all but publicly that someone in the Australian federation was actively working against the Pegasus licence application.
We met an adelaider at Worlds who was very snarky about the plans to move the TDU away from their area. Maybe a little infighting can halt the coming aussie hegemony?
JHST wasn't raced last year because it was canned in favor of a SSR called 'The Worlds'
by RollinRollinRolland on Oct 11, 2011 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions
Not at all, they changed the race date to February in an effort to remain relevant.
Cycling Australia= changed the date with no mention of the World Championships. I haven’t researched enough to know why they decided to change back without ever racing in February. I think they are looking to ride the Tour of Beijing coat tail as the biggest teams will already be in a relatively close time zone. The Workld Tour teams won’t have to invest as much to travel as they do for the Tour Down Under. Add to that several teams have lost their Australian riders to Greenedge so they will need to transport more riders next January instead of using the “locals”. It would save the teams considerable cash if they just used the same riders they just used in Beijing.
I like the end of year time slots
It’s sort of a bridge between the off season starting and the aussie summer season starting.
by RollinRollinRolland on Oct 12, 2011 5:57 AM EDT up reply actions
The next question is,
Does the Jayco Sun Herald go World Tour and TDU lose it’s status or does the TDU move and bump the JSH? I don’t think Australia can support two WT stage races nor will the teams want to travel there twice.
If the Jayco race was yours what would you like to see happen and how hard would you fight to see it happen?
If you were a current or potential race sponsor in another part of the world and worried about your investment how would you like to see the potential dispute handled by the UCI? Or would you wish the situation was not handled by the UCI, at all, ever, not in a million years? ;)
I can't get into the UCI thing, but I've been struck by the fact that the field at the JSH
is so much stronger than usual, and I’m assuming it’s because of Beijing. Good for the race, so perhaps they’ll happily stay where they are now.
"How strange it was to see men doing something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant." Tim Winton, 'Breath'
The Japan Cup is already after Lombardia and gaining traction
if the UCI plays it right(hahahahahahaha) they could have a end of season Asian swing of sorts. There is the Tour of Hainan as well, which is now 2.1, and maybe they will look to increase prestige. The other riders end their season at P-T or some SSR in Italy.
"Weltmeister!!" Zwei mal: 2010-2011...und weiter gehts
Right
Pretty sure that’s what the aim is here, to get an Asian round of races lined up. So, teams head over and stay a bit.
~ Gavia ~
OK
I’m in.
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Oct 10, 2011 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions
But not good either.
You had plenty to work with – could have tried
Peking late in the season
Tour of Flounders
dim summit = C-
by straw dog on Oct 10, 2011 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
yeah, nice thai Jens
I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it
by plinytheelder on Oct 10, 2011 4:10 PM EDT up reply actions
Sounds like an Asian leg coming up.
Awaiting further details.
Stage 7 finish:
La Planche des Belles Filles is a tiny ski station in the Vosges mountains. So probably one of the mid-mountain stages with a nice finish.
In fact, the Vosges has been a little ignored recently, yes?
moo
really
they just shortened the season so it won’t be interupted by SSChineseSR’s in October…the new late-season-double will be Worlds and la classica delle foglie non ancora morto (grazie gnomes).
yeah
like Flanders in June ;)
I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it
by plinytheelder on Oct 10, 2011 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Can we agree
that wet falling leaves aren’t fully compatible with cycling?
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Oct 10, 2011 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions
I realized that earlier today
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...
by TheFigurehead on Oct 10, 2011 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions
uh oh
Hope you got a leg out in time or something.
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Oct 10, 2011 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions
I was on the citybike on my way to the post office
and had just gone through a gate so the speed wasn’t very high. Just a little bit more cyclocross action than I had planned.
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...
by TheFigurehead on Oct 10, 2011 3:32 PM EDT up reply actions
It better not be a health & safety issue... :-(
(I say that as someone with a H&S certificate, too.)
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
From a VDS standpoint, we begin the "season" with
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, so I don’t mind making Emilia (or whatever) the last race of the year. Logistically it may be better too since a lot of riders pack it in before Oct. It’s just a silly long season to race the Northern Classics and Lombardia.
Of course Race of the Falling Leaves will need to be changed to the Race of the slightly shorter days but still nice weather…
Just doesnt sound the same..
"In road cycling tires 25mm is the new 22mm"
-Chris Fontecchio, PdC April 2011-
The Chinese have agreed to pay
for spraying the Lago di Como area with Agent Orange to create the right conditions in September.
Pfft
Agent orange. They can create the sensation using lasers at half the cost.
