2010 UCI Women's Road Calendar

[Skip Madness]

The UCI have published next year's provisional calendars and there are a few interesting things about the women's elite schedule.

Most glaringly at this stage, the Grande Boucle does not appear listed. The flyer Vélo-Féminin put on their website a few months ago had the race pencilled in for 13-18 July. The calendar could change, as there were additions and withdrawals made to this season's timetable as it was ongoing, but it's a bit worrying that it's not even sketched in for the time being. On the other hand, the Critérium des Cyclistines, a one-day race that Vélo-Féminin has been trying to organise for years, is set for the 12th of June as a 1.2 classed event. I hope we'll find out more soon.

There are other notable absentees. The Vuelta a Costa Rica seems to have lost its UCI classification again, while all of the races in El Salvador that were cancelled this year - Vuelta a El Salvador, Vuelta a Occidente, GP de Santa Ana and GP de San Salvador - have not reappeared. Among one-day races, the Tour de Berne (a World Cup event) is not there. Neither are the Wellington one-day race nor the Chrono des Herbiers. The Geelong races are still not back, presumably because of Melbourne hosting the World Championships next season. I hope it returns subsequently.

What's new is quite intriguing. The Tour of Chongming Island one-day race is now part of the World Cup - whether is will still be a time-trial or if it is changing to a road race I don't know. The GP Ciudad de Valladolid - which was slated for this year and last year but cancelled on both occasions - is not only back but also has World Cup status. It is joined by another one-day race in Spain, the Trofeo Marta de Azpilicueta. The Visite Chrono de Gatineau, a time-trial in Canada, is new to the calendar, as are the Dwars door de Westhoek and Grand Prix de Luxembourg.

There are two new stage races as well. The GP Pasta Zara is scheduled for three days at the end of May, organised by the Safi-Titanedi people. There is a bit about it here:

Next season we are organising a stage race that will bring together the best Italian and foreign squads in women's cycling. It will be called the Gran Premio Pasta Zara Memorial Franco Bragagnolo in honour of one of our sponsors and it will become one of the highlights of the international calendar.

Perhaps most eye-catching of all is the Tour of India, slated for the 27-29 March as a 2.2 event. I haven't been able to find out anything about it yet as a Google search has proven fruitless and the website linked from the UCI schedule just goes to some marketing company. It's certainly not a country I was expecting to see hosting a new race, so I'm keen to learn more.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

A Tour of India sounds great. I hope they actually have some Indian teams riding and it's not just a load of white people riding in an 'exotic' location...

 

[Skip Madness]

I hope they actually have some Indian teams riding and it's not just a load of white people riding in an 'exotic' location...

What on Earth makes you think it would be like that...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

What on Earth makes you think it would be like that...

Ha ha... indeed.

 

[resal1]

Sad that the Geelong tour is not in. Let's hope it does come back.
At http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/may09/may05news, about 5th story down there is a tour identified. One must assume it is for men.
I cannot search and find it now, but I think I read somewhere that Geelong was still having problems sorting out the course for next year's champs.

Maybe the Boucle departing is a good thing. Perhaps a void is needed for women's cycling to get the sort of event it needs to promote it. Tough on Boue. He has been doing his best for years. However, it does not appear to have improved in recent years. No signs of former glory, 2 weeks, 3 week-ends and a finish in the Palace of Versailles.

A few months ago the Daily Telegraph ran a story connected with Steven Roche and showed him on the Podium in Paris. Alongisde him was Lonogo, also in Yellow.

 

[Skip Madness]

Sad that the Geelong tour is not in. Let's hope it does come back.
At http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/may09/may05news, about 5th story down there is a tour identified. One must assume it is for men.

That's a bit odd. I thought I remembered reading that the reason Geelong wasn't held last year was because it clashed (well, not really, but sort of) with the hosting of the Oceania continental championships, and presumed that the non-appearance in 2010 was for similar reasons regarding the Worlds. And yet there they are organising new men's stage races.

 

[yello]

Blimey, sounds like a cycling version of the hokey cokey! All those races out, and others in? Is that normal for women's cycling?

Perhaps I illustrate the reason; I know little about it and have little interest to find out more. So neither do many people I guess. We have a couple of quite high profile women's races around here each year (in that they attract teams from around the world, I don't know how they're rated on any race calendar though) but they are not well attended (comparatively) and I've never been to watch.

