New ASO stage race for Yorkshire

Richmond Racer

Aye oop

'The Tour de France organisers are set to establish a long-term presence on British soil with the founding of a three-day stage race in Yorkshire set to be run in May 2015 on the back of this year's Tour start'

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/j ... ce-success

will get an HC ranking

No wonder Gary Verity learned French

RichN95.

That's sounds promising. I think short three day races like that may be the future for cycling rather than the week long ones.

MartinGT

Great stuff, will this mean the races that got cancelled in East Yorkshire last season due to Police withdrawing from them will go ahead this year?...... :roll:

Richmond Racer

RichN95 wrote:

That's sounds promising. I think short three day races like that may be the future for cycling rather than the week long ones.

You could have a point there

Richmond Racer

MartinGT wrote:

Great stuff, will this mean the races that got cancelled in East Yorkshire last season due to Police withdrawing from them will go ahead this year?...... :roll:

Stop being a killjoy

MartinGT

Richmond Racer wrote:

MartinGT wrote:

Great stuff, will this mean the races that got cancelled in East Yorkshire last season due to Police withdrawing from them will go ahead this year?...... :roll:

Stop being a killjoy

Its great news, really is. Anything that promotes cycling I am all for. If it gets more people interested great stuff.

But last season I had 4 races in East & North Yorkshire cancelled because of Police pulling out and H&S issues. Frustrating really is, especially when I certain Laura Trott was down for one of them 8)

Kudos to Verity, he seems a top bloke and passionate about this.

johnboy183

Would be great to have the opportunity to see WT teams, riders etc on a regular basis. However it would also be a shame if it was at the expense of some BC events as already suggested. How and where are the domestic riders going to ride to improve their own chances of making it to a bigger stage? And I guess for many, the Premier Calendar races are and will be the pinnacle of their careers.

FJS

Yes, let's abolish the Premier League - it could be at the expense of League Two....

In the long run it will give cycling as a whole more exposure and be good for the domestic BC events too.

Marvellous news, can't wait to see the route

Richmond Racer

johnboy183 wrote:

Would be great to have the opportunity to see WT teams, riders etc on a regular basis. However it would also be a shame if it was at the expense of some BC events as already suggested. How and where are the domestic riders going to ride to improve their own chances of making it to a bigger stage? And I guess for many, the Premier Calendar races are and will be the pinnacle of their careers.

Who's suggesting that?

iainf72

RichN95 wrote:

That's sounds promising. I think short three day races like that may be the future for cycling rather than the week long ones.

Add one more day and it's the format proposed by the breakaway league, isn't it?

I think it's a good thing - good format, all around a smallish area.

johnboy183

Richmond Racer wrote:

johnboy183 wrote:

Would be great to have the opportunity to see WT teams, riders etc on a regular basis. However it would also be a shame if it was at the expense of some BC events as already suggested. How and where are the domestic riders going to ride to improve their own chances of making it to a bigger stage? And I guess for many, the Premier Calendar races are and will be the pinnacle of their careers.

Who's suggesting that?

Just my interpretation of an earlier post, plus the reduction with Premier races. I'm not speaking from a position of knowledge, just guessing

RichN95.

iainf72 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

That's sounds promising. I think short three day races like that may be the future for cycling rather than the week long ones.

Add one more day and it's the format proposed by the breakaway league, isn't it?

More or less. They just seem to have contracted two of the days into one. They realised that there's really no need for a sprint stage to be more than 100km - two hours is enough (and better for TV).

rick_chasey

3 days is an odd length to me.

What's the point? It's not knackering enough for recovery to play a factor and for it to tell a lot of stories, nor does it have the immediacy of a one day race.

What do you guys find promising about 3 days? (honest question - not rhetorical).

Richmond Racer

Rick Chasey wrote:

3 days is an odd length to me.

What's the point? It's not knackering enough for recovery to play a factor and for it to tell a lot of stories, nor does it have the immediacy of a one day race.

