2023 Pro Cycling Calendar

27 thoughts on “2023 Pro Cycling Calendar”

1. Many thank’s for this very useful diary. Much appreciated.

2. Where’s the third photo from? It looks so familiar but I just can’t place it.

   • Dombasle-sur-Meurthe and the big Solvay chemical factory, on Stage 7 of the Tour de France from Tomblaine to the Planche des Belles-Filles. There was a big fight for the breakaway that stage, like most other days.

3. Thanks for the calendar.

   Chances are they redo the points somewhat to make races like the 5th day of the Deutschland tour more valuable versus one day races, then it was this year. If they don’t the less traveled nations would be better served to have 4 one day races instead of a 4 day stage race(as an example).

   Inrng does it cost a race organizer more to run a series of 3-7 one- day races versus a 3-7 day GC race?

   • There’s no talk of adjusting the points scale yet… but we’ll see. And yes a one day race costs more in terms of registration fees than a day of stage racing but there are other costs that probably don’t change too much. The UCI though would be wary of letting a stage race turn into one day events in order to game the points system; the Challenge Majorca gets away with it as an early season event where riders drop out of some days but it’d be harder to allow in May or August.

4. Appreciate the work which goes into the calendar. Thank you! Already looking forward to next year, I feel it’s going to be quite interesting.

5. The good news is that we’ve go the Australian races back (finally!). The not so good news is that it looks like the Tour Of California will not be resurrected. It looks like the organizer of that race is going to be backing a new series of criteriums in the US instead. Actually, come to think of it, this might not be all bad news. If having a criterium in, say, Salt Lake City, inspires a kid to take up bike racing then that’s a net positive for the sport. I remember reading a biography of Lemond where he talks about seeing bike race go past and realizing that racing bikes might be something he could do. If you grow up in France or Belgium, it’s part of your culture, and as a young athlete professional cycling would always be on your radar. In the US, professional road racing is an odd niche sport at best. Maybe putting races in city centers where people can’t help but see them will move the needle a little.

   • In the end you need the whole range really: small local races (races for kids, teens & amateurs), national/continental level races for elite amateurs & (starting) pros, and international fully professional races at the top. But more local racing would certainly help to get more people interested (sponsors, organisers, racers, spectators, …).

     Maybe the US has tried too much to start from the top (and that didn’t always work so well)?

     • There’s definitely an element of “too big, too soon” in US cycling. There’s also a lack of basic infrastructure on some levels. The US is a huge country, but has very few velodromes:

       https://legacy.usacycling.org/velodromes-in-the-us.htm

       Learning to ride on a track isn’t necessary, of course, but it absolutely will make you better at things like time trialing. Depending where you live in the US, you might be well over a day’s drive to the nearest velodrome. In addition, the sports kids take up in the US are often based on what’s offered at a high school level. While some colleges have cycling teams, very, very few high schools do. For most high school students in the US, a bike is just something you ride to and from school, not something you race with. Changing that is a slow process. I definitely think you’re right, though, these things need to be built from the bottom up, not the top down.

       • Velodromes are much needed, indeed, and the current generation of decent – or more than decent 😉 – ITT athletes in Italy, men and women, after long years which had been quite dire for this discipline, is now the result of specific policies that for a relevant part were velodrome-related (not many structures, but a very strong one). No need to speak of UK (the Martin interview had some lines on the subject).
         Yet, US perhaps should try to build grassroots among children and teenagers the way several European countries are doing because of excessive motorised traffic on open roads… just go offroad. CX and MTB are great preparation for the road, especially on a pre-specialised level, that is, before the athlete’s body is moulded towards specific positions, effort times and so on in order to perform at the very top level. Which in itself didn’t prevent great athletes from jumping through disciplines, either, but on a basic level you really don’t even need to think about that. In yhe US the gravel concept might work to catch the imagination, appropriately scaled down as a school sport.

       • Seems like that includes many non-standard sized (not 250m) concrete outdoor velodromes too. I wonder how many are indoors? OTOH an asphalt cycling track should be fine for starters, and those cost far far less than a wooden indoor velodrome.

         I think Belgium currently has about 10-15 cycling tracks, 2 of which are indoors (1 of which is a standard UCI homologated track), with a second UCI homologated track being built right now (opening next year).

         Most sports clubs in Europe (at least in the countries I know about) aren’t related to schools really, but work with everyone from kids to elderly people, so most sports infrastructure is not related to schools either (mostly owned by the government, by the clubs, or by companies sometimes).
         This is mostly quite different in the US…

   • Writing from France I wish it was the case, but if many young Belgian may dream of growing up to be the next Wout or Remco, many young French do not have a clue who Julian is (or if they do, it’s because he is Marion’s husband). Complex issue, and this probably varies a lot depending on where you live (Brittany and more rural areas being a likely exception) but in the Paris region starting up bike racing as a sport when you’re a kid is very challenging too in France. A lot of “clocher” races are getting cancelled as they are too much hassle, and most clubs won’t allow minors in group rides for insurance reasons, so you need a club with a dedicated “cycling school” structure, of which there are preciously few at least in the east of Paris where I leave.

