A road race fan

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Race Watch Schedule for 2008 Part I

Now that the official Team CSC site has updated its calendar for 2008, I think
it is time for me to update my schedule.

March
2nd Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne (BEL)
~~9th Paris - Nice (FRA)~~ because the stage is not in Paris!
24th Rund um Köln (GER)
30th Critérium International (FRA)

April
6th Ronde van Vlaanderen (BEL)
13th Paris - Roubaix (FRA)
20th Amstel Gold Race (NED)
27th Liège - Bastogne - Liège (BEL)

May
1st Rund um den Henninger Turm (GER)
4th Tour de Romandie (SUI) Le Bouveret - Lausanne

June
8th Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg (LUX) ???
8-15th Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (FRA) ???
22nd Tour de Suisse (SUI) or the TTT in Netherlands
22nd Team Time Trial (NED)
29th National Championship (GER) in Bochum

July
5-27th Tour de France (FRA)

August
2nd Radklassiker Hainleite (GER) ???
3rd Sparkassen Giro Bochum (GER)
24th Eneco Tour (LUX) ???
31st Deutschland Tour (GER) ???

September
7 th Vattenfall Cyclassics (GER)
21st Drei Länder Tour (GER) ???
24th World Championship ITT (ITA) ???
28th World Championship (ITA) ???

The race events with ??? are, of course, those I want to visit but
I am not sure I can make it there now.

I went to the following races for the season 2006:
I travelled thousands of miles and I had 30 race days.
2006 Paris-Nice (Prologue)
2006 Amstel Gold Race
2006 Liege-Bastogne-Liege
2006 Rund um den Henninger Turm
2006 Giro d'Italia (All Belgium stages)
2006 Tour de Suisse Stage 9 (ITT)
2006 Tour de France: in Strasbourg, in the Alps and in Paris. (Total 10 stages)
2006 Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg
2006 Deutschland Tour (Stage 5 - 8)
2006 Hainleite (Erfurt)
2006 Giro Bochum
2006 Eneco Tour (Stage 4)
2006 Hessen Rundfahrt (Stage 5)
2006 World Championship, RR in Salzburg
2006 Züri Metzgete

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Yet another surprise, Rund um Köln

Rund um Köln's organizer has announced that 2008's edition would be different
from the previous years' editions.

First of all, it would be held on Sunday, March 23rd 2008. RuK has been
traditionally held on Easter Monday, which will be March 24th in 2008.

The main sponsor of the race, T-Mobile, has not yet been committed to give the
money that once pledged. The race may lose its main sponsor.

If the race organizer can not find the sponsor(s) that will fulfill the obligations
(a lot of money), the race will be held without ProTour teams. And if Team CSC
doesn't participate, there is no reason for me to get there and watch it.

Let's see what will happen.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Surprise, surprise Paris-Nice

The very tentative plan already needs a change.

March
9th. Sunday: Paris - Nice (Fra) -- Prologue in Paris

24th. Easter Monday: Rund um Köln (Ger) -- in Cologne

30th. Sunday: Critérium International (Fra) -- last 2 stages

This was the plan for the upcoming March but ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation)
announced that the traditional Prologue in Paris would not materialize
in 2008 but there would be a short ITT in a city called Amilly south of Paris.

I already have hard time reaching Paris in time. Amilly, wherever it is (3 cities
with the same name exist south of Paris), is not closer to me than Paris.

Amilly is found in (three Prefectures) 28, 45 and 61. In any case it is far from
Paris. Possibly by Amilly they mean Amilly (45). I have drive almost 600km
to get there. I give up! I will not drive to Paris on March 9th.

Maybe I will drive to Kuurne to watch Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne instead.

2nd. Sunday Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne (Bel)

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Waypoints aquired during 2007 race watch

I was traveling with my Garmin StreetPilot (a navigation system) during
the 2007 season. I eventually accumulated useful waypoints.

For example, camping sites, supermarkets (or they call those bigger than normal
supermarkets "hypermarché" in France), and others.

These are common supermarkets I visited during TdF and Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré.
These supermarkets have their web sites, which enable you to look for
their affiliates in your neighborhood. If, only if, I was going to follow
TdF in 2008, I would search for their affiliates along the course and plot
them in my StreetPilot to make it easy to shop.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Tentative plan for race watch 2008

This is a very tentative plan.