What do you guys find promising about 3 days? (honest question - not rhetorical).

Nothing like as costly as a week-long race - so potentially more sustainable from a commercial POV
Tighter format - not a huge fan of week-long stage races with 4 x sprint stages
Easier to slot into the race calendar and for teams to accommodate in their race programmes

gpreeves

Rick Chasey wrote:

3 days is an odd length to me.

What's the point? It's not knackering enough for recovery to play a factor and for it to tell a lot of stories, nor does it have the immediacy of a one day race.

What do you guys find promising about 3 days? (honest question - not rhetorical).

I'd be hoping for the initial TT to shake the order up, to be followed by 3 stages that are all raced "properly."

Ideally this would miss out the dull, flat stages that you tend to get in week long races. I think they're important in GTs but races like P-N or Romandie often just seem to be a warm up for one or two key stages. Why not just have the key stages without the extra cost/hassle of more boring stages?

blazing_saddles

By 'eck, "The Race to the Drizzle"?

RichN95.

Rick Chasey wrote:

3 days is an odd length to me.

What's the point? It's not knackering enough for recovery to play a factor and for it to tell a lot of stories, nor does it have the immediacy of a one day race.

What do you guys find promising about 3 days? (honest question - not rhetorical).

1. It strips the flab off stage races - and there's a lot of flab on a lot of them. Most World Tour week long races boil down one mountain and one TT (as far as GC in concerned). Far too much of it doesn't matter. And as far as recovery is concerned - I don't think they are struggling on one week races. Plenty of riders do far harder training blocks.

2. Money. If it's centred on a single location then overheads are greatly reduced. It also becomes a weekend event - a sportif can run in conjunction with it. A central location will also allow for opportunties for sponsors. Maybe women's racing too

3. TV. It's hard to get engrossed in a race when most of it takes place when you are work.

4. As they are short races they can more easily be dropped into the calendar and can be accomodated more easily by big name riders.

I'd have a format like this.

Friday
Short time trial (length depends on difficulty of subsequent races)
Early evening sprinters stage. 20 laps of a 5km course. 6pm-8pm (or whenever light permits)

Saturday
Classics type stage

Sunday
Climbers stage

Edit: I see to have said what Richmond Racer said, but with ten times as many words.

RichN95.

Blazing Saddles wrote:

By 'eck, "The Race to the Drizzle"?

The Race away from the Sun

rick_chasey

Richmond Racer wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

3 days is an odd length to me.

What's the point? It's not knackering enough for recovery to play a factor and for it to tell a lot of stories, nor does it have the immediacy of a one day race.

What do you guys find promising about 3 days? (honest question - not rhetorical).

Nothing like as costly as a week-long race - so potentially more sustainable from a commercial POV
Tighter format - not a huge fan of week-long stage races with 4 x sprint stages
Easier to slot into the race calendar and for teams to accommodate in their race programmes

Pfft. So practical.

andyrac

As already said, this could be a precursor to the future. 3 day races over a Friday - Sunday. And run it from a central 'host town'. Sounds similar to what happened to World Championship Rallying 15+ years ago. Instead of going all over the country during midweek, etc Base it in a smaller area, over a weekend.

Whether it can work for cycling is another matter.

I take it the ASO feel snubbed by not winning the Tour of Britain organisers role; and this could be a suitable 'substitute'?

ddraver

^You suspect that it ll blow the TOB chances of moving up any catagories. But I'm not sure that's a wholly bad thing..

Can't see much hope for that London Surry Classic either....

RichN95.

AndyRAC wrote:

As already said, this could be a precursor to the future. 3 day races over a Friday - Sunday. And run it from a central 'host town'. Sounds similar to what happened to World Championship Rallying 15+ years ago. Instead of going all over the country during midweek, etc Base it in a smaller area, over a weekend.

Whether it can work for cycling is another matter.

I think it would work far better than some of the races currently do. Specifically the second tier one week races like Catalunya, Romandie, Poland, Beijing.

