Tour of Alberta - TV alert!

[jonovision_man]

Good news about the tour coming back. It would be great to get a couple of mountain stages - Longview to Nakiska? Radium to Vermilion Pass and back?

It's back - route announced. No mountain stages...

http://tourofalberta.ca/

Not sure how you call something the tour of Alberta when it misses the most striking feature of the province. A mountain finish with crowds lining the road would be so amazing, they really need to make that happen if it's back in 2015!

jono

[turd ferguson]

This is the closest we're going to get to a mountain stage.

http://tourofalberta.ca/content/images/ ... rofile.png

Its probably the only stage I'll get to see as well.

(edited because the sizing was messed up)

[Dstew]

Reason for no mountain stage.

Banff and Canmore were both asked but both declined as they did not have it in their budgets to put up the estimated $100,000 - 350,000 for the right to host a stage.

[jonovision_man]

Prologue today in Calgary... on one of the Sportsnet channels!

jono

[Wu wei]

Prologue today in Calgary... on one of the Sportsnet channels!

jono

Channel 907 at 6pm on my Telus TV.

Saturday's stage finishes 500m from my front door. My street is the final circuit.

[Dstew]

Not sure how exciting that time trial will be as I use that hill they climb for hill training as part of my long runs and has a lot of switch backs and is quite steep.

[jonovision_man]

Not sure how exciting that time trial will be as I use that hill they climb for hill training as part of my long runs and has a lot of switch backs and is quite steep.

I like it! Great climb. Lots of interesting bike choices, full TT, road with clip on aerobars, straight road.

Small crowds it seems though.

jono

[Dstew]

The problem is that given the design of the course and how the organizers set it up, it only allowed for most of the crowd to be at the start and finish. To get there would have involved shuttle buses and parking. Given it is a work day, the one selling point of this venue is that it did not close a route of any significance. Aside from those using COP, the only other traffic are people using it as a short cut and with the turns and stop signs and speed bumps, not even a great one at that.

[jonovision_man]

And the winner is ...

... a doper who shouldn't be racing right now, who snagged it by 1 second on a time bonus. Gotta love cycling! Last stage was exciting, though, I'll give them that.

Didn't love the course, though, should have had some stages to shake up the GC more so it didn't have to come down to time bonuses. Too much circuit/lap stuff for a "Tour". The one feature I liked was the gravel roads, but I seem to be alone in that.

jono

[Wu wei]

And the winner is ...

... a doper who shouldn't be racing right now, who snagged it by 1 second on a time bonus. Gotta love cycling! Last stage was exciting, though, I'll give them that.

Didn't love the course, though, should have had some stages to shake up the GC more so it didn't have to come down to time bonuses. Too much circuit/lap stuff for a "Tour". The one feature I liked was the gravel roads, but I seem to be alone in that.

jono

He was exonerated... by no means does that mean he isn't a doper... this is a good summary:
http://www.sport24.co.za/OtherSport/Cycling/South-Africa/Daryl-Impey-a-very-unusual-case-20140903

Circuit/lap races will always be common at the ToA as communities pay big money for the exposure the race brings.
Time bonuses are necessary to create excitement without highly selective climbs.

Mountain/remote stages will be almost impossible given UCI 2.1 stage distance limit of (I think) 165km or so.
The little mountain towns are also unlikely to be able to put out the money in order to host a stage.

Grand Prairie confirmed for opening two stages next year.