March
9th. Sunday: Paris - Nice (Fra) -- Prologue in Paris

24th. Easter Monday: Rund um Köln (Ger) -- in Cologne

30th. Sunday: Critérium International (Fra) -- last 2 stages

April
6th. Sunday: Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres (Bel)

13th. Sunday: Paris - Roubaix (Fra)

20th. Sunday: Amstel Gold Race (Ned)

27th. Sunday: Liège - Bastogne - Liège (Bel)

It would be nice if I could watch La Flèche Wallonne (Bel) but ...

May
1st. Thursday: Rund um den Henninger Turm Frankfurt (Ger) -- in Frankfurt am Main

4th. Sunday: Tour de Romandie (Swi) -- but where?

June
1st. Sunday: Bayern-Rundfahrt (Ger) -- the last stage but where?

8th. Sunday: Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg (Lux) -- if Team CSC participates

22nd. Sunday: Tour de Suisse (Swi)
or
22nd. Sunday:Team Time Trial(Ned)

It would be so nice if I could watch Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (Fra).

July
5th - 27th. : Tour de France (Fra)

Of course, it would be great if I could follow all the stages. I am not yet sure if
I can do it.

August
3rd. Sunday: Sparkassen Giro Bochum (Ger) -- in Bochum

24th. Sunday: Eneco Tour (Lux) -- if the stage is held somewhere nearby

31st. Sunday: Deutschland Tour (Ger) -- if possible

September
7th. Sunday: Vattenfall Cyclassics (Ger)

14th Sunday: Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt (Ger) -- if Team CSC participates

21th. Sunday: 3-Länder-Tour der Sparkassen Versicherung (Hessen RF) (Ger) -- where?

24th - 28th: UCI World Championships (Ita) -- Varese

October
5th. Sunday: ProTour Finale (???) -- where? and what?

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Saison 2007 and Team CSC 2008

Saison 2007 is almost over and Saison 2008 is being formulated. There will be
more confusions in 2008 than in 2007, namely the uncertain future of Pro Tour and
the dark dogging shadows of doping cases.

As far as I am concerned, I will remain a Team CSC fan and follow them around
whenever I can. I will also keep an eye on Team Astana because Allain Gallopin
is there in 2008 and because Levi Leipheimer is (not yet confirmed) there. I don't
know Levi personally but I know his family and they were nice people. I also
keep watching Christian Vande Velde and Dave Zabriskie although they don't
belong to Team CSC anymore. I want to stress that this does not mean I become
less truthful to Team CSC.

This is the sum up of Saison 2007.

I went to the following races:

4th March: Kuurne - Brussel - Kuurne
11th March: Paris - Nice (Prologue)
1st April: Critérium International
8th April: Tour des Flandres
9th April: Rund um Köln
15th April: Paris-Roubaix
22nd April: Amstel Gold Race
29th April: Liège - Bastogne - Liège
1st May: Rund um den Henninger Turm (Frankfurt am Main)
3rd June: Bayern Rundfahrt (Stage 5)
10th-17th June: Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré -- 7 race days
24th June: Team Time Trial (Eindhoven)
1st July: National Championship (Germany)
7th-29th July: Tour de France (all the stages except UK stages -- 19 race days)
5th August: Sparkasse Giro in Bochum
12th August : Deutschland Tour (Stage 3)
19th August: Vattenfall Cyclassics (Hamburg)
23rd September: Drei Länder Tour (Germany)
27th September: World Championship, ITT (Stuttgart)
30th September: World Championship (Stuttgart)

Team CSC related race events: 44 race days in 20 race events (not including the
non Team CSC races). Gasoline and other expenditure (highway toll, camping
site tariff, the paint and etc.) cost me more than 4,000 euro (most possibly more?).
This figure does not include those other things I paid for. Things like camping goods
or flags that I can use next year. The money just disappeared in the air. The
gasoline literally evaporated in the air, you know.

*****************
(Team CSC non-participating races)
17th & 18th May: Rheinland-Pfalz-Rad-Rundfahrt (Stage 2&3)
7th June: Tour de Luxembourg (Stage 1)

3 race days in 2 race events.
*****************

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