Take for example, Catalunya - a race which no-one really paid much attention to, loses money and was basically won by a single attack by Martin. It starts on one weekend, finishes on another.
Now substitute that for a three day weekend in Barcelona. It includes a Friday evening circuit race (20 x 5km laps), with corporate hospitality, passing the waterfront. Makarov and Tinkov are comparing yachts. Before the race the celebs are out, mingling, like at F1. Alonso is showing Messi around the bus, Phinney is hitting on Penelope Cruz etc.
This also fits in with the Belkin plan of selling off co-sponsorship on a race-by-race.

Then on Saturday there's a classic type stage and also a sportif on the Sunday stage (the Queen stage into the mountains). As well as the general public teams host corporate groups with old pros, while the wives get some shopping in (sorry for the stereotype).

Then the next weekend, it's the same again in Valencia or Monaco.

And the pros get six days of more dynamic racing for their week, with less transfers

Likewise Romandie becomes Geneva and Munich, Poland - Warsaw & St Petersburg, Beijing - Beijing & Tokyo (I haven't considered parcours). Same with the pre-season Middle East races. Goodbye Qatar & Oman - hello Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha & somewhere in Oman (Muscat?)

The tradition of the sport remains in the Grand Tours and the Classics season which are untouched (although I think the Vuelta should lose a week) - but the season's flab can be turned into money attracting muscle.

mr_poll

Like the idea of a three day event, guessing they could go with smaller teams like they tried in Poland to try and make the outcome more uncertain. Wasn't there talk of some sort of "super league format" in the recent UCI blueprint for the future - could see this 3 day idea working better than trying to shoe horn in the classics and GTs into such a format.

Good to read they want to visit parts of Yorkshire that aren't getting the tour - would love to see them in the North Yorkshire moors climbing up Rosedale Chimney or Grosmont to Sleights.

MartinGT

Blazing Saddles wrote:

By 'eck, "The Race to the Drizzle"?

You mean, Race t' Drizzle

Come on lad, tha can tell thee in't from Yorkshire :P

I like the week long races like P-N & T-A and especially Tour of the Basque where the weather can play a serious part

Macaloon

RichN95 wrote:

AndyRAC wrote:

As already said, this could be a precursor to the future. 3 day races over a Friday - Sunday. And run it from a central 'host town'. Sounds similar to what happened to World Championship Rallying 15+ years ago. Instead of going all over the country during midweek, etc Base it in a smaller area, over a weekend.

Whether it can work for cycling is another matter.

I think it would work far better than some of the races currently do. Specifically the second tier one week races like Catalunya, Romandie, Poland, Beijing.

Take for example, Catalunya - a race which no-one really paid much attention to, loses money and was basically won by a single attack by Martin. It starts on one weekend, finishes on another.
Now substitute that for a three day weekend in Barcelona. It includes a Friday evening circuit race (20 x 5km laps), with corporate hospitality, passing the waterfront. Makarov and Tinkov are comparing yachts. Before the race the celebs are out, mingling, like at F1. Alonso is showing Messi around the bus, Phinney is hitting on Penelope Cruz etc.
This also fits in with the Belkin plan of selling off co-sponsorship on a race-by-race.

Then on Saturday there's a classic type stage and also a sportif on the Sunday stage (the Queen stage into the mountains). As well as the general public teams host corporate groups with old pros, while the wives get some shopping in (sorry for the stereotype).

Then the next weekend, it's the same again in Valencia or Monaco.

And the pros get six days of more dynamic racing for their week, with less transfers

Likewise Romandie becomes Geneva and Munich, Poland - Warsaw & St Petersburg, Beijing - Beijing & Tokyo (I haven't considered parcours). Same with the pre-season Middle East races. Goodbye Qatar & Oman - hello Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha & somewhere in Oman (Muscat?)