 

[Skip Madness]

All those races out, and others in? Is that normal for women's cycling?

Pretty much. There are certain races that are more-or-less guaranteed to be there in some form or another: the stage races like the Giro, Tour de l'Aude, Thüringen, Toscana, Ardèche, Bira, Gracia-Orlová, Grand Montréal and Trophee d'Or; and maybe twenty-five/thirty one-day races you can fairly well bet to be on. Beyond those, even races that become well-established aren't ones I'd be certain of going for another year until I've seen the calendar with my own eyes.

 

[Skip Madness]

I'm bumping this for two reasons. One is to say that although it doesn't contain any info on a women's race (or the men's race scheduled for the same slot next year), this website does contain some stuff about a Tour de India, although whether it's in any way affiliated with next year's UCI races is unclear.

The second thing was something I was wondering about yesterday, with some of us constantly lamenting the lack of a two-week stage race in the women's calendar (warning - this is about to get nerdy). A few months ago I posted this about UCI regulations on race distances in another thread:

2.6.007
Elite women's world circuit
The maximum duration of each event shall be that of 2004. The duration of new events in classes HC, 1 and 2 is limited to 6 days, unless an exemption is made by the management committee.

This is a little unclear to me, as it could be saying that the maximum allowable duration is that of the rules in place in 2004 (I do not know what those rules are). More likely, I interpret it as saying the maximum duration is that of the longest races in 2004 (10 days, which I think the Tour de l'Aude was the only race to fulfill). I would be interested if anyone can clarify this.

I had the idea yesterday of going into www.archive.org to see if the old UCI rule books from 2004 still existed. They do. They use the same terminology as the current documents but refer back to 1996:
[quote name='UCI]Women's Elite Events classified 2.9 [note - old classifications remember, modern day 2.1'] - maximum duration 1996 length[/quote]
Given that the Grande Boucle was frequently a 15-day event (including the rest day) and the Giro between 11 and 15 days between 1996 and 2003, races of that duration were clearly still permissible in 2004. So the question is whether the current regulations invoke the rules of 2004 or the actual races of 2004 (none of which were longer than 10 days). Although that remains ambiguous, the way the documents are all written the same way back through to before 2000 (you can't go as far back as the 1996 rule book) makes me think that the same regulations are in place - ie. a two-week race would still be permissible under the current rules.

This is backed up by the fact that the Giro d'Italia's reduction from being a two-week race in 2001 to a ten-day race in 2002 was prompted not by any regulation but by the organisers themselves being seen to act on the doping raid that had affected the race in 2001. This from Cycling News before the 2002 Giro:
[quote name='Cycling News]This year's Giro is run over 10 days [...'] This marks a reduction in length from previous editions which have been run over 14 days. The decision to reduce the distance was made by Giuseppe Rivolta (Associclosportivi di Sovico) in conjunction with the O.G.C. (Organizzazione Gare Ciclistiche). Italian cycling federation president Giancarlo Ceruti approved of the change, saying that it would provide a spectacle without seriously affecting the health of the athletes.[/quote]
I'm aware that this stuff is only of interest to (generously) a handful of us, but I thought it was worth sticking here.

 

[resal1]

Thanks Skip. Interesting that there was the cut and "Health of the riders" was one of the publicly stated benefits. On the basis that the organisers of the women's giro also organise the U23 men's ("baby") giro - was that shortened in length for the health of the riders ?

 

[Skip Madness]

On the basis that the organisers of the women's giro also organise the U23 men's ("baby") giro - was that shortened in length for the health of the riders ?

Having looked this up quickly, I can't find out how long the Baby Giri were in 1999 or prior to 1998, but in 1998 it was 11 days and in 2000 10 days. Then in 2001 it goes up to 14 days, before going back down to 10 in 2002 and staying there subsequently. That coincides with the reduction in 2002 of the Giro Donne, but I can't tell whether that was coordinated or a coincidence - 2001 might have just been an experiment in the Girobio which didn't work out, or it may have been that after the raid on the Giro Donne it was deemed sensible to shorten both races.

 

[Skip Madness]

Bump.

