Here comes the spring....

TheBlaaMan

The CX season is drawing to an end and we are less than three weeks away from the 'opening weekend' at Omloop and Kuurne.

Certainly, for the Belgian races run by Flanders Classics, there will be no spectators this year. I'm not sure what France and Italy are doing for the follow-on races in those countries. The Dutch are talking about turning the Amstel Gold race into an 18km multi lap race so that they can more easily manage crowds and avoid local route/access permission being withdrawn at the last minute. I guess that there will be changes - novel and forced - depending on how the Covid situation progresses.

Calendar
27 February: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Elite (Belgium)
28 February: Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (Belgium) Non WT race in '21
6 March: Strade Bianche (Italy)
7 - 14 March: Paris-Nice (France)
10 - 16 March: Tirreno-Adriatico (Italy)
20 March: Milano-Sanremo (Italy)
22 - 28 March: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Spain)
24 March: AG Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne (Belgium)
26 March: E3 BinckBank Classic (Belgium)
28 March: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
31 March: Dwars door Vlaanderen - A travers la Flandre (Belgium)
4 April: Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres (Belgium)
5 - 10 April: Itzulia Basque Country (Spain)
11 April: Paris-Roubaix (France)
18 April: Amstel Gold Race (the Netherlands)
21 April: La Flèche Wallonne (Belgium)
25 April: Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Belgium)

Worth noting too that we can look forward to the 2021 World Road Championships taking place over the same Flandrian roads as the Belgian races in September (all going well)

Before all this comes the UAE Tour (United Arab Emirates) from 21 – 27 February: this event last year marked the start of the COvid19 crisis in pro-cycling and I guess there is still a risk to this event too, as for all the above...

Anyway, there is still a lot to be decided even for Omloop on 27th February - the official website has no info as of yet - but this should appear soon enough

Roll on....

Going to miss the CX, got more invested in it this year for some reason. The womens race today in the snow was one of the best of the season.

Few non world tour races to come this week too, Tour de la Provence on the 11th and Clasica de Almeria next Sunday, though I'm surprised that one is still down to go ahead given the other Spanish races got cancelled.

Both those are on Eurosport/GCN

Eamonnator

Deleted User wrote: »

Going to miss the CX, got more invested in it this year for some reason. The womens race today in the snow was one of the best of the season.

Few non world tour races to come this week too, Tour de la Provence on the 11th and Clasica de Almeria next Sunday, though I'm surprised that one is still down to go ahead given the other Spanish races got cancelled.

Both those are on Eurosport/GCN

It was fantastic. Great racing from start to finish.

CantGetNoSleep

That 27/28 February is the time I look forward to most every year in terms of watching sports. Always two great races on a Saturday and Sunday, often in freezing cold weather (going to be -12 in that part of Belgium this week). Let's hope we get a good calendar of racing, last year was a great season once it got going again

TheBlaaMan

No spectators thru to Flanders........but at least the races are still on course, for now anyway


https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/belgian-classics-to-go-on-without-spectators-through-tour-of-flanders/


No indication yet if Omloop will be shown live on Eurosport; it's not yet on the GCN+ schedule and they are the same stable, so it might be necessary to watch it otherwise. Apparently, ES/GCN are 'still negotiating' on rights

TheBlaaMan

Yay they managed to sort something out for the opening weekend at least.

https://twitter.com/daniellloyd1/status/1364593219531640832?s=20


Eurosport and GCN can announce it has reached agreement with Infront and Flanders Classics to broadcast Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on its platforms across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region*.

Eurosport and GCN will screen the men’s and women’s races from the first cobbled classic of the year on Saturday 27 February exclusively in Europe, except Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, where the race will be aired on a non-exclusive basis.

Guy Voisin, Director of Cycling Production, said: “Eurosport X GCN is happy to be able to bring the opening spring classic of 2021 to our cycling fans across Europe. As the Home of Cycling, our ambition is to develop our cycling offer which in 2021 will see our community of fans enjoy more than 300 days of cycling action.

So looks like that was the issue, Flanders Classic's wanted to sell rights for the lowlands countries to maybe national broadcasters and to Eurosport for the rest of Europe.

I'd imagine for the Classics racing there would be like if GAA rights were sold exclusively to SKY or Virgin Media here.

I don't know about the Netherlands or Luxembourg but VRT (Sporza) already have a deal til 2024 for the Flanders Classics races.

TheBlaaMan

No Mathieu van der Poel for Omloop.
Not surprising I guess given the Covid positive in the team at the UAE Tour

He's starting on Sunday in Kuurne

TheBlaaMan

The Spring Classics: The definitive guide...............according to Cycling news, anyway

TheBlaaMan

Uh-oh ..............It sounds as if Paris-Roubaix is under threat. France has announced a new lockdown in 16 départements (and a 7pm curfew) including Nord, (Roubaix end), and Oise, where the start in Compiègne is located.

Hopefully not...........another year without PR would be very sad indeed.

Not in danger according to Het Nieuwsblad, pro sport is still allowed.
Lille can carry on in football for the time being.

Macy0161

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Hopefully not...........another year without PR would be very sad indeed.

I think they'd move it to the autumn, if it came to it. MvdP can peak again for Lombardy and Roubaix!

TheBlaaMan

Bad news. Very bad...........

No Paris-Roubaix this spring

..."reports suggest the postponement of the race, possibly to an end-of-season October date, will be made today. "


https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/paris-roubaix-called-off-due-to-covid-19-situation-in-northern-france/