First Casualty of the UCI Pro Tour



[email protected] (Richard Adams) wrote:

>Brioches La Boulangère to Stop
>
>http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jun04/jun03news3
>
>Let's hear a big raspberry for those brilliant folk who try to fix
>what wasn't broken.

That's great news.
If we have stupid useless boring french team quitting the ranks, that's
only a good team. The best would be that next year there are only 3 french
pro team, so stupid leblank will be forced to give his wild cards to non
french teams.

And it's not true that something wasn't broken. The Giro with almost only
Italian teams wasn't something in line with the history of this sport.
Something needed to be done.
 
Davide Tosi <[email protected]> wrote:
> And it's not true that something wasn't broken. The Giro with almost only
> Italian teams wasn't something in line with the history of this sport.
> Something needed to be done.

What do you think is more likely? That the TT1's that are currently skipping
the Giro will start sending competitive riders? Or that the TT1's that are
currently skipping the Giro will hire cheap and marginal riders until they
get to 28 and then send them to races they don't care about (like the Giro)
to get ground up into lunch meat?

This could be a terrible thing for the Giro.

I'll bet a bigger factor with Brioches La Boulangere was uncertainty over
whether they'd even be one of the top 18 teams. Since they are currently
ranked 20th they would have to hire real riders to make the cut off. They
wouldn't have the luxury of taking the easy and cheap way out. Better for
them would have been a merger with the other French team that won't make
the cut, Credit Agricole.

I am predicting that teams that are on the margin will merge and teams
that are safely in the top 18 will hire lunch meat.

Bob Schwartz
[email protected]
 
Richard Adams wrote:
> Brioches La Boulangère to Stop
>
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jun04/jun03news3
>
> Let's hear a big raspberry for those brilliant folk who try to fix
> what wasn't broken.

There are 20 riders on the BLB roster. The Cyclingnews.com story mentions
Joseba Beloki, but the real prize must be Sylvain Chavanel, who is still
25 years old. Beloki is 30, Didier Rous is 33.
 
Bob Schwartz <[email protected]> wrote:

>Davide Tosi <[email protected]> wrote:
>> And it's not true that something wasn't broken. The Giro with almost only
>> Italian teams wasn't something in line with the history of this sport.
>> Something needed to be done.
>
>What do you think is more likely? That the TT1's that are currently skipping
>the Giro will start sending competitive riders? Or that the TT1's that are
>currently skipping the Giro will hire cheap and marginal riders until they
>get to 28 and then send them to races they don't care about (like the Giro)
>to get ground up into lunch meat?
>
>This could be a terrible thing for the Giro.

But that's not what is going to happen.
Even now there are riders that would like to ride the Giro but their teams
sponsors don't consider it worth.
Many riders in teams like Quickstep or T-Mobile declared that they would
have come to ride the Giro if their team did.

Anyway, in case even this doesn't work, something else must be done. I
would go as far as making Giro partecipation compulsory for every rider who
wants to ride the Tour.

But you yankees only have to blame yourselves for this situation. Before
the coming of USA top riders, for each and any top stage racer winning Giro
and Tour in the same year was *the ultimate goal*.
Then came first Greg and than Lance from yankeeland and the whole cycling
hyerarchy of priorities changed. Go **** yourselves.

Personally I hope that if really Giro has to become a minor race forever,
than pro cycling goes to hell with it.
 
Davide Tosi wrote:
> [email protected] (Richard Adams) wrote:
>
>> Brioches La Boulangère to Stop
>>
>> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jun04/jun03news3
>>
>> Let's hear a big raspberry for those brilliant folk who try to fix
>> what wasn't broken.
>
> That's great news.
> If we have stupid useless boring french team quitting the ranks,
> that's only a good team. The best would be that next year there are
> only 3 french pro team, so stupid leblank will be forced to give his
> wild cards to non french teams.
>
> And it's not true that something wasn't broken. The Giro with almost
> only Italian teams wasn't something in line with the history of this
> sport. Something needed to be done.

True that the majority of the teams were Italian. However a lot of the
riders weren't. If I recall correctly out of the first 14 on GC there were 7
different nationalities.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.
 
[email protected] (Davide Tosi) writes:

> But that's not what is going to happen. Even now there are riders
> that would like to ride the Giro but their teams sponsors don't
> consider it worth.

I had the idea that this has something to do with RAI screwing up
selling the TV rights. It's not on TV in Spain, IIRC.

--
David N. Welton
Consulting: http://www.dedasys.com/
Personal: http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/
Free Software: http://www.dedasys.com/freesoftware/
Apache Tcl: http://tcl.apache.org/
 
Davide Tosi <[email protected]> wrote:
> But you yankees only have to blame yourselves for this situation. Before
> the coming of USA top riders, for each and any top stage racer winning Giro
> and Tour in the same year was *the ultimate goal*.
> Then came first Greg and than Lance from yankeeland and the whole cycling
> hyerarchy of priorities changed. Go **** yourselves.

Oh please. Indurain did it twice after Lemond. Pantani did it once.

The schedule changes that came when the Vuelta moved from the spring
to the fall did much more damage. It was a good move for the Vuelta
but it harmed the Giro and the World Championships. It made doing
the Giro-Tour double harder.

The Tour always came first, you can't blame that on the Americans.

Bob Schwartz
[email protected]
 
[email protected] (Richard Adams) writes:

> Brioches La Boulangère to Stop
>
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jun04/jun03news3
>
> Let's hear a big raspberry for those brilliant folk who try to fix
> what wasn't broken.

I predict that they may be the first sponsor, but they certainly will
not be the last, to pull the plug.

