2015 'PRO' cycling discussion

[ultimobici]

Or just do Tour of the Rockies and put in tons of hard climbing days at altitude.

We can't. ultimobici says it would be too dangerous to race at that high of altitude.

Not dangerous. Just not conducive to good racing.

[tymon_tm]

not sure whatcha arguing about. viewers in front of their TV screens don't give a single F whether the road goes 5 or 15% up. and no one gives a damn whether an ascent ends few miles down or up the road - it's still a middle of nowhere, a place 99% of spectators can't refer to. they want to see the drama, and quite possibly some nice views. a race from Sunset Blvd to that stupid Hollywood sign would gather more tv coverage, more exposure and more fans both along the road and in front of their tvs than all the Alp d'Huezes and Galibiers combined. and if you could find few Hollywood celebs who ride and have them ride same course before the pros (just for kicks), THAT would be an event. THAT'S the way, or at least an idea of a way, to elevate from piss poor, disregarded discipline to something fancy and simply cool. that's how you roll these days if you want more people to *want* your stuff, get more media coverage, earn more cash etc. simply - develop. how long can cycling live of it's heritage, ancient stories of guys covering whole alps in few day carrying spares on their shoulders. THAT DOESN'T SELL. would adding some of that bling kill the sport? no way! riders would still have to do their job which is do everything to cross the line before the rest. but what goes along the race, the "circumstances", the halo, THAT can and would most certainly make a difference.

you can't do that in Europe. there's only one place on earth that appeals to all the world population - that's the USA, and it's freaking charm of stardom, decadence and guilty pleasures. someone might say it's cheap, it's loosing focus on sport and competition and promoting low standarts of pop culture. but guess what, with more fans you get more people riding bikes, sell more stuff, once again - you DEVELOP. look what single mr. Armstrong has achieved with his triumphs sauced with loud presence and celeb aura. no one before and after has boosted cycling like that. now take a look at Froome.. or even Bertie, who's completely anonymous outside the cycling world. learn from that, use it. for gods sake, do something.

we might've had two nice GTs this year. some proper racing. good for us. but for how long will the likes of Tinkov burn cash like that? or SKY? how can we think about going forward, if cycling isn't event getting closer to bringing profits for those who sustain it. I mean, damn, it is going to end one day, or - best case scenario - we'll continue like that for the decades to come, playing dumb and dumber on the doping front, bitchin how most pro cyclists hardly make a living, and how cycling in general struggles with issues others have forgot about long time ago.

[tymon_tm]

and for those who think, 'hell we don't need that sort of $h#t', I recommend you watch the upcoming Tour de Pologne. look closely how mediocre the tv coverage is, as the crew has years of practice in ruining the race for TV viewers. this year Poland's got a World Champ. last Tour's best climber and a winner of two freaking hard stages. so when the nationals come, what does the TV do? they send few cameras and some dumb-aces. it was un-watchable. beyond bad. imagine two idiots who can't tell between a defender and QB to comment the Super Bowl. fans would burn the TV HQ to the ground. but when polish cycling fans complain about their nationals what they hear back is - "well, that's the best we could do" from some nameless tv exec.

why is it relevant? because people tell mediocrity when they see one. and sponsors do to. especially those who seek to invest. they won't. period.

[53x12]

Not dangerous. Just not conducive to good racing.

Here:

It's already climbing almost 500m higher than the Col de La Bonette. The climb is also more than 40km long and starts at 2500m. To add elevation and length would be inhuman and potentially dangerous. It's one thing to climb that high for fun, quite another to race at that altitude.

[kbbpll]

Never once interesting in any way? Jens on a long solo breakaway into Steamboat two years ago and getting caught a mile from the finish wasn't interesting? To each their own I guess. I was screaming at the computer screen.

I think we've missed an important point about the A-Basin "summit" - politics and publicity. A-Basin owners get a lot of publicity out of it, and there was probably some kind of deal. It's been a "locals" favorite for ages. Heck, the ski area stays open until July some years, and the parking lot is known as "the beach" during ski season. That parking area at the top of Loveland Pass couldn't even hold the team vehicles, let alone a VIP section. Sure, they could complete the climb and descend to Loveland Ski Area, and that might be a more interesting finish. It's always a balance between bike race and spectacle. As far as whether USAPCC will die out, I bet there were a hundred thousand spectators on the Loveland-Ft Collins route two years ago. We'll see what this years' brings. It goes right by my house so I can't wait. I got people flying in from three other states. That's what it's about, as is any other big race.

