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What’s new in 2022 road season

We are already in 2022, even if you don’t know it yet: UCI road cycling season, in fact, has already started on 1st of November and every new season brings UCI rules modifications. Let’s so see the main points in the rules changed for the 2022 road new season.

Team car order in opening stage in World Tour and Women’s World Tour stage races

In a Grand Tour stage having your car on the top of the convoy or in the back can make a lot of difference. During the stages following the opening one the order of the car is determined by the general classification of the best rider of each team – so, for example, while Pogacar has the yellow jersey he’ll always get his car as first one. In the classics, instead, the cars are ordered according to the position in the UCI World Ranking – so the better you are, more chance you have to get your car in front.

The same rule will now be applied on the stage 1 of each stage race – previously the cars were drawn randomly and while Tour de France and Vuelta will be unaffected by this rule in 2022 opening with a Time Trial this will be applied in 2022 Giro. Number 1 of the ranking is currently Tadej Pogacar and so the UAE car is likely to be first in the stage 1 of each stage race he is going to start like UAE (but also in the classics like Sanremo or Ronde). In fact, the decision of bringing Pogacar in Ronde Van Vlaanderen may have a direct impact on the race as being him probably first on that date means UAE is going to get the first car behind the jury as soon as he’ll or any UAE rider will be part of the first group.

Notably, this new rule will be applied only for the World Tour and the Women World Tour stage races, not ProSeries and Continental one. President of the commissaires panel will also have the power to rectify the car position if he noticed that some cars aren’t where they should be.

UCI Women World Tour race invitations

Women World Tour will mirror the World Tour: they are going to have 15 teams with rights to race in all the events and giving two mandatory invitations to the two best continental teams (women does have ProSeries level, but only for the races, not for the teams). Differently from the World Tour, the Women World Tour teams wouldn’t be forced to appear in any events, but they’ll receive invitation for them that they can refuse (same situation of Alpecin-Fenix men, basically) and there isn’t any distinction between stage races and one-day races for the two additional invitations.

UCI Women World Rankings license on sporting criteria

UCI is going to award UCI Women World Tour licenses on Sporting Criteria like it will happen the next year in the men’s side. To do so, there will be two official rankings from the next year: the team ranking on 2 years and the team ranking on 3 years.

In 2024 and 2026 top 15 teams in these rankings will get the sporting rights to be admitted to the UCI Women World Tour circuit, having so the right of getting a mandatory invitation in all the Women World Tour calendar. 2024 licenses will be assigned for two years, based on the two years world ranking, 2026 licenses will be assigned for three years, based on the two years world ranking and from 2029 licenses will be assigned every three year, according to the three years world ranking.

New criteria for first years of new events

Until 2021 if an organizer wanted to open a new event, the event should meet some requirements. One of them is that the event should be Class 2 and then grow in the upcoming years from Class 2 to Class 1, then to ProSeries and World Tour. Opening the event straight to Class 1 it’s admitted if you already have another Men Elite event while opening a World Tour event directly it’s not allowed by the rules (Tour de France Femmes is of course an exception). World Tour organizers will so be able to ask to register one of their new events directly on ProSeries level while men Elite ProSeries organizers will be able to open the event at Class 1.

Appearance fee disclosure for ProSeries riders

Until last season if a World Tour race wanted to pay a World Tour rider to ride in his race, the race had to disclose this fact to a financtial auditor appointed by UCI. The new rules extends this also to the UCI Pro Teams (and if you are thinking about a certain cyclo-cross world champion, you are probably right) and appoints the auditor to be external, also adding a sanction for non-disclosure from 10.000 to 40.000 CHF. The fee won’t be anyway disclosed to the public.

Ten worthy climbs Tour de France should visit

While in the last post we revisited ten climbs Tour de France did, it’s now time to check ten climbs that Tour de France never did and we would like to see in the route. Have a look at them and tell us what do you think.

