All we need is someone to broadcast both races here.
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Yes, absolutely! The TdF Femmes should not be a gimped version of the TdF.
I think a big factor is finances on all ends. Iād love to see two weeks as well, but we mustnāt forget about money. Just looking at the equipment women pro teams have suggests that budgets are really tight. I reckon thatās also a factor in making the stages shorter ā it is cheaper.
Ideally, the TdFF will grow over the next 5ā10 years in popularity, length and all.
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There is also a UCI mandate re: the length of womenās races.
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I remember @ambermalika mentioning that. I donāt remember the specifics (a 160ish km limit perhaps?), but when I heard it, it sounded like BS. IMHO stages should be a bit shorter to make the racing more interesting, not because I think women have gender-specific physiological limitations where riding more than 160 km would make it less safe. (Women seem to be able to ride and finish Unbound just fine ā¦)
They also seem to be able to run full marathons with no issue, as well.
Was just listening to the latest episode of The Adventure Stache and Payson was interviewing Sarah Sturm (who is awesome, BTW) and they talk about how this year was largely a āproof of conceptā and I think that is a smart take.
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Yeah, some of the UCIās rules are so severely outdated and non-sensical (e. g. 6.8 kg weight limit and junior gearing), letās hope the focus womenās cycling will help them get slightly more up to date (slightly less out of date?).
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I donāt know if youāve all seen it, but at the end, Gracie Elvin interviewed Van Vlueten, and AVV said something like āWe want the full race, but weāre not ready for that yetā. Not sure if anyone knows the context of that comment? Was it about the Peloton or logistics or financing or what?
If you havenāt seen the interview, it was touching. She really gave heartfelt thanks and love to Gracie.
(Edit - oops - names corrected)
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I think it is all of the aboveā¦.the teams are not ready for a 3 week race, ASO isnāt ready for it and the athletes probably arenāt ready for it.
In all honestly, Iām perfectly OK if it never gets to that lengthā¦I thought the TDFF was way more exciting and engaging than the mens reace this year. I have always said that shorter / fewer stages makes for better racing.
If having a shorter race makes for a more exciting race, iām here for it.
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Iām sure that a large part of it is finances: having a 2ā3 week stage race is a huge financial commitments for teams. As I noted above, some of them canāt even afford (or are given) top-tier groupsets and matching wheels. Likewise, viewership needs to increase as well.
For comparison, this Womenās EuroCup in soccer is the first in memory that could fill a big, big stadium. In the past, I saw games on TV that seated less people than in some 3rd league games. Sponsors now know that womenās soccer teams can fill the Wembley Stadium and entertain the audience. I reckon the TdF Femmes was similarly successful, and I hope this will attract new sponsors etc. etc.
Thanks. I was trying to see if anyone knew specifically what AVV meant by her comment. I only saw about 60 seconds of it and she didnāt say.
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Anthony McCrossen or Hannah Walker mentioned that as well on the peacock stream as well during the longest stage of the tdff. Something about how they had to get special dispensation to have that particular (180k ish?) stage.
Iād agree that shorter stages are more interesting regardless of gender. Iāll watch an entire 100k stage but probably only the last 20k of a 240k stage (or whatever the longer stages end up being). I watched the full broadcast for the tdff, Iād almost never do that for the menās race.
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Yup. Especially for stage races, you simply canāt watch it all. And I suspect shorter stages would make it easier on the athletes in a good way (less kCals per day = less demanding nutrition).
But shorter stages means less overall time on the bike to create fatigue and splits in weeks two and three and ultimately could lead to more boring racing.
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Iām not sure it would be less, but certainly a different kind of fatigue. Iām all for mixing it up and having all kinds of different stages to highlight different kinds of athletes. (For both the men and the women)
Agree completely - I would just hate to see stages shortened generally. Yes it means you may get more people who watch the entire stage but it would fundamentally change the nature of stage racing.
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Not necessarilyā¦.the womenās races broke up much quicker and the favorites had to come out and show themselves much more often. There was a lot less opportunity to just ride in the bunch during the TDFF.
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The race was also only 1 weekā¦
CUL talked about that long stage on a podcast recently, and even though it was longer than normal, it was still only 4.5 hours on the bike. Her opinion was that it didnāt really affect the racing much. Not that every stage should be that long, but it is nice to have variety.
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Iām not a fan of gravel in grand tours. I watch a grand tour to see the best road riders in the world battle it out on the road. Save the gravel for one day races or full blown gravel.
As for mountains, those are part of racing in Europe.
I think a week+ of racing will induce plenty of fatigue. Also, races need not be more boring, shorter race courses could facilitate more intense battles and allow riders or small groups to stay away. A good example is the Olympic womenās road race: an Israeli and a Polish rider only got caught towards the end. If they had had another 100 km to go, it would have been a foregone conclusion, but in an alternate universe they might have just preserved enough of their lead.
Overall, I think it is a question of how races are watched: do you watch just a highlight reel of the day? Do you watch it in the background like some people watch baseball? Or are people watching intently? Those very long stages are IMHO more like TTs: very few people can appreciate even why it is hard and how hard it is.
Yes, but that need not be a bad thing. The sport has evolved over time, the routes are different than those of a few decades ago, etc. Rediscovering things that used to be common, like stages with gravel segments, seems like a good idea to me. Also the skill set has changed quite a bit. A lot of the great road riders actually have a background in other, usually offroad disciplines ā Pidcock, MvdP, WvA, ā¦ Road cycling can only gain from them being able to display their bike handling skills. This is still my all-time favorite road race moment: thinking completely outside the box.
The biggest change is how the sport is watched: you can watch the entire race on demand if you wish. There is plenty of commentary.
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