Could Flanders and Paris-Roubaix be moved from spring to autumn? Itโs something that the UCI are seriously considering! Also, following our announcement last week, Dan will also update us on the closure of GCN+ and the GCN App on December 19th.
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[Music] powers powers powers [Music] powers welcome back to the gcn racing new show coming up this week could the tour of Flanders and Parry rube be moved from Spring to Autumn it’s something that the uccii are seriously considering if David laon’s recent comments or anything to go by I’ll also update you on the closure of gcn plus and the gcn app on December the 19th this week in the world of racing we learned that the inos grenadiers are looking for a new team principle they confirmed GN last week that Rod ellingworth has handed his resignation in and it will mark an end of an era within that team ellingworth has barring a short stint at Bahrain Victorious been with the team since its Inception you can read more about that story over at Global cycling network.com we also learned that team DSM who became team DSM feric in July will be known as team DSM theric postnl next year a catchy name I think we can all agree sarcasm aside though great to have another new sponsor entering the sports this was the kit that they revealed last week although given the general reaction to that Jersey many people will be pleased to hear that it’s not the official team jersey for 2024 that will be revealed later on although I personally don’t mind that one and finally we learned that UCI president David LaRon will be up for moving the tour of fanders and Parry rube from their traditional spring slots in the calendar to October in an interview with direct V laar on pointed to 2021 where the pandemic meant that the tour of Flanders and Peru Bay were postponed to October although he seemed to have had a little bit of a brain fart there because Flanders was in its normal April slot and only Rue was postponed I mean I loved the October Rue in 2021 partly because we hadn’t had an addition for two and a half years partly because we had the first women’s edition of the race which made a full weekend of it but also because it meant we had something really big to look forward to right at the very end of the season it also arrived hot on the hills of a very successful and entertaining World Championships that took place in the Flanders region late in September add Lombardy into the mix and it meant that we had an awful lot to look forward to late in 2021 now that was in STK contrast to this year when the so called superworld took place in August ahead of La Welter that meant that once the Welter finished the tour of Lombard a few weeks later was the only really big race left on the men’s calendar so from that point of view maybe a reshuffling of the calendar might be a good idea it’s only really set out in the way it is because that’s the way it’s always been Avid race fans like you and I have got used to the calendar as it is and a lot of us bulk at the prospect of somebody messing with it but that’s not to say that it can’t be improved for example it wasn’t that long ago that the well tours in April the first Grand Tour of each season and I think most people would agree that it is better to have The Grand Tour spread out firstly it gives us the chance for a bit of a break between watching them and for the Riders it means that it’s possible to ride all three as SE cus did so successfully this year now I think one of the problems with learon suggestion is that it’s learon suggestion and it comes hot off the hills that quite frankly ridiculous notion that Riders shouldn’t be able to race the World sross Championships if they haven’t done all the rounds of the World Cup leading up to them I know Joe covered this on last week’s racing new show but what a Bonkers comment I mean do you really want to prevent the likes of Vanderpool pitcock van imple vanart and pizza from racing the World Championships so remove the decision maker from your thoughts when you answer these next questions uh question one would you be in favor of moving the Cobble Classics to the Autumn to allow the cycling season to finish with a big bang and where the weather might be more akin to what we historically associate with the spring Classics let me know in the comment section down below and I’d also love to hear what the UCI Road calendar would look like if you designed it from scratch uh just before I move on one more thing to think about when it comes to Flanders in rube what would happen to all the other Cobble Classics in the spring what makes E3 so important and so great to watch is that it’s a mini tour of Flanders same Riders same roads N9 days before the big race it’s like a dress rehearsal that we get to watch same really goes for DWI dor Landon to a degree whilst gent wum is a massive race in its own right but maybe not massive enough be a big draw if it wasn’t part of a cobbled campaign a lot of the reason that those races work is because they work together as part of a cohesive unit would they work if you split them up or would you move all of them to the Autumn the more you think about it the more you realize how complicated a road racing calendar reshuffle would be now the other big news in the cycling World last week was our own sad news that gcn plus and the gcn app will be consigned to the history books as of December the 19th 2023 last week’s Public Announcement was one that I found personally very difficult to do something I’ve been very passionate about GM plus and something that a lot of people worked very hard to make