Million Dollar "Race of Champions"



Walrus

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Apr 4, 2004
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Reported on Daily Peloton - http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=10285

"A million dollar prize awaits the winner of the new season-ending Race of Champions to be held in Abu Dhabi in November" - Eurosport.

Basically, it's a race between the winners of the 3 Grand Tours. Each winning team team gets to field 8-10 riders, there will an a representative team from the region, plus 4 wildcard teams selected closer to the event. The race is 3 stages including a flat stage, climb and TT.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? The million dollar prize should draw some serious attention from Pro Tour Teams - compares pretty well to the 450,000 euro prize for the Tour! There's not much on in November, the Worlds are in September and October has things like the Lombardia, Paris Tours & Zuri-Metzgete.

It's obviously not part of the ProTour, but I doubt they'll have trouble with attendance given the massive carot for the winner.
 
Walrus said:
Reported on Daily Peloton - http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=10285

"A million dollar prize awaits the winner of the new season-ending Race of Champions to be held in Abu Dhabi in November" - Eurosport.

Basically, it's a race between the winners of the 3 Grand Tours. Each winning team team gets to field 8-10 riders, there will an a representative team from the region, plus 4 wildcard teams selected closer to the event. The race is 3 stages including a flat stage, climb and TT.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? The million dollar prize should draw some serious attention from Pro Tour Teams - compares pretty well to the 450,000 euro prize for the Tour! There's not much on in November, the Worlds are in September and October has things like the Lombardia, Paris Tours & Zuri-Metzgete.

It's obviously not part of the ProTour, but I doubt they'll have trouble with attendance given the massive carot for the winner.


This reminds me of when sports like Cricket and Rugby start to fragment when
both sports became professional.
You had these sports fragmenting - and sponsors coming out of the woodwork to fund events.

I think that this is what is now happening in cycling.
You have a benign state of civil war, where GT's are fighting with the UCI, and this creates a gap for new race sponsors to come in to stage "world class" events.

The concept is interesting and new - and where the money is high enough it may have support from certain quarters.
 
Sorry, sounds really stupid. Either it should be a one-day race; or, include more stages. This way (with only 3 "stages") the race has absolutely no character other than the mercenary aspect of $$$$$$. I won't be tuning in.
 
Catabolic_Jones said:
Sorry, sounds really stupid. Either it should be a one-day race; or, include more stages. This way (with only 3 "stages") the race has absolutely no character other than the mercenary aspect of $$$$$$. I won't be tuning in.
The reason it's not a one-day race is that it's designed to pit the GT winners against one another. Grand Tour winners (these days) tend to be climbers with good TT ability, not one-day specialists. There are exceptions of course, but the organisers have included a flat stage, a climb and a TT - all the elements of a GT. If it was a one-day race, then guys like Bettini, Pozzato, Boonen, Van Petegem etc would have an advantage over the GT winners.

The reason it's not a longer stage race is because it's in November. If it was a 10 stage race, riders would need to adjust their programs too much to cater for the effort required.

Give it a chance, the format has been well considered and the the prizemoney could bring a whole new dimension to the racing.
 
I never was in Qatar but I will go to Abu Dhabi as I am still looking for that pic of the peloton in the desert....



limerickman said:
This reminds me of when sports like Cricket and Rugby start to fragment when
both sports became professional.
You had these sports fragmenting - and sponsors coming out of the woodwork to fund events.

I think that this is what is now happening in cycling.
You have a benign state of civil war, where GT's are fighting with the UCI, and this creates a gap for new race sponsors to come in to stage "world class" events.

The concept is interesting and new - and where the money is high enough it may have support from certain quarters.
 
cyclingheroes said:
I never was in Qatar but I will go to Abu Dhabi as I am still looking for that pic of the peloton in the desert....

I was in Abu Dhabi nearly 20 years ago : fantastic place, great climate and you could buy a pint of Murphy's Irish Beer too!
Plenty of good desert there too - I've fond memories of Al-Ain.
 

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