I miss top quality one day races

Jellylegs1968

Now the tour has finished and i'm missing the daily tour routine.

But why are there so few top quality one day races in the post TDF part of the season?

I've got to wait until Paris Tours for a top one day race.

Kléber

August used to have some good ones, the Zurich GP was good and of course the World Championships used to held at the end of the month. San Sebastian is a good race, the GP Plouay too but it's a quiet month.

BikingBernie

Traditionally, the post-Tour period was set aside for local criteriums, giving the fans a chance to see the 'stars' up close. It was also in these races that professional riders used to make the majority of their earnings for the year, with the riders often racing almost every day for weeks on end and driving themselves large distance between events. That 'circus' is now more or less gone, especially in France, but the old criterium circuit tradition is still reflected in the limited number of big events at this time of year.

Jellylegs1968

Kléber wrote:

August used to have some good ones, the Zurich GP was good and of course the World Championships used to held at the end of the month. San Sebastian is a good race, the GP Plouay too but it's a quiet month.

Plouay is a great race but is never shown on TV

FJS

BikingBernie wrote:

That 'circus' is now more or less gone, especially in France,

In France maybe, but a little bit further north it's still very much alive: http://www.freewebs.com/wielercriterium ... er2009.htm

BikingBernie

FJS wrote:

BikingBernie wrote:

That 'circus' is now more or less gone, especially in France,

In France maybe, but a little bit further north it's still very much alive: http://www.freewebs.com/wielercriterium ... er2009.htm

But such kermesses are the staple of Belgian/ Dutch bike racing all year round, and most of them don't see many 'stars' riding. It certainly isn't the case that the great majority of even a star rider’s income will come from riding after-Tour criteriums, as was once the case.

FJS

BikingBernie wrote:

FJS wrote:

BikingBernie wrote:

That 'circus' is now more or less gone, especially in France,

In France maybe, but a little bit further north it's still very much alive: http://www.freewebs.com/wielercriterium ... er2009.htm

But such kermesses are the staple of Belgian/ Dutch bike racing all year round, and most of them don't see many 'stars' riding. It certainly isn't the case that the great majority of even a star rider’s income will come from riding after-Tour criteriums, as was once the case.

True that it's not their main source of income anymore (although some manage to get some decent extra pocket money, otherwise the likes of Contador, Schleck and Hushovd really wouldn't tire themselves with them after the Tour). But, really, there's a big difference between criteriums and kermesses. Criteriums are pro-Tour shows where the podium is decided before the start; kermesses/kermiskoersen are simply local village-fete races for small-team pros.
I'm sure you know more about this type of racing in France, but in Flanders/Netherlands criteriums are still very much alive, while if there is anything going down it's the kermiskoers-culture, with kermesses folding like British pubs.

BikingBernie

FJS wrote:

in Flanders/Netherlands criteriums are still very much alive, while if there is anything going down it's the kermiskoers-culture, with kermesses folding like British pubs.

I take your point about the distinction between a criterium and a kermesse, but even up north the popularity of criteriums proper does seem to be much less than it was in the old days. For example back in 2001 cyclingnews.com wrote:

The spectacle of post Tour de France criteriums has been significantly reduced over the past 25 years, and there are now just 18 left in the Netherlands compared with around 70 in the 1970's. Although they are very much staged events, they can still be fun to watch, giving the public a chance to watch their heroes in action.

I note that the calendar you list to covers the whole world, not just Europe, and not just the post-Tour period. The calendar lists just16 post-Tour criteriums for the Netherlands (21 for the whole year) and only 6 races across the whole of France in the post-Tour period, a shadow of what used to exist.

It's also sad to hear about the decline of the kermiskoers-culture in Flanders. I spent some time there in the late 1970's and there seemed to be a race on almost every day within riding distance of Ghent. Is it the bike racing part of the culture that is declining or are the village fairs and so on that often seemed to go along with them also less common?

dennisn

BikingBernie wrote:

FJS wrote:

in Flanders/Netherlands criteriums are still very much alive, while if there is anything going down it's the kermiskoers-culture, with kermesses folding like British pubs.

I take your point about the distinction between a criterium and a kermesse, but even up north the popularity of criteriums proper does seem to be much less than it was in the old days. For example back in 2001 cyclingnews.com wrote:

The spectacle of post Tour de France criteriums has been significantly reduced over the past 25 years, and there are now just 18 left in the Netherlands compared with around 70 in the 1970's. Although they are very much staged events, they can still be fun to watch, giving the public a chance to watch their heroes in action.

I note that the calendar you list to covers the whole world, not just Europe, and not just the post-Tour period. The calendar lists just16 post-Tour criteriums for the Netherlands (21 for the whole year) and only 6 races across the whole of France in the post-Tour period, a shadow of what used to exist.

It's also sad to hear about the decline of the kermiskoers-culture in Flanders. I spent some time there in the late 1970's and there seemed to be a race on almost every day within riding distance of Ghent. Is it the bike racing part of the culture that is declining or are the village fairs and so on that often seemed to go along with them also less common?

Maybe, back in the good old days(60's & 70's) a bike race was something that almost guaranteed a crowd for whatever event / fair you had going. In those days everybody and their brother weren't out begging(for lack of a better word) for money for every cause under the sun(and moon). Now if you're a corporation or well off individual you've probably got bunches of requests for whatever you can spare. Races are not cheap to put on, especially if you want to put up big purses to attract big talent or have to pay the "stars" to show up and ride. Not that I blame the stars for trying to make a dollar or two. Here in the States, as an example, big corporations are putting their money into naming a sports stadium after themselves. I guess they figure that's more exposure than
cycling can offer.

FJS

BikingBernie wrote:

For example back in 2001 cyclingnews.com wrote:

The spectacle of post Tour de France criteriums has been significantly reduced over the past 25 years, and there are now just 18 left in the Netherlands compared with around 70 in the 1970's. Although they are very much staged events, they can still be fun to watch, giving the public a chance to watch their heroes in action.

It's also sad to hear about the decline of the kermiskoers-culture in Flanders. I spent some time there in the late 1970's and there seemed to be a race on almost every day within riding distance of Ghent. Is it the bike racing part of the culture that is declining or are the village fairs and so on that often seemed to go along with them also less common?

I kinda doubt whether there really were 70 post-Tour criteriums in the 70s, or whether that article also confuses criteriums and kermiskoersen.

I really don't know what causes the decline, and I guess it is a combination of a decline of traditional village community life, with cycling being part of the traditional, and a change in cycling and sports structures, with more emphasis on TV-coverage and the events that get coverage. I'm sure there are sports sociological studies into this.