a success what I never expected was the scale of the reaction to the news and the level of emotion it’s the first time that I’ve ever felt unable to read through all the messages and comments that were being posted about a topic and I don’t mean that because I found it emotionally too hard to read but that the sheer volume of them made it virtually impossible thousands and thousands of of you posted to Instagram YouTube Twitter Reddit Facebook and a little ironically our own gcn app that will soon cease to exist it’s always really difficult to know exactly how something you’re working on is perceived externally people that like a product don’t often say to there’s no real need to but if something goes wrong with it they will quite rightly complain we had some glitches with the app over the years particularly from the outset many of those got ired out by a very devoted Tech Team but other new ones would then surface so to read the incredibly positive General sentiment towards GM plus and the app last week genuinely brought a tear to my eye and it filled me with pride for what we achieved in a very short space of time but maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise to me it is after all a product created by cycling Fanatics for cycling Fanatics we love the sport we know you do too and so we put our hearts and souls into making a product that we’d love to use even if we weren’t involved with it so thank you so much for all of your kind comments I think for all of us here it means the world whilst it’s an incredibly sad situation it has at least meant that we are now fully aware of just how much you all appreciated it uh now there are also a lot of questions from you on where you’ll be able to watch your bike racing from December the 19th onwards well in Europe it will be reasonably simple for you depending on where you are you can either subscribe to Discovery plus Eurosport extra or the Eurosport app for those of you here in the UK if you’re already a subscriber to skyport or like me BT you may well be able to get Discovery plus as part of your package that was certainly the case for me costs vary from country to Country and depending on what package you opt for so you have to look into that yourselves to find the most cost effective solution outside of Europe well that’s where a lot of you are worried about how you’re going to watch live racing in 2024 currently there is no legitimate way to access the racing that Warner Brother Discovery have rights to however they say that they are working with local Partners to ensure cycling fans can continue to access live racing coverage at they will keep customers fully informed about future availability of the live content that’s currently on GCM plus I know that the unknown is frustrating but I’m absolutely sure that they’re working very hard to find a solution for all of you so what next for this GC racing YouTube channel well it’s a bit too early to know exactly but what I can tell you is that there are no plans to sh the gcn racing new show so I’ll be here with you most Mondays for the foreseeable future beyond that though I will keep you updated on to S cross now and there were contrasting conditions at the two major cross races at the weekend the track at the super prestige in Merks PL was not only technical but the heavy conditions meant that it wasn’t a case of not making mistakes but limiting the ones that you did make Lucinda Brandt still in the early phases of her comeback from injury got off to a great start but when she was caught and passed by a flying sailing Alvarado on the second lap a couple of back-to-back eras stopped her from being able to stay with her fellow Dutch woman Alvarado held on to her advantage and won by 25 seconds ahead Brandt with Maran nober rebero riding a strong second half of the race to round out the podium in third the men’s race saw Yus nen House of tre balis Lions put in a dominant display to register his first Elite victory at the age of 27 Newen house is reaping the rewards of fully committing to Cy cross having run it alongside a road program with sunweb and laterally team DSM in the past before signing would Trek bal’s lines in the Autumn of 2022 in Merks PL he rode a measured race not really attacking but simply riding every body off his wheel and keeping big slips to a minimum Alberton deering’s Neils Vander putter had stuck with the Dutchman for the opening couple of laps but faded as the race went on conversely Ellie is a bit ripped through the field passing Felipe orts and Vander putter to claim second place while Newen house has Haled isit’s 100% streak at the super Prestige Series this season isab though is still comfortably leading the series by 20 points Ahad of L swake the following day In Tua isabe was once again on the back foot founder half found him off the front with a decent sized Gap but as he admitted in his post race interview that meant he wasn’t able to learn the best lines from other Riders when isabe caught him his lines caught Vander har off guard and a gap soon opened up a gap that was never closed is a bit cruise to his first UCI World Cup victory of the season and with that propelled himself to the top of the overall standings a single point in front of vanera who has said that he will not be traveling to Ireland for the next round now I think I said this a couple of weeks ago but the men’s Cy class has been incredible open this season and it’s been great to watch the four rounds of the UCR World Cup have now been won by four different Riders nce fart Ron har and now isabet whilst the European championships won by Van tanout of course doesn’t