Happy New Year, another lap around the sun. The racing season is only two weeks away with the Tour Femenino de San Luis starting things of and then the men begin with the Tour de San Luis and Tropicale Amissa Bongo both commencing one day ahead of the Tour Down Under.
Here’s the 2016 pro cycling calendar, subscribe or download the iCal file to import the same calendar into your phone or computer diary.
All of the major UCI men’s and women’s pro races around the world are included. Some races might move dates and sadly others might vanish too. Since the UCI calendar came out last October some races have already been deleted but fortunately one, the GP Cholet-Pays de Loire has been added back. With these changes and more alternations likely the best way is to subscribe to the calendar and this way any changes are fed to your diary automatically. It’s free. Should you see any mistakes or changes, leave a comment below or send an email so it can be fixed for everyone.
There is a permanent link to the calendar at the top of the inrng.com home page if you just want to visit from time to time and see what’s coming up (mobile users: tap “menu” at the top of the page for the drop down menu and then 2016 pro cycling calendar) . If you want the full calendar to keep then you can subscribe or download the iCal file.
iCal
An iCal is a calendar file that you can store on your phone or electronic diary like Outlook. There are several ways to get this on to your computer or phone.
Subscribe and get automatic updates: The recommended option is to subscribe because this way any changes to the calendar are pushed out to your diary automatically. Do this by copying the iCal URL:
https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/rq7vnprknjsup7ia4406gk17ec%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
- If you use MacOS/iOS copy the URL… then Calendar.app hit cmd+alt+S (or File>New Calendar Subscription…) whilst in Calendar.app, paste in the link and it will update across all your devices and updates will be processed
- iPhone/iPad users should tap a finger here and wait for the pop up message and select copy. Then go to settings > mail/contacts/calendars > then “add account” > “other” > “add subscribed calendar” > paste the copied URL into the server field and follow the instructions. Think about turning off the alarm so you don’t get midnight alerts
- If you use Microsoft Outlook, copy the URL and then go to Tools > Account Settings > Internet Calendars and paste the URL to subscribe. In each case when the calendar is updated with a date change or an event is cancelled your software will upload the new data.
All these methods above are the best because any additions, deletion and amendments will automatically be pushed to your diary or device.
Direct download: if you can’t do the above, you can download the iCal file for your organiser, phone, computer and other devices from here
Right-click to save the ics / iCal / iCalendar file and you can import it into your electronic diary. If you have trouble with the subscription then this is an easier option but it means you might want to download a new version a few times a year to get the latest version.
Google Calendar: If you use Google Calendar then click on the icon on the bottom-right of the calendar up at the top of the page. Note this method can work with Android phones when the iCal file might not although you might need the Google Sync calendar app.
Pro tip: the calendar is set not to deliver alerts as there’s probably no neeed for that 2am alert to inform you that the Dwars door Vlaanderen starts later in the day. But to ensure your sleep turn off the alerts on your device so your phone doesn’t buzz.
The Calendar Explained
Each race is listed along with its location and UCI status eg World Tour, 1.1 or 2.HC.
- WT means World Tour and includes all the prime races on the calendar, from the three grand tours (Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España) to the one day classics like Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and the Tour of Lombardy, as well as others like the Tour of Poland or the Tour Down Under and can be anywhere in the world. All UCI WorldTeams must ride and organisers may issue “wildcard” invitations to UCI Pro Continental Teams. No Continental teams can ride.
After this come races in different races that are grouped by region, with the UCI Asia Tour, UCI America Tour, UCI Africa Tour and UCI Oceania Tour and UCI Europe Tour. The bulk of races on the calendar above are in Europe with races like the Het Nieuwsblad, the Critérium International or the Tour of Denmark but we also find races like the Tour of California and the Tour de Langkawi.
- HC is the next level down and up to 70% of the teams may come from the UCI WorldTeams but UCI Pro Continental and UCI Continental teams can be invited too
- .1 is another step down where up to 50% of the teams can be UCI Pro Team with the rest from Pro Continental, Continental and also national teams
- Note 1.HC and 1.1 denotes a one day race and 2.HC or 2.1 means a stage race
- Women’s races are W1.1 etc and the biggest races are the Women’s World Tour
- There is also .2 but these races are excluded to keep the calendar concise and focus on the top pro races around the world
Thank you! The first few years I used this it quickly became essential for following the season and now I’m not sure what I’d do without it. Printouts from the UCI website decorating the office and at home? Hmmm
Thx and happy new year! Keep on the good word!
An interesting point about the UCI-calendar and the new ranking is:
“The new UCI World Ranking will be published once a week, each Monday, from January 11th 2016. It will take into account the results of the 52 previous weeks (a rolling system, similar to that of the ATP in tennis).”
But there are no races between now an January 11th. What they gonna to publish? Nothing? Or a ranking caluclated on the basis of the last 52 weeks?
But they wrote:
“This means it will only come fully into effect one year after its introduction.”
I’m confused.
Aussie and Kiwi national championships, Tour of Egypt and the Vuelta al Tachira all take place before January 11th. Which, in reality, means that which ever Australian or NZ road race champion does best in the time-trial is likely to take the lead.
Thank you INRNG for your great work and while I am continuing to read your daily pieces I am giving up on the comments section, they do very little for me. Not just yours but across the various sites I visit. It is my NY resolution. Happy New Year.
I’m not sure if you got this press release.
http://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1032896/uci-launch-world-ranking-system-for-mens-professional-cycling
The timing is bizarre. Is there no one with PR experience at the UCI? The first Monday of the year would have been a better release date with press getting the release 24 hours earlier.
It was an odd one on Christmas eve, just as the media switch off for several days.
The UCI had promised to reveal the new system “by the end of the year” so perhaps they felt like they had to issue it, good or bad timing?
So useful. I have this up as my selected Outlook calendar more often than my personal or work calendar.
Thanks for this!
Please include as much Women’s Racing as possible. I appreciated seeing it listed in there in last year.
Cheers
Dear Mr Inner Ring,
I’d like to request you make a post about who is making money from cycling. It seems as if there are large budgets in the sport but everyone is losing money, going out of business, withdrawing sponsorship, all while riders are broke.
And it happens every year.
So I would like to know what entities are profiting.
Thank you,
Who is going out of business? The sport is creating more millionaire riders than ever before and most team managers are well paid too. Some sponsors come (Deloitte, Dimension Data, Segafredo, BMW-Mini come to mind) and some go (Garmin). There are obvious problems with securing sponsorship for some teams and smaller and even medium races are run on shoestring budgets but the sport is not in chaos.
Looking forward to the upcoming season. Both mine and the pros. Going to try and watch more women’s racing this year so I can keep track of the racers. Worlds was a great race but embarrassingly I knew few of the names and knew less of what type of rider try were.
Very useful. When are start times available? My wife and I will be near Tierreno-Adriatico’s stages 1 and 2.
absolutely gutted, im not gonna get a chance to cycle at all this season, just working solid on new clients, was hoping i could go out at least one day but not according to this calendar