1. Val Pelouse

Need a steep mtf in the Alps? Val Pelouse can provide you what you need. The climb is near La Rochette and can be easily paired with climbs like Grand Coucheron before it. Don’t have a full video of the climb but the surface can be seen in the one posted and it’s doable in a race with the usual resurface. Having a finish on the top can bring a steep finish that Tour de France usually misses

2. Lac d’Aumar

Pyrenees doesn’t usually have long climbs – so why not adding one? Lac d’Aumar starts from Saint-Lary-Soulan when people discovered Portet thanks to the Tour de France. This climb is not as steep as Portet but can be good as a stage finish being long and with an hard middle part forcing riders to attack before the last ramp. Finish would also deliver to the TV a beautiful sightseeing of the lakes near the Pic de Neouvielle

3. Col de l’Arpettaz

An interesting climb on the Alps, starting from Ugine. Probably not suitable for a MTF but it has also a descent and it’s another hard climb on the Alps never done by the Tour, potentially pairing it with Mont Bisanne. Road surface seems good and with a bit of usual pre-tdf work can be done in a race.

4. Col de Moissiere

Tour de France usually ends a lot in Gap but Col de Manse delivering usually boring breakaways and no GC gaps. Trying to make a different route like inserting the Moissiere before the finish. The climb is a bit longer and steeper than the Manse, delivering some potential GC action

5. Col de Parpaillon

If Tour de France did the Col de la Loze, why not bringing the race to another iconic climbs in the Alps? Parpaillon isn’t ideally suitable for a road race at the moment, but with the refurbishing road works done in Col de la Loze (and Portet) this climb can be featured in the Grand Boucle. As a big plus, this climb can be paired with Izoard or Bonette-Restefond depending the side you pick. The only problem can be the tunnel at the top in which a race like TDF can struggle to pass.

6. Puigmal

You don’t usually find good finishes in the French zone around Pyrenees 2000. One of them is the ski station of Puigmal that recently reopened featuring a 14 km climb with final part around 7-8%. It would be a normal climb in another zone – but in this one can bring a new MTF in a zone that is usually bad for the stages.

7. Station des Karellis (Col d’Albane)

Is Tour de France lacking hard MTF? This ski station in Savoie would perform an interesting finish that can follow immediately Galibier or Croix-de-Fer never going under 6% average. This makes it an ideal finish for a “normal” stage that anyway never happened in the Grand Boucle.

8. Montee de Villard-notre-Dame (Col du Solude)

This climb starts from le Bourg d’Oisans and it’s enough to classify it as interesting. It’s in front of the Alpe d’Huez on a small panoramic road that makes it wonderful. It’s currently not doable in road cycling because the descent is on a small, gravel road that makes it not possible to pass with the caravan. There were rumors of surfacing work and doing that part makes this climb indeed doable in the Grand Boucle – of course followed by Alpe d’Huez for a memorable finish.

9. Pic de Beillurti

The climb is in a zone that Tour de France sistematically forgot exists, near the Basque Country Pyrenees. Road surface is narrow but generally good and not different than the Horquette d’Ancizan making the climb suitable for a race. It will bring Tour de France a steep climb giro-vuelta like that is actually missing in the race.

10. Col du Jandri

Imagine having Zoncolan and Finestre together, starting from a normal climb. This is the Col du Jandri, the end of the climb of Les Deux-Alpes. The climb is paved in first Kms, then after Km 12 is suddenly gravel on a public road. It will probably need some road work to make it a racing sterrato like Finestre but the result would be delivering in the Tour de France the hardest climb ever doable in a road race and an historical day in cycling history.

Ten worthy climbs the Tour de France forgot

In today’s post we are going to revisit some climbs that were actually part of Tour de France routes but are not anymore in the route in the last years. I’ll hope you enjoy the post featuring profiles and stage videos and will let us know your opinions.

1. Cime de la Bonette-Restefond

Despite being one of the hardest climbs in France and probably the only one comparable to the Stelvio, Bonette has been included only four times in the TDF, last time in the Cuneo – Jausiers stage of Tour de France 2008. The climb pays the habitude of Tour de France of rarely visiting or doing crucial stages in the Southern Alpes. Last time it was climbed it didn’t gave bigger gaps between the peloton riders but in the previous one (1993, finish in Isola 2000) was a crucial part of the stage. The col has been recently climbed in the Giro d’Italia 2016 stage ending in Sant’Anna di Vinadio and it was the last time that we saw it in a Grand Tour. It offers excellent chances to do a stage like Laghi di Cancano picking one of the sides and pairing it with a climb after it: Pra Loup, Super Sauze, Auron or Isola 2000 are good finishes for a stage featuring the highest mountain pass of Europe.

