A primary racing season, the 3 Grand Laps, the Classics and many other occasions have been grouped into a 71-day rescheduled calendar in the hope that the game can save the 2020 season and ensure the long-term survival of the groups. and the races on which it depends. Some groups have reduced wages and budgets, and face triple-race systems and more prices to comply with COVID-19 protocols. The sport may have thrown away the towel, but there is a genuine preference for running again.
Ultimately, the trend and control of the COVID-19 pandemic and the decisions of the governments of each country will determine whether the race is possible and what.
The rescheduled racing calendar has a new narrative and a new flow, creating what will be an exclusive and desirable racing season.
The Tour de France remains at the centre of the September season, but will also be an essential preparation for the classic cobblestones and the Ardennes of October. August has the new June and an important final preparation month for all the contestants of the Tour de France, while providing a summer of Italian classics with Strade Bianche, Milan-SanRemo and Il Lombardia filling the next 3 weekends.
The Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España may have lost some prestige, but they will wave the flag of Italy and Spain after their match against COVID-19. The “Spring” Classics will take up position in the defeated fall, with the threat of bad weather that could add an extra touch to the race.
The Vuelta a España, and with it the primary calendar, ends on November 8, but on October 25, an overdue race will be offered ‘Super Sunday’ with the end in the most sensitive step of the Tourmalet in the Vuelta, the First and first: a women’s edition of Paris-Roubaix and then a birthday night of the Giro d’Italia, the last time trial in Milan.
The Tour de France (August 29 to September 20) is, of course, the ultimate vital occasion of the rescheduled season, with its visibility and global importance enough to help the game with the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s tour turns out to be one of the most difficult of recent years, with a solo time trial of 36 km to the end of the mountain of La Planche des Belles Filles on level 20, 4 summit and level ends in the five mountains of France.
Most Tour de France contenders are looking at the general standings and the yellow jersey, with only Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) focusing first on level victories. It will be desirable to see Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) running this year after his two weeks in yellow in 2019, and his fifth overall. Maybe only once he recoils the race with his herbal aggression, break the Ineos team and thus motivate an exciting race.
The Ineos team may have their own upheavals internally, as Egan Bernal, Geraint Thomas and perhaps Chris Froome compete for team leadership. Froome moved to Israel Start-Up Nation in 2021, but is hungry for a fifth Tour victory, despite returning from serious injury. Will he have pledged allegiance in exchange for a spot on Team 8? Will Bernal and Thomas check to remove him from the general at the start of the race? And who will finally be the team leader last week after Thomas proved he is the most productive in 2018, and then Bernal did the same in 2019?
The Ineos team will have to take the risk of their rivals like never before, with Jumbo-Visma in position to take the crown through Tom Dumoulin, Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk, third overall last year. Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) is also a danger after escaping Movistar’s team matches, while Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) will be hungry for good luck after breaking to cry after an injury last year.
There are few opportunities for sprinters at this year’s Tour de France after the first circuit around Nice, but there are many opportunities for escape, with players such as Greg Van Avermaet and Matteo Trentin (CCC Team), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Wout van. Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) Array Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) all looking for their moment in the spotlight. Every day will be like a Classic as the Tour heads first to the Pyrenees and then through the Massif Central during the last week in the Alps and Vosges.
While the Giro d’Italia (October 3-25) follows the Tour de France closely, with the world championships on hilly roads (September 20-27) between the two, the Corsa Rosa is much more than a moment: choice, choice. objective, and will be based on its own merits. The likes of Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and 2019 winner and now Leader of Team Ineos Richard Carapaz are about to be challenged by pink maglia through Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott). ).
Sagan, for his part, kept his word and chose to participate in the Giro d’Italia of the one-day classics. For once, the loss of the Classics is the victory of the turn, with the top sprinters also opting for the same race plan.
The Vuelta a España sees some of the Tour de France contenders take a moment from the Grand Tour, the fatigue of the intense season and the many uphill endings that actually inspire many motorcycle caps: tasty bites and entertaining racing diaries.
This year’s Classics calendar had never been noticed before, with the classic story torn apart and mixed, generating an intense August of opportunities in Italy, then a busy October, with the Ardennes Classics before the cobblestones and the grand final in Paris-Roubaix.
Strade Bianche is a terrible first race on the WorldTour calendar, and will show who has compatibility after months of indoor education and altitude camps. The dirt roads of the Tuscan vineyards recommend that this be a race for the powerful classical riders, however, the steep climbs of the floor and the final ramp of 16% from Via Santa Caterina to the Renaissance Siena make it a delicate and selective race.
It would possibly be too complicated for Sagan when he returns to the action, but it may be suitable for Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Ineos). In the 2019 edition, Alaphilippe took the lead over Jakob Fuglsang from Astana to Siena, with Wout van Aert from Jumbo-Visma completing the podium. It will be desirable to see who emerges in the heat and dust of the August Strade Bianche.
Like Van der Poel, many Classics runners will finish at most in August in Italy, then travel in Trittico Lombardo, Milano-Torino, Milan-San Remo (8 August), Gran Piemonte, Il Lombardia (15 August) Array and even the Giro. ‘Emilia (August 18), before returning home for their respective national championships. Runners expect to run along Via Roma at the end of Milan-Sanremo, but the race will be a war for good fortune, as the new season runs safely and lucky.
With few mountain bike races on their calendar and uninvited to the Tour de France, you can expect going der Poel to aim for each and every race. He showed that he had compatibility with a recent educational camp, setting a new Strava record for the 23 km climb of the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard in the Alps on the Franco-Italian border. He may become the big winner of the Summer Classics.
Van der Poel will not have the Tour de France on his legs for the October Classics, but it can still be a major risk to established prestige, especially in Sagan’s absence. He has the talent to shine in Liege-Bastogne-Liege (October 4), the Amstel Gold Race (October 10), then the Vuelta a Flanders (October 18) and Paris-Roubaix (25 October). Established Classics pilots will do their best to avoid this, but obviously a generational replacement is taking place, with people like Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain McLaren), Nils Politt (Israel Start-Up Nation), Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and the Trek-Segafredo Mads Pedersen trio, Jasper Stuyven and even Quinn Simmons, all in a position to dethrone Greg Van Avermaet of CCC , the Deceuninck clan.
If all goes according to plan, the rare quiet moments of the WorldTour’s rescheduled calendar will offer the possibility of a national, European and even world championship jersey.
Most European national championships will be held on the weekend of 22/23 August, with the European time trial and racing championships in France on 24 and 26 August in the countdown to the Grand Start of the Tour de France in Nice. The world time trial championships are still scheduled for the last day of the Tour de France (September 20), with the men’s road race a week later, on September 27, a few days before the start of the Giro d’Italia and october. Classic.
The season will be intense, with a few days of respite without at least one race to follow live in Cyclingnews. Teams and brokers must thoroughly calibrate their efforts and navigate the coVID-19 disorders and regulations of each country they visit. But even if the only component of the rescheduled season is still in dispute, it will be considered a good fortune and a welcome distraction from the world’s upheavals.
Find out how to watch the revival’s first primary race, the Vuelta a Burgos live, no matter where you are, with ExpressVPN.
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