really get much more open than that on the wom inside it’s been a little less open so far when Fen vano has been racing she’s won when she hasn’t Alvarado has won that was the case yesterday in the World Cup again despite the return of pke pizza the Dutch Champion looked to have the measure of her compatriot particularly when a couple of slips when Alvarado saw her lose a chunk of time however not only did she get back on terms with her teammate she then accelerated away from her to take her second World Cup win of the season in the absence of vanle that leaves Alvarado in a commanding overall position in the World Cup standings later on in the season it’s going to be great because van empor is going to return van anroy is going to return pizza and brown are going to get back on top form there are going to be some eepic battles in the women’s races uh time now for me to let you know what’s coming up for you on GC plus this week yes we are still currently going just the two races for you this Saturday and Sunday so on Saturday it’s the x2o trophy from cck otherwise known as the urban cross for those of you who haven’t seen that one before it’s like cycl cross meets Criterion racing so frantic and very fast which makes some very close racing coverage of the women’s race begins at 1240 GMT that’s 1340 C and the men’s race comes soon after that and it’s available ble to watch for all but our Belgian Bas subscribers then on Sunday it’s the fifth round of the UCI Cy cross World Cup from Dublin now I know a fair few people watching this will be heading there to see the action live but for those of you looking to watch it from home the women’s race will start at 12:30 GMT the men’s at 14400 and it’s available to subscribers in Europe except for those based in Denmark Norway Italy or Belgium meanwhile our documentary this week goes behind the scenes with Canyon stram at the jured Italia Don this year with Chloe D got returned to form in the early season there were high expectations here’s a sneak peek Theo it was always bed out as the biggest race most important race when it levels out we go Chloe dig now comes through towards the front we bring a really strong team into [Music] this cuz winning to me is not enough I need to really win guess one day it’s Young on cloud n yes it looks like we got a crash at the back here who’s gone down it’s really [Music] bad it is a roller [Music] coaster how she be [Music] dropped [Music] that documentary will be out for all subscribers to watch from tomorrow I know a fair few of you are binge watching the documentaries at the moment before the app shuts down on the 19th of December and a lot of you have been asking what will happen to them after that point well the honest answer is we don’t yet know I’m pretty confident they won’t be lost Into The Ether completely that would be a massive ways but we will keep you updated as and when we find out any more news on that front on to other news now and there will be no Monon 2 challenge in 2024 unfortunately the reason being that the Olympic torch will be heading through the Val cluse department at the same time as the race was planned to be on which is the 19th of June and that will take up precious resources they have vowed to return in 2025 for the sixth edition of the race though team codus have signed two more Riders to their women’s Squad Hannah ludvig moves over from unox while Sarah Roy heads there after two years with Canyon SRAM whil Mata Fabro will leave Bora hanser at the end of the season and move to the newly named py Keta right that is all for this week but I’ll be back with you in 7 Days time so I’ll see you then
35 Comments
Women's cycling holds the death kiss for this all. No way will coverage be ever the same.
I will repeat – the end of GCN+ is a disaster for cycling in general . That being said , to watch Alvarado back on top form is absolutely wonderful. And watching Eiserbyt and Brand getting into form is great . If I were a CX racer , I think I would rather be chasing either of them than being chased by them – when the rabbit is in front of either of these two they just get right fierce . I am not looking forward to long winters in Canada without GCN giving the best coverage ever. Good luck and I will remain in hope of some sort of salvation of this wonderful app can happen . And yes , though it would be a financial burden for me , I would pay twice the subscription to retain what we are about to lose.
7:40 there's an easy solution, don't cancel the gcn app
I dislike a move to October. Give the riders a break, an off-season and a chance to enter track and cyclocross races. If the UCI likes some classics in october, they can upgrade Paris-Tours and Paris-Brussels to match their former classic status. There might be a reason why these races downgraded years ago. Classic riders used to start early in the season and end theirs after the World Championships, making some money at track races like the Six Days of London. The mountain goats started a bit later at the smaller tours or the Ardennes classics and they used to ride untill the end, including San Sebastian and such.
Long Live GCN+!!! Truly it was the greatest product and service for cycling junkie like me. As I said somewhere else, I would have paid 4-5 times the annual subscription price to access it if I still can. Well done and great work to GCN team, especially excellent standard GCN+ documentaries which was truly cinema standard. When we are surrounded by so much rubbish and junk products and services, it was truly refreshing to enjoy GCN+ for last 4 plus years. Just hope something similar can be revived in the future.
