Lazkano to RedBull. Good move all around I think. Looks like Redbull and Astana are going to be the big spenders this transfer season.
Also, there’s a new Taco in town. Paula Ostiz Taco won the junior women’s TT at the Euro championships.
It’s your call to make, but my general take is that a race doing numerous laps of a circuit is inherently better than point-to-point from the perspective of on-site spectator.
There’s almost no down time, as one can move around and catch the same group of riders at numerous parts of the circuit, even on the same lap.
I’d imagine watching skilled riders navigating drops, rock gardens, and high-speed descents to be more interesting than watching roadies doing laps after laps without anything interesting happen, only to have the last lap (or two, if one’s lucky) to be interesting but being confined to a particular area. I’d speculate this might be even more of a factor for an 11-year old.
I dunno, we had a circuit race here in Philly for a number of years and it was very enjoyable - and profitable for all the bars & restaurants along the course; it practically invented the Manayunk neighborhood as we know today
i’d echo echappist - spectating esp if you know a few of the riders is pretty cool. esp if you can see them a little before the start and after the finish. sometimes there is even a media event the day or 2 before.
and… lake placid is a pretty incredible place to bring your own bike or to hike (cascade hike just 4-5 miles outside of town has amazing 360 views).
on the philly front - i did spectate one year with the help of copious beer drinking and I raced it a few years (distinctly remember U2 Joshua tree rotating such that I caught several songs between the very loud cheering!).
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This raises a good point— should we restart the ‘24 cycling thread as we have a good amount of racing to go, plus cross is coming?
Thanks guys, Yeah I was at the Philly race a good 4-6 times before it went away, loved that race, I wish it was still on, my son would have loved it, I took him to the Baltimore race last year, and while it had non of party vibes of the Philly race, he still liked it, so I’d imagine that he would have a good time seeing the riders more frequently, it’s just that I have never been to a pro mtb race so I have no idea what the scene is like, also I/we don’t really follow MTB, so it won’t have the wow factor of seeing guys in person that you have seen on TV.
Definitely some good riding up that way though I dont think I’ll get to do any of that if I go with the kiddo.
Tadej and Jonas can finally rest easy knowing that Blu isn’t going to be gunning for le Tour.
I’d think MTB spectating would be better than a road circuit. They’re going slower and strung out, not whizzing by in a peloton. And you can probably set up shop near a feature for some more action.
I’ve only spectated my son’s MTB races, so it’s hard to compare as the level is lower but the stakes are higher (for me as a spectating dad). But we’ve also stuck around after to watch the older kids and elite men/women and in general I think the MTB vibe is very laid back, sort of a party atmosphere. More of a sense of community than the road races or Crits I’ve been to.
So it looks like Flo hasn’t sprung for the rights to the Quebec races. I can’t complain too much because for us up here in Canada, the coverage has been pretty comprehensive this year. Our friends south of the border will get them on Max and they’ll be on Eurosport/Discovery for those across the pond. The race website has a link for livestreaming that takes you to a Facebook page, so hopefully at least that works. Won’t matter for Sunday as I’ll be there but I’d love to be able to get home from work Friday and catch the end of the race in my backyard with beer in hand. I don’t know what kind of feed they’re going to show on Facebook or even if it’ll work - @marcag do you know any more about this than I do? Will you be spectating from inside a team car?
A buddy and mine have been doing the same ritual for years. We start at my Condo which is at the base of the mountain, where they come tearing down and turn onto Cote Des Neiges. We then walk the whole course, along Cote Des Neiges, Polyte hnique, through Outremont and when we get to the Plateau we go to the pub. Then we usually go to the start/end area and usually have passes to get into where the teams are set up near the finish line. If that’s boring we go back to the pub and then come back to the finish line for the end. Team car stuff is actually boring on this race.
Today I am testing the IPT owner at the velodrome. I will ask about the coverage. There is usually someone knowledgeable about these things.
I expect you to be mapping it out now, the Tour you plan to lead us all on for World’s 2026
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Looking forward to this tour…
Hirschi bar is racking up some Ws during the latter part of season.
It seems like that’s almost his role within the team - he goes to a lot of minor races and just collects UCI points - not that the team needs them.
Well, Unibroue is currently proposed to be one stop on the tour. About 20 miles from downtown via almost primarily bike paths.
Only issues are 1) how do we secure a bunch of valuable bikes and 2) “pelotons” are generally frowned upon on paths.
I’ll defer to @marcag on this, but I think the thing to do in Montreal is ride on the south shore, but more often to the west than east (direction of unibroue). It’s also maybe questionable to have your mid-ride stop at a brewery whose best beers are in the 7-9% range. Plenty of good breweries and brewpubs in Montreal for post-ride beverages.
But this is all way in the future. More immediately, predictions for the race tomorrow? I like De Lie to defend his title, not sure whether Bini has recovered from all his post-tour partying, but I think it’ll be between those two. Bling always goes well here too, let’s say him for third.
Maybe Stevie Williams to try a long range move a la Cosnefroy in '22?
It looks the they are going to try to have a whole separate forum for road cycling. I guess they don’t want to contaminate triathlon discussion with roadie babble.
I like the idea of that. Cycling forum here and on Escape will be great for distracting me.
Then let’s take our place in the peloton. Everyone here hang a right: 2024 Bike Racing Banter V2 ***Spoilers***
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Who is “they?”
This thread was started right after The Snap as a way to talk about the most current race at that moment -La Vuelta
However, with no prospect of the broader-spectrum bike racing thread coming back, I propose this thread just be RE-Titled as others had and open it up to ALL formats