September 23/05 8:44 am - Team Canada Checks Out Road Race Course, UCI Elects New President, Pro Tour 2006 Schedule

Posted by Editoress on 09/23/05
 

Tough Course for Road Races

The Canadian team went out this morning to check the 21 kilometre road circuit. National coach Houshang Amari said that the riders consider it to be "much tougher than it looks in the profile. There is no flat - it is all up, down or false flat."

He also said that the climb looks to be steeper then described - more like 7% then the official 5.6%. The u-turn 600 metres from the finish is definitely NOT an easy corner, although it has 4 lanes. Riders will lose a lot of speed and it will be hard to set up trains before final uphill 600 metres.

Tomorrow the women race at 9:00 am local (3:00 am EDT) for 6 laps and the Espoir men at 1:30 pm local (7:30 am EDT) for 8 laps. Our live coverage will start for the last two laps of the women's race (approximately 5:00 am EDT).


UCI Congress News

The UCI always holds its annual congress at the Road Worlds. This year was particularly interesting because of the ongoing controversies the organization is facing - publically backing one candidate for President, fighting with WADA, and the first year of the ProTour.

The main order of business was electing a new president to replace Hein Verbruggen. Verbruggen and the UCI Management Committee have backed Pat McQuaid of Ireland, and he easily won (31 votes to 11). Only one candidate ran against him (two others withdrew at the last minute) - Gregorio Moreno of Spain.

The UCI also released the ProTour schedule for 2006:

March 5-12: Paris - Nice (France)
March 8-14: Tirreno - Adriatico (Italy)
March 18: Milano - Sanremo (Italy)
April 2: Ronde van Vlaanderen (Belgium)
April 3-7: Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (Spain)
April 5: Gent - Wevelgem (Belgium)
April 9: Paris - Roubaix (France)
April 16: Amstel Gold Race (Holland)
April 19: La Fleche Wallonne (Belgium)
April 23: Liege - Bastogne - Liege (Belgium)
April 25-30: Tour de Romandie (Switzerland)
May 6-28: Giro d'Italia (Italy)
May 15-21: Volta a Catalunya (Spain)
June 4-11: Criterium du Dauphine Libere (France)
June 10-18: Tour de Suisse (Switzerland)
June 18: ProTour TTT (Holland)
July 1-23: Tour de France (France)
July 30: HEW Cyclassics Cup (Germany)
August 1-9: Deutschland Tour (Germany)
August 12: Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian (Spain)
August 16-23: Eneco Tour (Netherlands/Belgium)
August 26-September 17: Vuelta a Espana (Spain)
September 4-10: Tour de Pologne (Poland)
October 8: Paris - Tours (France)
October 14: Giro di Lombardia (Italy)

All three Grand Tours (Italy, France and Spain) are listed, despite the fact that the event organizers are still battling with the UCI over the autonomy of their events. The UCI issued a terse communique stating that there was basically no news to announce about the discussions with the Grand Tour organizers. It was also announced that after this year no ProTour points will be awarded for Worlds (this year the winner gets 50 points).