Pro bike racing is elitist these days: No more a bunch of lads giving
it a go because it was better than the coal-mines in Flanders

Today you have to give a good ROI else you are ****

--
le Vent a Dos
Davey Crockett
Six-Day site: http://members.rogers.com/sixday/sixday.html
Please address all replies to the list
 
In article <[email protected]>, Davide Tosi
<[email protected]> wrote:

> But you yankees only have to blame yourselves for this situation. Before
> the coming of USA top riders, for each and any top stage racer winning Giro
> and Tour in the same year was *the ultimate goal*.
> Then came first Greg and than Lance from yankeeland and the whole cycling
> hyerarchy of priorities changed. Go **** yourselves.

I guess those guys are also responsible for top riders getting
reasonable salaries too, eh?

Maybe it's really the fault of the Italians who love to see 10 bunch
sprints in a grand tour so the teams that don't want that kind of race
go elsewhere.

Or maybe it's the French. Yes, it has to be their fault too. And don't
get me started on those Swiss!

Ciao,

-WG
 
"Davide Tosi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] (Richard Adams) wrote:
>
> And it's not true that something wasn't broken. The Giro with almost only
> Italian teams wasn't something in line with the history of this sport.
> Something needed to be done.

Well, that's true, but I don't think that the pro-tour is the answer.
 
"Richard Adams" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Brioches La Boulangère to Stop
>
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jun04/jun03news3
>
> Let's hear a big raspberry for those brilliant folk who try to fix
> what wasn't broken.

18 teams with 28 riders = 504 riders
22 teams with 20 riders = 440 riders

I realize that some teams may have more than 20 riders, but it seems to me
that the result will be more riders riding for stronger organizations.

-T
 
[email protected] (Davide Tosi) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Bob Schwartz <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Davide Tosi <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> And it's not true that something wasn't broken. The Giro with almost only
> >> Italian teams wasn't something in line with the history of this sport.
> >> Something needed to be done.
> >
> >What do you think is more likely? That the TT1's that are currently skipping
> >the Giro will start sending competitive riders? Or that the TT1's that are
> >currently skipping the Giro will hire cheap and marginal riders until they
> >get to 28 and then send them to races they don't care about (like the Giro)
> >to get ground up into lunch meat?
> >
> >This could be a terrible thing for the Giro.
>
> But that's not what is going to happen.
> Even now there are riders that would like to ride the Giro but their teams
> sponsors don't consider it worth.
> Many riders in teams like Quickstep or T-Mobile declared that they would
> have come to ride the Giro if their team did.
>
> Anyway, in case even this doesn't work, something else must be done. I
> would go as far as making Giro partecipation compulsory for every rider who
> wants to ride the Tour.
>
> But you yankees only have to blame yourselves for this situation. Before
> the coming of USA top riders, for each and any top stage racer winning Giro
> and Tour in the same year was *the ultimate goal*.
> Then came first Greg and than Lance from yankeeland and the whole cycling
> hyerarchy of priorities changed. Go **** yourselves.

I don't think you should post when you're drunk, especially
on all that super nasty Italian beer.

> Personally I hope that if really Giro has to become a minor race forever,
> than pro cycling goes to hell with it.
 
[email protected] (Davide Tosi) wrote in message

> But you yankees only have to blame yourselves for this situation. Before
> the coming of USA top riders, for each and any top stage racer winning Giro
> and Tour in the same year was *the ultimate goal*.
> Then came first Greg and than Lance from yankeeland and the whole cycling
> hyerarchy of priorities changed. Go **** yourselves.
>

great analysis dumbass. see this is what makes it worthwhile. expert
opinion like this.
 
Davide Tosi wrote:
> Bob Schwartz <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> What do you think is more likely? That the TT1's that are currently
>> skipping the Giro will start sending competitive riders? Or that the
>> TT1's that are currently skipping the Giro will hire cheap and
>> marginal riders until they get to 28 and then send them to races they
>> don't care about (like the Giro) to get ground up into lunch meat?
>>
> But that's not what is going to happen.
> Even now there are riders that would like to ride the Giro but their
> teams sponsors don't consider it worth.
> Many riders in teams like Quickstep or T-Mobile declared that they would
> have come to ride the Giro if their team did.

But that's what is already happening. Rather than make hypotheticals about
what teams will do in 2005, let's look at the teams that were able to send
riders to all three GTs in 2003. There were only four of them: Alessio,
Fassa, Kelme, and Saeco; and note also that Fassa and Saeco had two of the
largest rosters: 25 riders. So look at what riders they sent to the three
GTs. I think you'll see that they tended to send contenders to at most two
of the tours, and they sent lunch meat to the other (or others). Only two
riders last year made the start list in all three tours (Alessio's Furlan
and Fassa's Aitor Gonzalez). Even with the expansion to 28 total riders
you're not going to see real talent going to all three tours.
 
David N. Welton wrote:
> "Robert Chung" <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> Only two riders last year made the start list in all three tours
>> (Alessio's Furlan and Fassa's Aitor Gonzalez).
>
> Didn't Petacchi *win* stages in all of them?

Whoops. You're right. Petacchi did start all three GTs. But this is more a
highlight that Petacchi is a rare rider than a refutation of the
underlying point, which is that few riders are capable of doing all three
GTs. Next year's Pro Tour teams will almost certainly be forced to pad
their GT rosters with lunch meat.
 
Could the Giro be made earlier so it didn't conflict so much with the Tour?

If so, how much earlier would it have to be?
 
>Originally posted by Remove The Poli Could the Giro be made earlier so
>it didn't conflict so much with the Tour?
>
>If so, how much earlier would it have to be?

Well, April is the 'classics' season, and March would be too early.



--
 
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