The tradition of the sport remains in the Grand Tours and the Classics season which are untouched (although I think the Vuelta should lose a week) - but the season's flab can be turned into money attracting muscle.

Excellent. The only thing I would add is to annoint a few of them as 'Masters Series' with compelling rewards for top GC participants.

spaceman147

I think it'll be a reet grand day(s) owt!

gpreeves

spaceman147 wrote:

I think it'll be a reet grand day(s) owt!

I envisage this being sung all day on God's Own Corner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4JNdseNOkE

tailwindhome

RichN95 wrote:

AndyRAC wrote:

As already said, this could be a precursor to the future. 3 day races over a Friday - Sunday. And run it from a central 'host town'. Sounds similar to what happened to World Championship Rallying 15+ years ago. Instead of going all over the country during midweek, etc Base it in a smaller area, over a weekend.

Whether it can work for cycling is another matter.

I think it would work far better than some of the races currently do. Specifically the second tier one week races like Catalunya, Romandie, Poland, Beijing.

Take for example, Catalunya - a race which no-one really paid much attention to, loses money and was basically won by a single attack by Martin. It starts on one weekend, finishes on another.
Now substitute that for a three day weekend in Barcelona. It includes a Friday evening circuit race (20 x 5km laps), with corporate hospitality, passing the waterfront. Makarov and Tinkov are comparing yachts. Before the race the celebs are out, mingling, like at F1. Alonso is showing Messi around the bus, Phinney is hitting on Penelope Cruz etc.
This also fits in with the Belkin plan of selling off co-sponsorship on a race-by-race.

Then on Saturday there's a classic type stage and also a sportif on the Sunday stage (the Queen stage into the mountains). As well as the general public teams host corporate groups with old pros, while the wives get some shopping in (sorry for the stereotype).

Then the next weekend, it's the same again in Valencia or Monaco.

And the pros get six days of more dynamic racing for their week, with less transfers

Likewise Romandie becomes Geneva and Munich, Poland - Warsaw & St Petersburg, Beijing - Beijing & Tokyo (I haven't considered parcours). Same with the pre-season Middle East races. Goodbye Qatar & Oman - hello Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha & somewhere in Oman (Muscat?)

The tradition of the sport remains in the Grand Tours and the Classics season which are untouched (although I think the Vuelta should lose a week) - but the season's flab can be turned into money attracting muscle.

Sounds a lot like the USPGA/ European Tour for the Golfists,

Typically they travel on a Monday, Tuesday practice, Wednesday pro-am/sponsor stuff, Thurs - Sun competition and repeat until wealthy

frenchfighter

Well if there were any doubts this race would not be worthy or would fail then I am glad the last two days have shown that conclusively not to be the case. I didn't know anything of the roads or the potential roadside support over there but am pleased this race will exist from next year. Hopefully the start of many editions.

markhewitt1978

AndyRAC wrote:

. Sounds similar to what happened to World Championship Rallying 15+ years ago. Instead of going all over the country during midweek, etc Base it in a smaller area, over a weekend.

Whether it can work for cycling is another matter.

And in many people it was the death of the World Rally Championship and the 'RAC Rally' (now Rally GB). Previously it was over 4 days and it was a massive event reaching loads of the country including Wales, the Midlands, County Durham, Keilder and up into Scotland, as a result it was the biggest spectator event in the UK with TV coverage too. Now it's a shadow of it's former self confined to doing loops out of Cardiff and barely gets a mention on TV.

markhewitt1978

frenchfighter wrote:

Well if there were any doubts this race would not be worthy or would fail then I am glad the last two days have shown that conclusively not to be the case. I didn't know anything of the roads or the potential roadside support over there but am pleased this race will exist from next year. Hopefully the start of many editions.

+1. Don't underestimate the draw of the Tour de France of course, compared with all other events. I guess it will depend on the entry (of course), and if TV coverage can be secured, at least now with the likes of ITV4 we have a channel where cycling coverage can go and since digital switchover everyone in the UK can watch.