I did some digging recently to find out what the deal is with the Grande Boucle next year. It sounds like Pierre Boué has a lot on his plate which might be getting in the way. I'm having trouble with my limited French, but he seems to be embroiled in a political scandal based on when he was a representative in the administration of the city of Paris, which concerns "fictional jobs". His name has come up alongside accusations of the crimes of "concealing funds he new had come from the offence of abuse of confidence" and "concealing the offence of misappropriation of public funds". It all concerns Jacques Chirac's administration of Paris city hall, it seems.

Jeannie Longo's name also came up, the insinuation I think being that an assistant for her may have been one of these so-called fictional jobs, although Chirac's lawyer is contesting it. It seems there was also he belief that Boué may have been the one employed as her assistant. Like I said, I'm struggling with the language barrier, but you can get a bit of info in French here.

Cyclismag went with this on November 3rd...

Emplois fictifs : Questions sur une assistante de Jeannie Longo...

A l'époque où Jacques Chirac était maire de Paris, Jeannie Longo aurait bénéficié d'une "assistante" payée par la mairie, explique l'avocat de l'ancien président de la République, aujourd'hui poursuivi pour de présumés emplois fictifs. Selon Me Jean Veil, l'emploi d'une assistante pour Jeannie Longo relève du "mécénat sportif" puisque la cycliste travaillait "gratuitement pour la mairie de manière bénévole".
L'avocat de Jacques Chirac a justifié à l'agence Associated Press : "[Jeannie Longo] dit simplement qu'elle n'a pas le temps de remplir un certain nombre de tâches et veut être assistée, cela n'est pas anormal. [...] Il y avait un projet de vélodrome à Paris et éventuellement d'autres compétitions, et le maire de l'époque a considéré que la mairie devait faire du mécénat sportif".
Jeannie Longo, qui a fêté samedi ses 51 ans, a été liée à la commune de Paris, notamment licenciée au club du Paris cycliste olympique.

... et poursuites contre le directeur du « Tour féminin »

La juge Xavière Simeoni, qui instruisait le dossier sur les présumés emplois fictifs à la mairie de Paris, a décidé jeudi de renvoyer devant la justice dix personnes dont Jacques Chirac et... Pierre Boué. Le directeur de la Grande Boucle féminine internationale (GBFI) est poursuivi pour "recel d'abus de confiance et recel de détournement de fonds publics". Entre octobre 1992 et mai 1996, il a été chargé de mission de la ville de Paris. Au total, il "aurait perçu plus de 96.000 euros", a révélé Le Parisien vendredi.
Pierre Boué, 51 ans, dirige depuis 1992 le Tour de France féminin, devenu la GBFI. Ancien journaliste, il a publié plusieurs livres sur le cyclisme, mais aussi sur le football (La grande aventure du Toulouse Football Club, de 1937 à nos jours) et Jacques Chirac (Jacques Chirac authentique. La biographie du cinquième Président de la cinquième République).

... and then printed this correction on November 6th:

-Cyclismag.com annonçait lundi que Pierre Boué, organisateur de la Grande Boucle féminine internationale, était renvoyé devant la justice dans le cadre de l'affaire dite des "emplois fictifs de la mairie de Paris", tandis que le nom d'une "assistante" de Jeannie Longo apparaissait dans le dossier. Or, il s'agit d'une seule et même personne, contrairement à ce qu'indiquait l'agence américaine Associated Press, parlant au féminin d'une "assistante" au service de la cycliste.
L'avocat de Jacques Chirac estime que l'emploi de Pierre Boué relève du "mécénat sportif".

 

[resal1]

Hi Skip - thanks for posting that up. I have started a separate thread for GBFI which has now run its course. Very sad. Given our discoveries of last year and Boue attempting to get UK towns involved and the story of BC putting the end to any possible chance of getting the race into London, it seems that it was not only in France was he having little luck.

 

[Skip Madness]

OK, we'll use your new thread from here on in since it's more specific.

 

[Skip Madness]

Just a little bump - this piece from Cicloweb indicates that the Stelvio will be in next summer's Giro d'Italia.

Yay!

The first real special-category climb in a grand tour since the Izoard from the 2008 Boucle. It also mentions the race taking in Aprica. Which is of course next-door to the Mortirolo and the Gavia...





... which I doubt we'll see, but we can dream.