Calendar:
It starts with Time Trials:
- Sunday 21, morning: Elite Women (31 km)
- Sunday 21, afternoon: Elite Men (41 km)
- Monday 22, morning: U23 Women
- Monday 22, afternoon: U23 Men
- Tuesday 23, morning: Junior Women
- Tuesday 23, afternoon: Junior Men
- Wednesday 24 : mixed relays (2×21km)
Then come the mass start races:
- Thursday 25, afternoon: U23 Women
- Friday 26, morning: Junior Men
- Friday 26, afternoon: U23 Men
- Saturday 27, morning: Junior Women
- Saturday 27, afternoon: Elite Women
- Sunday 28: Elite Men
NB: Women Elite ride the same distance as U23 Men; U23 Women ride the same distance as Junior Men.
Here is the map of the circuit that all mass start races will use:
and an example of repeated profile:
In addition of this circuit, the Elite Men will also ride once a longer circuit:
which will result in this complete profile:
I’m fairly certain they will score no points, although a Cort in form (which he hasn’t been since the spring) could do some damage in Rwanda. The younger riders like Henrik Pedersen and Dalby might have been able to do something in the u23 races, but alas.
Anyway, it’s clear the WC will be deprioritized by many countries. I think the Danish team is still quite good, though. Skjelmose has beaten Pog this season in an uphill sprint after all, not many riders can say that!
Today, Uno-X didn’t score a single point in Wallonie. It looks like they had sent a B or C team, but still, there were points awarded to the first 40 riders, and they didn’t get one. It is much easier to score on a 1.Pro like this, rather than on the stages of a 2.Pro (like Luxembourg) or 2.1 (like Slovakia). Wagner-Bazin, Flanders-Baloise and even the conti Beat managed to score a handful of points, only Tarteletto didn’t.
Today in Belgium again, Uno-X did bad again (5 points), but Cofidis did worse (3 points) and their sprinter Milan Fretin crashed rather badly yesterday. As a result, Uno-X is now ahead of Cofidis in the 3-year UCI ranking by… 1 point!
Battle of Giants today on the French SSR of the week-end, Paris-Chauny: 5 points for Cofidis vs 3 points for Uno-X 😆