[elSid]

The climb on the route starts at approx km 145 and finishes at km 186, that's 40km. It starts at just under 2500m rising to 3,300m. It's one thing to ride up a climb like that, quite another to race up it. All you'd get by climbing the full pass would be a procession. By limiting the altitude there's a good chance of a proper race.

From km 145 to keystone - where the climb up towards Arapahoe Basin actually starts - the route gains 1400 feet over 20 miles. That is less than a 1.5% grade, and as far as I'm concerned, doesn't count as a "climb".

Anyway, arguing over the steepness of the climb wasn't my point. I was trying to say that there are endless opportunities to send the race over more interesting terrain than what is chosen by the race, yet each year the course covers more or less the same milquetoast roads.

[kbbpll]

Racing over Independence Pass (3rd highest in CO, 12095', 3687m) is milquetoast. What's your race number? I look forward to seeing you after the piddly little hills on the Loveland-Ft Collins stage.

[hasbeen]

I remember the Tour of America and how it was "definitely going to happen." No one believed that dude and for good reason.
BUT I think it could work:
start in NYC- prologue with remaining week of stages being in NY state. Plenty of terrain options (Bear Mtn RR anyone?)!
rest day is travel day to Midwest. Maybe Bloomington IN for some tough rolling terrrain. Each following stage will be 1 to 2 hours of traveling Westward.
End up out west (Utah, Colorado, Cali) all West Coast states have multiple "epic" stage options.
3 weeks of awesomeness. Should be easy. kwalker and djconnel are in charge. Now getter dun.

[MRM]

Maybe do 3 weeks with 2 plane transfers (followed by a rest day each).

Start in New England and have stages finish in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington DC. Have a sprint stage finish on Broadway in NYC (maybe lead the route through Times Square for maximum exposure). Ride from NYC to Philadelphia to Washington DC (could go New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Chicago, but distances are probably too great even for two days each).

Transfer to the heartland or Texas/Louisiana. Maybe a route of New Orleans, Houston, Austin, San Antonio.

Transfer to Grand Canyon/California.

There are already tours in Colorado and California, so this doesn't cannibalize them and takes large cities into account and greatly increase exposure and viewership that way.

Or skip the east coast entirely and just do the south and the west. Reason for this being it would make sense for this GT to be in the winter months so it doesn't come into conflict with the Monuments and the other three GT's (for TV and domestique duty purposes). Riders could potentially target Giro+Vuelta double or Tour de France+Tour of USA double.

[53x12]

Or skip the east coast entirely and just do the south and the west. Reason for this being it would make sense for this GT to be in the winter months so it doesn't come into conflict with the Monuments and the other three GT's (for TV and domestique duty purposes). Riders could potentially target Giro+Vuelta double or Tour de France+Tour of USA double.

South and West could work, but then you would be missing the large population centers that you previously listed (NYC, DC, Philly, Boston, Chicago...etc.).

The thing about any potential Tour of USA, is that you would probably want to maximize sponsor/advertising dollars by starting and finishing in the larger cities. The question is whether there is enough interest in cycling from a sponsor perspective in the USA that they would be willing to sponsor something like this. Tour de Georgia and Tour of Missouri were both great week long stage races. But as most things, when finances get though, budgets get cut and events like these are usually the first to go.

[nathanong87]

#bringbacktourdupont

[53x12]

If you are going old school, #bringbacktourdetrump

[mike]

i really hope froome does vuelta, along with quintana, nibali, aru, and landa. it would be interesting if he can sustain his fitness or fizzle out like contador.

[nathanong87]

i wanna see the joe D vs Aru matchup!

[LeDuke]

i wanna see the joe D vs Aru matchup!

Aru has "developed" at a much faster rate since little Joe D shelled him at the Girobio a few years back.