Vacansoleil: it should be hard
by Drongo on Jan 20, 2012 1:35 AM EST
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Interesting article today in The Roar about the Tour Down Under's flat parcours. The author sat in the Vacansoleil team car and heard some of the following from Michel Cornelisse:
If I designed the route, the riders would be sorry... I’d make it open and hard so it wasn’t always the same story. It wouldn’t be a sprinter who wins every day.
...
I would make the riders do [Willunga] three times. It may be the first race of the season and it may be really hot here in Australia, but it’s the ProTour. It should be hard.
...
What use is it if people don’t race and let Cavendish win seven times? If more people rode like my riders the races would be more interesting. You can’t refuse to race and then be surprised when Cavendish or Greipel wins. Unless teams try something different the outcome will always be the same.
And there's a bit of back-and-forth about Thomas De Gendt's breakfast. Worth a read.
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Well, for most teams it's the first race of the year and they still see this as some sort of training race
so I understand that they’re asking for an ‘easy’ race (they don’t want to see their riders miss the timecut).
On the other hand the UCI decided to make this a Worldtour race, which made the race more important for the teams too.
So right now TDU is in between both. It’s too important for a training race, but so early in the season, it’s hard not to see it as a training race. I think the race needm more time to develop a real identity.
On a sidenote: Cornelisse wouldn’t probably be saying this if he had Greipel or Freire on his squad.
Cornelisse wouldn’t probably be saying this if he had Greipel or Freire on his squad.
Definitely not. It’s easy to preach attack-mode (and I love the attacking, for the record), if you don’t stand a chance of winning the sprint.
True
but I liked his point about the teams without Greipel (or Cav in other races) having the responsibility to try to shake things up, rather than just accept that it’s going to be a sprint.
I'm not just a smartarse. Other parts of me are sometimes clever as well.
by omnevelnihil on Jan 20, 2012 7:51 PM EST up reply actions
That thought occurred to me too.
On a sidenote: Cornelisse wouldn’t probably be saying this if he had Greipel or Freire on his squad.
I’d like to hear what someone like flatbagger says. One of the very positive things about the race from the riders’ perspective is that they get to stay in the same hotel for the entire pre-race and race period. That means that they need to find routes that aren’t too far afield. As most of you already realise, it’s very hot at the TDU, and most of the race is close to the coast. Going inland would be cruel, especially for riders who’ve stepped out of a European winter.
As to the identity thing, I think that’s starting to take shape. Eddy Merckx spending the week here, and Christian Prudhomme also visiting is increasing the sense that the race is here to stay.
"How strange it was to see men doing something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant." Tim Winton, 'Breath'
+1
It seems like they have to walk a fine line here. It’s a UCI event, but they’d be foolish to try to make it too big. Cali had the same issue back when it was in February, and that wasn’t even a UCI. If it got harder it might get a few more Antipodeans a job as the pro tour team guy who goes for points in January, but you’d lose a lot of bigger foreign names. Or, they’d come but strictly for training, not to compete.
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Jan 20, 2012 2:43 PM EST up reply actions
I think TdU is going the the right direction.
Provide a race with some flat stages along with a couple of selective ones. I would however keep the distances short.
Also every WT team should be able to produce 1-2 guys in top form at this point in the season.
Note: none of Vancan’s riders made the cut yesterday (stage 4), so the stage must have done some damage. De Gendt is now more than 7min behind the leader of the race.
Yeah, I know, and I not surprised a bit.
Sergey as always is "Mister Invisible." He is only 12 sec behind, but if you thinking that he will be protected rider now, think again! Sucks!
In loving memory of the HTC- Highroad
.
I'm with you...and he also doesn't suffer with a lack of respect like a certain sprinting Frenchman who shall remain
nameless. Perhaps Vacansoleil could help him learn to sprint in a straight line.
"How strange it was to see men doing something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant." Tim Winton, 'Breath'
inrng had an interesting post related to the race history:
http://inrng.com/2012/01/tour-down-under-race-history/
Of note:
DS Feedback
After a few years of successfully staging the event, Turtur received feedback from various DS’s advising him not to change anything. That is, the stages are short and not too difficult which is great given their fitness in January. They advised not to try and make the race bigger and better by including a time trial (equipment logistical nightmares), more stages or too many climbs.
The event might actually harm itself by making it overly difficult. The stars might tend to avoid the travel, because frankly the season is long and killing yourself in January catches up to you in April, May, June, and July.
One year they should try an uphill TT.
The riders could leave their TT rigs home and they would have a different type of winner.
Sprinters are the only ones who don’t take much of a break during the year anyways.
What if they moved the TDU to the end of the racing year (after the Tour of Beijing)? Could they get better weather? Would it become hugely significant in determining the UCI’s champion?
They could always do a prologue like the Tour of...whichever one it was, Qatar or Oman
Just a couple of klicks long, ridden on normal bikes. Enough to put a little separation in the GC, but avoid the equipment logistics nightmares.
It's always fun
when the people in cars complain about things not being hard enough.
"I’m pretty disappointed, but if this is what people want to see, a race decided on a downhill," Andy Schleck said. "I don’t think that. A finish like this should not be allowed."
Yep
By the way, I think you’re not working hard enough today.
De cross gaat out that door.
by Chris Fontecchio on Jan 20, 2012 2:44 PM EST up reply actions
woohoo
5 day weekend. Too bad I can’t ride in this crap and don’t have a trainer with me.
"I’m pretty disappointed, but if this is what people want to see, a race decided on a downhill," Andy Schleck said. "I don’t think that. A finish like this should not be allowed."
My kind of guy!
ah but I don’t think the TdU needs to be revamped much. I think a mix of a few tough hilly stages, maybe a prologue in which road bikes can be used, and so on can be used to change things up. It is indeed a PT race but that’s the UCI’s fault with their globalization effort. Of course there is the Tour de San Luis which is harder and gaining prestige, maybe one day it will also be PT.
"Weltmeister!!" Zwei mal: 2010-2011...und weiter gehts
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