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Oct 10, 2011 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions
The more I think about this the more I like it.
World’s RR, Lombardy, Emilia/Paris-Tours on 3 successive weekends to end the main season.
It’s earlier, so more guys who peaked for spring classics or Giro/TdF might ride without their season getting too long.
And whatever type of World’s course, any style of rider has the incentive to be fit & ride hard for his national team at Worlds, knowing that at least one of the classics in the following two weeks will suit him.
Then segue into Beijing, other Asian races and Oz, where some lesser lights or younger riders can shine.
+1
I picked Riccardo Ricco for my 2011 VDS team, and submitted said team well before the submission deadline. I fully understand the error of my ways, and plead with the VDS Gods to allow me to resubmit my team.
Part of the charm of Lombardia is that it's the last (big) race on the calendar.
That’s what the UCI don’t seem to get: cycling races need a certain charm, a “je ne sais quoi” which can’t be expressed in dollar bills and thus is not interesting to them.
by blackswangreen on Oct 10, 2011 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Sort of buy that
but in my case, and I suspect a great many others, it means there will be a tail of races I won’t really care about after Lombardia. So it will take artificial breathing from the UCI to keep fans and teams/rider interested in the asian post-script races. (At least until a meaningful fanbase has been established there)
yep
Timezones alone made Beijing hard enough for me.
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
I didn't follow the bike race, but it was easy for me during the Olympics
Beijing time and my time are 12 hours apart. So whatever was AM for me was PM for them, and vice versa. I watched a lot of the ’08 Olympics. One of the only times I will ever use this phrase: it helped that I was unemployed at the time.
The race ended around 9am British Time
which is about the time every European race ends here. So HTFU
"Weltmeister!!" Zwei mal: 2010-2011...und weiter gehts
(At least until a meaningful fanbase has been established there)
Should we recruit English speaking Chinese race fans to become contributors or is PodiumCafe already banned in China?
shit they're talking about banning it in Canada for that one
I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it
by plinytheelder on Oct 10, 2011 10:34 PM EDT up reply actions
hmm yeah interesting take, they other races are interesting inasmuch as they’re buildups to a monument
and hell when Gilbert won 4 of 5 a couple of years ago it was the same thing, this buildup to the climax of “Il Lombardia”
another reason to hate this move ;)
I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it
by plinytheelder on Oct 10, 2011 10:36 PM EDT up reply actions
They are not going to make significant changes to the course are they?
Is there more news coming that better explains dropping the “Giro”?
Well, a hearty boo-urns to this
Do you suppose RCS is going to get some kind of concession in their favor?
aahhh, who do I think I’m kidding….
Is "Il Lombardia" really a new name for the race?
There’s a movie coming out with that name, see here
Il Lombardia
It seems unlikely that RCS named the race after the movie… I wonder if it’s an alternative traditional name that they are just pushing now?
To bump this race in favor of showcasing a rather boring affair in China really grinds my gears...
Get some actual exciting courses rather than highways and it might be interesting…
This is absurd!
The worst thing UCI could do. They kill the traditions. Il Lombardia without cold & rain is not Lombardia!
by ceccovb on Oct 11, 2011 1:30 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
hear hear
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
I was too hard?
Sorry, but I live near Lombardias’ roads, and I love to watch the race with autumn colours and maybe rain…
This year can’t happen, ok, but statistics says that in late September is still (almost) summer here…
read this
letter about Lombardia from Lidewey Van Noord (translated also in english) found in italian cycling forum…
http://forum.cicloweb.it/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=388&p=44164#p44036
Great that it has found its way there
Original here: http://hetiskoers.nl/2011/het-verlies-van-de-herfst/
The writer is also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lvnoord
"Beer helps." -- Ant1.
Amusingly bombastic
Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...
by TheFigurehead on Oct 12, 2011 7:46 AM EDT up reply actions
Thanks for that.
I hadn’t quite dared look at the cicloweb forum.
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
I suppose someday we will have a truly year-round, round-the-world calendar
with the riders taking staggered “off seasons” of 2-3 months depending on their home training base or other preferences. No reason that can’t work, though I suppose the rider’s union might want to impose a condition that people do have to take an off-season.
Would sort of suck for cross, except that so many areas would actually be excellent for cross, in which case, there could also be a twice-a-year (N and S hemisphere) cross calendar. With equal standing and some shared funding…New Zealand? Patagonia? Tasmania? Even mainland OZ seems to be pretty cross happy.)
"It is unfortunate that the Wall is not plugged in correctly."
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