Temperatures and the cycling calendar
Increasingly, the Tour and the Vuelta are becoming heat endurance events, with the Vuelta regularly breaking its own "extreme weather" protocol, largely because 40 degrees plus is no longer that extreme in modern day temperatures.
People can argue about the causes, but the reality is, the weather in July and August in the Mediterranean is increasingly not suitable to host bike races.
There are lots of ways to look at this; is the calendar that's been around for 100 odd years increasingly unsustainable given the weather? Are the Grand Tours going to have to move the dates to accommodate? Are you going to have to be a hot weather specialist if you want a decent tilt at the Vuelta or even the Tour?
Should we move the GTs around the calendar to reflect this, recognising it's no longer necessarily a summer sport, or even move the races further north where the temperatures are more tolerable?
It seems increasingly unsustainable to just pretend the weather and heat isn't a problem anymore.
Comments
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Giro in May, often have to cancel/amend stages due to too much snow.
Vuelta in Aug/September, often too hot
If only there were an obvious solution to these problems...
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I'd like to say that I'm too young to remember the Vuelta in spring, but the truth was that I wasn't paying attention.
Did the earlier start date reduce their climbing options. I'm guessing the Pyrenees might have been a problem?
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Cake is just weakness entering the body1 -
I fully agree with the suggestion of modifying the race calendar. This should be possible, and is just logical.
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.1 -
These days, I have no idea why the season ends mid October. One pattern that has definitely changed is with mild autumns. No reason why the Vuelta couldn’t be raced from mid September to early October, with the Italian autumn classic season starting a fortnight later, with Il Lombardia at the very end of October or even early November for those falling leaves.
Start the Giro in mid June, the Tour, mid July and the WCs somewhere in the second half of August.
The classics season could be tweaked too.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.2 -
Start stages early at approx 0700, to avoid the extreme heat?
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We also need people to watch them, which is a bit tricky if everyone is at work.
Also, that's getting up in the middle of the night territory for the riders, they need time to eat half a million calories and warm up pre stage, plus transport and sign on...
Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
Evening stages?
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Cake is just weakness entering the body0 -
They tried that at last year's Vuelta. 😜
The above may be fact, or fiction, I may be serious, I may be jesting.
I am not sure. You have no chance.Veronese68 wrote:PB is the most sensible person on here.3 -
Giro has had frequent problems with snow, I think 3 out of 4 this decade.
So only realistic change is shifting the third GT into September. Roadside crowds would be well down, and worlds need shifting too.
edit: wasn’t seeing any of the above responses when i hit “post”
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I've often thought that the GTs should have their own month of racing; Giro in May, Tour in July, and Vuelta in September. Move the Worlds a few weeks later, and Lombardia a week or two after. The Vuelta currently is too close to the Tour.......
All Road/ Gravel: tbcWinter: tbcMTB: tbcRoad: tbc"Look at the time...." "he's fallen like an old lady on a cruise ship..."0 -
I think the Vuelta used to be mainly in September.
I am old enough to remember it in April as well.
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One tour, 9 weeks long, June-July
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With minor jerseys awarded to the wiinner of each national 'stage'.
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You'd think some website would have stats on who'd ridden/won the 3 GT combo each year
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Pog could have had that triple.
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I don't think there's an ideal solution to this. All 3 countries are getting at serious risk of extreme heat in July and August. A Tour of or in Northern Europe would make sense but how do you get one to switch ? I guess money talks - could the Vuelta be more profitable if the ASO announced the Vuelta was now the Tour of Germany and Austria or something like that ?
In the real world I could see the Vuelta getting pushed back a few weeks and the Tour just putting up with the issue for now. Personally I'd put the Vuelta first and the Giro to start at the end of August so it can pick up big names from the Tour without impacting their A race and riders aiming at a Vuelta Giro double.
[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
The pre aso parcours were weak designs... A lot of sleepy sprint stages .. mountain stages on big roads . The Barcelona circuit was often used .
Weather was not too.much of a problem. Iirc
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
Yep
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
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