Tour de France 2008, Cuneo – Jausiers

2. Puy de Dome

The Puy de Dome was one of the most iconic finish of Tour de France, featured 11 times between 1952 and 1988. The uniqueness of the climb was being out of both Alps and Pyrenees, starting from Clermont Ferrand and being in Massif Central, offering a chance of having a MTF closer to Paris (like in 1988 stage). There are unfortunately two things preventing Tour de France going back on a such iconic climb: the first is the monorail built alongside the road that prevent any circulation of emergency vehicles – the second is that the site has been inserted in the “Gran Site de France” lists, having as requirement to reduce the impact of human activities on the climb. Mountain has also been inserted for two years in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites and actual city councilors didn’t want to waste the work with UNESCO hosting a Tour de France finish on the top of the Puy de Dome. There are anyway some hopes and planning for a finish there in 2024.

Tour de France 1988, stage 19

3. Courchevel – Altiport

Courchevel was a finish visited three times between 1997 and 2005 and in each one of them stage have marked an iconical step in TDF history. In 1997 there was Pantani crisis sending him out of podium, in 2000 there was a duel between Pantani and Armstrong won by the Italian and in 2005 the first victory of Alejandro Valverde in the Tour de France in front of Armstrong himself. Courchevel was also featured as a finish in 2014 dauphiné where Talansky turned upside-down the GC stripping Contador the yellow jersey – but finish was not in the Altiport that hosted three times the Tour de France finish.

Courchevel in Tour de France 2000

4. La Plagne

Not so far distant from Courchevel, La Plagne was also featured four times in Tour de France, between 1984 and 2002. There is maybe some hope of having it back as it was featured in Tour de Dauphiné route this year in one of the two stages won by Mark Padun. The climb is long and hard – constatly on 7% average and is one of the classic Tour de France climbs with no extreme slopes but constant hardness. Fignon won twice on this MTF in 1984 and 1987, then Zulle and Boogerd.

Tour de France 2002, la Plagne

5. Superbagneres

Superbagneres has been featured in Pyreenes six times as a MTF, two of them as a climb time trial and one of them as the shortest Tour de France stage history: Bagneres-de-Luchon > Superbagneres of 19,6 Kms. Climb is not as hard as the previous ones, but it’s a good finish considering you can pair it with Peyresourde or Port de Bales. Last time it appears in TDF was in 1989 with Tourmalet, Aspin, Peyresourde before it, Robert Millar won the stage beating Delgado with Fignon taking the yellow jersey from Greg Lemond.

Tour de France 1989 – Stage 10

6. Guzet-Neige

Guzet-Neige ski station hosted three times a TDF finish between 1984 and 1995. The climb perfectly pairs with Pyrenees of Ariege region offering a steep finish that can be placed after Col de Latrape. Marco Pantani won on this climb in 1995 during the 5th Indurain Tour de France in a stage featuring Port de Lers and Col d’Agnes before ascending from Col de Latrape side. Stage of 1984 was instead a key day in Robert Millar’s career as it was sent in TDF as a domestique but winning the stage and being 4th in GC at the end of the TDF (best result for a british rider at that time – only Wiggins 2012 will beat it) and winning the KOM jersey pushed the team to give also him his chances.

Tour de France 1995 – Guzet Neige

7. La Ruchere

A forgotten climb of the TDF that was featured only once – and in an ITT of 20 km with a finish on this steep climb in Chartreuse. While Fignon won the stage, Delgado had the best climb time – having so the record. While it’s pointless having it as a single finish, this climb can be paired with several climbs in the zone, also forgotten, like Col du Coq. It’s unclear why it has never been featured again after that day.

