The road season has got underway so let's start a new thread. The normal Australian swing to kick off the season was all ditched long ago, so we've had an old school start with the GP La Marseillaise last Sunday won by Ag2r La Citroen Mondiale's Aurelien Paret-Peintre, then Macron not imposing a third lockdown in France has had the pleasant side effect of enabling the Etoile de Besseges stage race to begin yesterday. With there being absolutely no certainty of what racing we will get in the short term this has attracted a far stronger field than the race normally manages, there's eleven World Tour teams for a start. Amidst this Cofidis won the opening stage when Christophe Laporte outpowered Nacer Bouhanni up a punchy climb, then today there was an absolutely crashtastic sprint finish won by WB Bingoal's Timothy Dupont with all the sprinters having to swerve a phalanx of photographers on crossing the line.
A lot of the early season races in Europe have been postponed with the possibility of them being rearranged later in the year, but nothing significant has come under any threat yet save for some suggestions the Amstel Gold course might be remodelled. From this distance it feels as if the big races should mostly happen on their planned dates, but the smaller stuff will have to take their chances a lot more. The British calendar has already been reduced, the Tour de Yorkshire was cancelled last autumn, Ride London was scrapped last week and turned into a virtual race, the city centre Tour Series has been shifted from May to August and several domestic races have been cancelled. The Women's Tour proudly announced recently that they are having live telly coverage for the first time but given that the race is scheduled for June it feels optimistic to say they will go ahead at that time. There are gaps in the World Tour calendar in August and September so not impossible they'll be shifted. I'd say there's a possibility the men's Tour of Britain will happen in early September.
There's been loads of riders changing teams all over the place as usual. INEOS have bought a shitload of Grand Tour riders so it's a bit weird to see them announcing Thomas will lead them in the Tour. TGH and Carapaz are the back up there (although I suspect Carapaz will end up as leader by hook or by crook) and Bernal is off to the Giro. There's a lot to unpick from this, the Tour used to be their primary target around which they shaped the whole season and they're currently backing a rider who they didn't feel able to pick for last year's race. So either they've changed their goals, they're bullshitting, or they're tacitly admitting Pogacar and Roglic aren't beatable. UAE haven't really made the signings everyone expected save for Majka and a late move for Hirschi so it's not clear how much back up Pog will get. Jumbo have still got a massively strong team even allowing for Dumoulin taking his timeout and will hopefully have learnt lessons from last year. Though I did enjoy Roglic's "we won the argument" comment recently where he claimed they had won by virtue of how well the team had ridden. Hmmmmm. Carlton Kirby thinks Wout van Aert will win the Tour and that's got even less chance of happening than Froome doing so at Start Up, where they've built a whole team around him which feels brave.
The women's calendar has been similarly impacted by Covid cancellations, the campaign is expected to get underway at Het Nieuwsblad at the end of the month - Opening Weekend literally being the case there. AVV has gone to Movistar, Vos to the new Jumbo-Visma team. Boels Dolmans are now SD Worx and Anna van der Breggen is scheduled to retire at the end of the season. Lizzie Deignan's Trek team look really strong and hopefully we'll get to see something of Elynor Backstedt this year.
The Tour has announced their wild card teams while I've been typing this, they've been given UCI approval to race 23 teams so there are predictable invites for B&B (who lost their co-sponsor over the winter, a hotel chain who've undoubtedly been impacted by Covid), Arkea Samsic and Total Direct Energie. The Giro has also made an announcement today as the Grande Partenza will be in Piedmont, they're starting with a 9k time trial in Turin which sounds as if it has Ganna written all over it. Full route is being announced at the weekend I think.
As things stand the road worlds are in Flanders in September, track Worlds are in October somewhere - not sure if that change of timing is Covid related or not.
A lot of the early season races in Europe have been postponed with the possibility of them being rearranged later in the year, but nothing significant has come under any threat yet save for some suggestions the Amstel Gold course might be remodelled. From this distance it feels as if the big races should mostly happen on their planned dates, but the smaller stuff will have to take their chances a lot more. The British calendar has already been reduced, the Tour de Yorkshire was cancelled last autumn, Ride London was scrapped last week and turned into a virtual race, the city centre Tour Series has been shifted from May to August and several domestic races have been cancelled. The Women's Tour proudly announced recently that they are having live telly coverage for the first time but given that the race is scheduled for June it feels optimistic to say they will go ahead at that time. There are gaps in the World Tour calendar in August and September so not impossible they'll be shifted. I'd say there's a possibility the men's Tour of Britain will happen in early September.
There's been loads of riders changing teams all over the place as usual. INEOS have bought a shitload of Grand Tour riders so it's a bit weird to see them announcing Thomas will lead them in the Tour. TGH and Carapaz are the back up there (although I suspect Carapaz will end up as leader by hook or by crook) and Bernal is off to the Giro. There's a lot to unpick from this, the Tour used to be their primary target around which they shaped the whole season and they're currently backing a rider who they didn't feel able to pick for last year's race. So either they've changed their goals, they're bullshitting, or they're tacitly admitting Pogacar and Roglic aren't beatable. UAE haven't really made the signings everyone expected save for Majka and a late move for Hirschi so it's not clear how much back up Pog will get. Jumbo have still got a massively strong team even allowing for Dumoulin taking his timeout and will hopefully have learnt lessons from last year. Though I did enjoy Roglic's "we won the argument" comment recently where he claimed they had won by virtue of how well the team had ridden. Hmmmmm. Carlton Kirby thinks Wout van Aert will win the Tour and that's got even less chance of happening than Froome doing so at Start Up, where they've built a whole team around him which feels brave.
The women's calendar has been similarly impacted by Covid cancellations, the campaign is expected to get underway at Het Nieuwsblad at the end of the month - Opening Weekend literally being the case there. AVV has gone to Movistar, Vos to the new Jumbo-Visma team. Boels Dolmans are now SD Worx and Anna van der Breggen is scheduled to retire at the end of the season. Lizzie Deignan's Trek team look really strong and hopefully we'll get to see something of Elynor Backstedt this year.
The Tour has announced their wild card teams while I've been typing this, they've been given UCI approval to race 23 teams so there are predictable invites for B&B (who lost their co-sponsor over the winter, a hotel chain who've undoubtedly been impacted by Covid), Arkea Samsic and Total Direct Energie. The Giro has also made an announcement today as the Grande Partenza will be in Piedmont, they're starting with a 9k time trial in Turin which sounds as if it has Ganna written all over it. Full route is being announced at the weekend I think.
As things stand the road worlds are in Flanders in September, track Worlds are in October somewhere - not sure if that change of timing is Covid related or not.
Comment