Pro tour events

Brown sauce

Hi, I posted the following in the general section but I think as someone suggested I will get better answers in this part.

So here is what I posted

Hi, new to the forum so hi.

Got a question, been watching the racing on euro sport. I'm getting confused by the different events that seem to be on at the same time. Tirreno - Adriatico and Paris - Nice. My confusion is just that i would have expected them to all be in each event all together. Do they just choose which events they want to race or are these different classes of riders for the above mentioned events.

Many thanks in advance
James

flasher

Going by their web site Sky have 27 pros, only 8 are allowed to ride the Tirreno - Adriatico and the Paris - Nice, so that's 16, they still have 11, some probably riding day races in Belgium and others training.

iainf72

Riders will get a race programme worked out with the team. And then race that.

Traditionally, people who were going to challenge for Milan - San Remo would be at T-A.

But as mentioned about, top teams are around about 28 riders, and the biggest team's at events are 9 riders, quite often less than that. So there's plenty to go around

Brown sauce

Oh ok, so you would maybe have your top riders season aimed at the Tour de France. The riders coming up through the ranks maybe doing other events. Ok so all pro riders but just doing different events. Being a massive F1 fan and fairly new to watching events other than the Tour de France I just presumed it was like F1 events in the way that everyone does one race then moves onto the next all together. I didn't realise the teams were so big.

Mad_Malx

Welcome to the forum.

You might want to look at the Pro Tour Pundit 2013 sticky at the top of the forum list -
viewtopic.php?f=40002&t=12905769
The first post from Rozzer lists most of the races in the season (but not TA because of the overlap).
If you join in (and many of us have barely go on the scoreboard yet, so it's not too late) you will find out about loads of new races and also find who's in form at what sort of race.

danlikesbikes

Plus in a big team (some pro tour teams don't have as many riders) certain riders will who ride in the big races such as the TDF in support of the big riders will then get to have a go throughout the season in the one day races. So last week you had the strade bianche & the roma maxima.

I guess you could say in respect of the team set up is not unlike any other team sport rugby/ice hockey with big names signed to each team and surrounded by a number of support and specialist riders (such as climbers, helpers) and the coach or in cycling terms the Director Sportif picking the squad.

Welcome to the BR forum & welcome to my other love watching pro racing it does become addictive I find.

afx237vi

Brown sauce wrote:

Oh ok, so you would maybe have your top riders season aimed at the Tour de France. The riders coming up through the ranks maybe doing other events. Ok so all pro riders but just doing different events. Being a massive F1 fan and fairly new to watching events other than the Tour de France I just presumed it was like F1 events in the way that everyone does one race then moves onto the next all together. I didn't realise the teams were so big.

The key difference is that different bike races in different countries are all owned/operated by different companies. Unlike F1, the governing body has relatively little control in promoting or organising the races.... they all operate independently, so the calendar is very fragmented. Outside of the Pro Tour there are literally hundreds of pro races, most of which will get a handful of Pro Tour teams racing against lower level teams.

Brown sauce

Thanks very much for all the replies, much clearer about it all now. Have been a mtb for about 20 years and always watched the Tour de France but lately have been watching most races and following a lot of riders. Is massively addictive.

Cheers again :-)

Anonymous

told ya!!

Brown sauce

coriordan wrote:

told ya!!

pottssteve

Flasher wrote:

Going by their web site Sky have 27 pros, only 8 are allowed to ride the Tirreno - Adriatico and the Paris - Nice, so that's 16, they still have 11, some probably riding day races in Belgium and others training.

Mate of mine saw some of the Sky lads training on the Amstel circuit this week.