Tour de France 1984 – Stage 16

8. Les Arcs

Being near la Plagne, les Arcs has been once a MTF in Tour de France, in 1996 with Luc Leblanc winning a stage with La Madeleine and Le Cormet de Roselend on the menu before the climb. The climb starts from Bourg Saint-Maurice and is near la Plagne, even if it’s a less harder than it. It’s an idel pair for a stage featuring Iseran from southern side or the Roselend but has never been used again in TDF despite its length (23,7 km)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A6KHXX8Uic
Tour de France 1996 – Stage 7

9. Les Deux Alpes

Despite being the finish of one of the most iconic days of Tour de France history, Les Deux Alpes was not used since 2002 and was only the 2nd time it was featured in TDF after 1998 stage. Surely the climb pays being nearby the iconic finish of Alpe d’Huez, often used by the department as a mountain top finish for Tour de France – but considering the descent of Alpe d’Huez being doable like in 2013 it can be an interesting solution for stimulating long-range attacks on the Alpe itself. Will it ever come back in the Grand Boucle?

Tour de France 1998 – Les Deux Alpes

10. Isola 2000 (Col de la Lombarde)

Closing as we open – Southern Alpes. Isola 2000 was the MTF of the iconic 1993 stage starting from Serre Chevalier where Indurain held on all the attacks of Rominger that had to recover more than 5 minutes after the time trial. After that day the climb was never featured again in TDF – it has been in Giro as Col de La Lombarde (going in Italy onto the top and then ending in Vinadio) and in 2008 stage of Jausiers from the other side. Climb it’s long enough for a finish and we saw Nibali destroying Chaves and the rest here in Giro 2016. It’s unclear why TDF continues to ignore southern alps.

Your time now: do you remember any of these climbs in TDF? Do you want to see them again? Do you think there may be other climbs being added to this list? Let us know in comments section.

Rai plane broadcasting drama and possible differences with France TV

Hello everyone? How did you spent your Giro rest day? We spent it talking about TV broadcasting after yesterday’s Giro stage.

Many topic will be touched in this small piece on Reddit, but for who isn’t new on how a cycling race is produced for live TV a small recap: there are camera motos, there are camera helicopters, there are radio helicopters and radio plane. Camera motos and camera helicopters send their signal to radio helicopters and radio plane, that flew above the race. These two send signal to the van at the finish line that is cabled and handles the broadcast.

This fleet is redundant. In raining conditions, for example, there are no camera helicopters and radio helicopters. Signal is sent directly to radio plane. Or at least this is what happened yesterday in MercanTour or in Tour de Romandie Stage 5. In Giro instead we didn’t have a plane because it was not given the permission to take off from Venice airport, in which the plane landed after Sunday stage. We’ll come back later for this.

Mercantour TV broadcasting condition, worse than Giau yesterday

What we know is that Rai is using a different airplane that the one of France TV. Going on Flightradar, for example, we can see here the model used in Montalcino stage, that is used for Giro and all the italian races. It was used in Milano-Sanremo, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of The Alps this year

Giro d’Italian plane in Montalcino: Piper PA-31T Cheyenne 2

France TV plane (we’ll call it in this way, even if we’ll see is it used for other TV) is a different model. We’ll keep out Tour de France TV production on this post because they actually uses three planes. We’ll compare Giro with other France TV production that uses one plane only – like, for example, the Mercantour.

Mercantour TV plane: Beerch 200 Super King Air

The first INTERESTING stuff we found on flightradar, is that this plane seems to be the standard for TV productions out of italy. The same plane F-HFRF (so not only the model, but vehicle, was used for the broadcast of the infamous Stage 4 of Tour de Romandie 2021 – and it stayed above all the area until Woods crossed the line.

Tour de Romandie 2021 Stage 4 is the same plane.