     Soccer (football) remains by far the #1 sport in France. With half the licenses compared to Soccer, #2 is Tennis. There are 10x more people with a Tennis license than a Cycling license, (which is weird considering how much we collectively suck at Tennis), and 3x more swimmers than cyclist. Once more, the Tour is the tree that hides the forest, and I’m getting a bit nervous about the next generation of French cycling champions. The next french cyclist strong enough to win the Tour may not be born yet, and if he is I’m afraid he decides to go and make millions to play with a ball instead of spending thousands of excruciating hours sitting on a torture machine for next to no money at all.

     Many thanks for the calendar ! Much appreciated, like all the rest of the content on this great Blog.

   • Unfortunately, the Jayco Herald Sun Tour will not be going ahead in Australia next year.

     • I didn’t see this race on the calendar to start with. A pity as it expanded the calendar in Australia and gave some more teams a chance to race. Some good riders have made a name in this race.

       • Quelle dommage … Australia’s oldest stage race and it does appear to be struggling since it moved from October to February; or perhaps since the Sun merged with the Herald?

     • … health and work safety issues … Hmmm?

6. I hope the Vuelta is still able to attract big name riders without the carrot of worlds training.

7. So the season starts on 25 Feb. Four months and a day from now. Good to know.

8. CX helps get me through but it’s a poor substitute.
   There’s only so much DIY , reading and contemplative winter walks to fill the soace till Spring…

   • I like CX. But with MVDP not racing it seems to hold much less interest for me.
     This may seem unfair to all the other competitors but he was that one amazing racer that seemed to bring it to another level even more than van aert.
     I think the sponsors of the major teams are missing out. If the properly skilled and significant teams or riders started attending and got the interest up it could hit the mark a lot more and bring some exposure to the sponsors. A one hour race which is not just a race around a block or 2 (criterium). A really varied and interesting course which does not allow for much drafting. Vocal crowds. Crashes which hopefully don’t hurt as much. And then with a lap to go MVDP blitzes everyone with a crushing turn of power.
     Its the one cycling event other that really suits crowds and TV. Even more than MTB which to me always seems hard to follow the flow of the race.

     • MvdP isn’t doing cross this year? I thought I read an interview with him in Dutch or Belgian media, after the (post-WK-gravel) Veneto race he pulled out of that he was looking forward to a nice break of a month or two before he starts his winter racing?

   • You know you can ride your bike in winter too, right? Of course, unsurprisingly, I’d recommend an MTB for that. I personally can’t wait for it to start snowing here as snow is actually my favorite biking surface by far.
     I would love to see more winter CX and MTB on snow and I would love to see one of those in the winter olympics. It think it can be an awesome fit and a spectacle to watch and XCO snow race there.

     • Unfortunately most winter Olympics are in place without snow or ice nowadays, where they have to import snow from elsewhere and/or make snow artificially. I don’t think blowing millions of euros on having artificial snow is worth it for CX (not to mention the impact it has on the climate). ☹

       And let’s hope we’ll see a bit more snow in CX this winter, compared to previous years (another effect of climate change, it seems).

     • The Games (winter or summer) don’t need more expensive, equipment-intensive sports. For me that includes sports that require expensive velodromes, horse stables, any sort of weapon (except the javelin) watercraft larger than one person can carry, maybe even luge/bobsled?

       • Exactly. Sports should always keep a way in for new participants which means standard low cost equipment.
         In cycling there should be leagues where you spend no more than say $€£350 on the bike and get to do races at local, regional and national level, with a special race at each year’s worlds where each country’s champion is brought along, expenses paid to ride for the cup.
         – Of course the brands in cycling might hate this at first…

         • You can easily get a decent & perfectly working road bike for ~500 € on the second hand market in Italy. And a great one for ~1.000 in case you discover you like the sport. Compared with the first figure above, the rest of the equipment looks more of an issue, given that, albeit still possible, it’s less rewarding to buy second hand, because most goods get worn out (you’ll need helmet, bibshort, shoes at least, and maybe some glasses too).

9. Inrng – perfect timing – as it’s starting to sink in that another season is over… you keep us going with this calendar to prime us for 2023… and then follow-it up with the TdF route. We can pour over that blog post for the next 3-4 months to see where the Pogacar/Vingegaard/Bernal battle will play out. Or, will Van Aert trounce them all? Stay tuned.

   Thanks for a great season, this blog continues to be a cornerstone highlight of the season. Now, how can I buy some socks?

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