The same plane seems to be used by ASO for their races. On Flightradar with a premium subscription, you can access the flight plan and you can see, for example, that was used in the recent Tour du Hongrie

F-HFRF flight plan

With great suprise, we checked also some planes used in other races. Itzulia 2021 seems to use also a Beech B200C Super King Air, not the same of ASO

Itzulia 2021 plane

Same model of plane, but different aircraft, was used this year also in Ronde Van Vlaanderen

Ronde Van Vlaanderen 2021 plane

To conclude the saga, the “optimum”. Tour de France. Three planes used, two of them are Beech B200 Super King Air, one is Piper PA-31-350 (same used in Giro)

Tour de France 2020 production

At this point, I was lucky to know a person that is currently finishing his engineering studies in Italy and spent 2 year and his bachelor degree thesis on Air Simulators (dreaming also to became a pilot) and how these stuff works. I spent some times with him this morning, asking to clarify some questions about how Mercantour and Romandie were able to get production live, while stage (also Giau) wasn’t.

First step: helicopters. It’s possible to have anti-ice helicopters but according to him if there is strong fog or it’s rain, it’s not reccomandable to take-off. These are mainly used for medic stuff and emergencies, not for TV production. All the new helicopters has de-icing system according to him. An option we considered is that France TV has helicopters with de-icing system and RAI has outdated one, but didn’t makes sense considering that Mercantour didn’t use them, so we dismissed the hypotesis of helicopters not having that system. Seems simply caution.

Second step: airplane models. Piper first flight was in 1969, Super King first flight was in 1972. According to him they are very similar. These planes are base model for civil aviation that the TV buys. The first thing he went to check also with flightradar, was the elevation in which they could fly. Both planes flight at same elevation, 35.000ft according to their base model technical specifications. This put on the table some options like civil aviation different rules or different technology of moto.

About the different technology, we put the hypotesis immediately off the table, simply because in a stage like yesterday the plane didn’t even attempt to take off because was not authorized to – according to RAI. Every time the signal dropped on Giro, Stages 4, 8 and 16 for now, was because plane wasn’t on the race.

The question in the discussion moved on another point: was the plane able to go for an instrument flight over the Giau? The answer he gave me it was absolutely yes. Both planes (France TV and RAI) flew at 25.000ft when recording – so at that altitude you are able to flew only with an instrument flight and not with a visual flight.

But in Giau stage the plane wasn’t able to take off. Was because of the weather near the starting airport? Of course not, because civilian planes started in the same hours as it’s possible to see in the timetable of Venice airport of yesterday.

In our discussion so something doesn’t seem right because even if Rai model seems outdated, the instrumentation seemed similar. So it could’ve took off, and he could’ve flew over the area, even if later than the original plan. Technically if take off was the problem from Venice, it could’ve happened from a non Italian airport, avoiding Italian Civil flight laws for the take off. Why didn’t happen?

We went back in our discussion to Sestola. In Sestola the plane coverage dropped suddenly because started to rain and we were told by RAI journalists that the plane was called back from the control for the risk of the ice that can form in motors.

We went back checking both models agains according to the technical specifications. Both models has de-icing system and he found the possible problem: if plane doesn’t have electric injection, ice can obstruct carburetor, and I don’t think this model has this type of injection, being a turboprop.

So, Rai plane indeed can’t flight (and is asked to land when it’s raining at low temperatures) because it doesn’t have electric injection. It’s over? No.

France TV plane base model doesn’t have electric injection too. But it stays up. So, from now, what follows is speculation.

It’s absolutely possible that France TV plane got upgraded compared to the base model (we had technical details available for the base model, but every aircraft can be upgraded and changing the injection type is definitely possible according to him). We can’t say that, because we have only the infos on the general model – of course – and not on the single aircrafts.

The main hypotesis on the table are so these two

  1. France TV airplane having been upgraded since the 70s with an electric injection, avoiding ice problems forming in the carburetor, so able to stay upright and film without problems, while RAI airplane hasn’t.
  2. Stricter civil laws / order from italian civil aviation compared to the rest of the world. Accorging to him, this is also a chance because many of them are outdated and excessively precautious with nowadays technology.

So if the question is: could’ve France TV plane flew over Giau yesterday? The answer is “maybe“. We are missing a piece of information here – and that information is the key: if RAI upgraded too its airplane with an electric injection, so being able to flew on that area without risking ice in the motor. In this case it’s indeed the different between italian civil aviation laws and the rest.

Thank you for the pacience to reach this point, and follow our subreddit if you like.

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