Daniel is incredibly professional. Thank you Daniel.
Itโs so so sad to see GCN+ being shut down. I donโt own a TV, I donโt watch any other sports and am not interested in any other content. I loved the cycling specific app and hate the fact that we have to move to Discovery+, feeding the company who is pulling the rug out from underneath all of us. I wish there was a proper alternative.
I'd say more just Strada Biachi. It would fit better with Lombardi and fits in less well with the cobbled classics as they are. I think there is space for some big races in April before the Grand Tour season but I agree something big at the end would be good. In my opinion the problem with the calendar is the position of the big races (classics, GT), it's the frequent and overlapping slightly smaller races (TA and PN for example).
I luv GCN+ and he crew. What we gonna do in Australia …Not SBS again please.
I want all you commentators on any other service please please.
I am devastated about GCN Plus and do not know what I will do๐ข
The Warner Bros, besides making a reckless decision for the cycling community, made the decision very premature – they apparently want to bring all the sports streams to fewer places, but didn't think twice they'd also allow people in fewer places of the world to watch them. Personally, I am from Europe, so I'll still have some way to watch the racing (although in not so ideal way), but I feel really bad for all the other subscribers from other parts of the world, who likely constitude the majority of all GCN+ subscibers.
I'm still pissed about the decision with GCN+. Hate to see it go. All I like in one place gone. Hate it..
If Warner donโt want my money itโs back to tiz I guess
What would the UCI road racing calendar look like if YOU designed it from scratch?
big chapeau to all the backroom staff at GCN still putting out top level content even though the company owners are screwing them over.
I really feel for Lloydy. Not only has the fantastic service that he worked so hard to help build come to an end, but he also has to control the message to all of us. Not surprisingly, he has proved to be the most eloquent and professional spokesperson possible. Thank you, Dan. My cycling heart goes out to you and I will miss your very insightful race commentary.
As a Yank, it was so great to have both the road and mtb content on the same app. Coverage was great and the docs outstanding. Why is it we can never have nice things?
Itโs hard to believe the best source of cycling and racing has been part of a hostile takeover. Apparently all they wanted was to out of business and plunder the assets.
It is realy sad to see GCN AND GCN+ going away. It was always watching thrm doing a super job at live reporting or the wounderful documentaries. Bing watching is also going fown the drain. All the presenters did always the best they could do. Watching them at different challenges was absolut fantastic und rembered you about your own suffering up the mountains etc.
I hope there will be way to keep GCN+ going. โคโคโค๐
'success' ruins most good things . RIP gcn+
I think you guys should put all the GCN+ documentary's on a new YT channel. I've never seen any but I've wanted to but I'm not financially able to get a subscription to it. Just an idea!
Maybe call it GCN DOC'S… would definitely be a waste to just let them disappear!!! Cheers guys!
Iโm not really in favor of messing with the calendar too much. The Classics Season is great and I donโt feel moving it to the fall will effect the racing other than the riders will now be more tired. Il Lombardia is at the end of the year and unfortunately it doesnโt feel like as big a race as it should be. However that feels a little different these past few years but that comes down to the effect the racers bring to these races. I donโt know how I would change the calendar but I would take notice at how convoluted and insane the Formula 1 calendar is. A longer year would most definitely be more expensive for the teams and thus make the relative shoestring budgets go even less far. It would also make the tenuous relationship cycling has with its own financial model look even more tenuous. Figure that out first and I think messing with the calendar makes a little more sense. In my opinion, one decision must follow the other.
When my gf asked me last week what I wanted for Christmas I said โGCN+โ subscription please! I checked the prices, all was fine. A few hours later she broke the sad news. Only the day before Iโd muttered to myself โThings that have been around for years always change or stop when I get involved.โ So itโs all my fault, sorry everyone.
The great thing with Spring Classics is that during 2 and a half month, every weak are filled with the greatest races and cycling landscapes there are. And I love it !
australian viewers back to being held to ransom by SBS, grand tours and a few one day races, with Matthew Keenan, who is great, but unfortunately the rest of the commentary team is crap.
Keep De Ronde in spring, move Strade Bianche and Paris-Roubaix to Autumn
NO!!!!!!!! KEEP T.F. and P.R. IN THE SPRING!!!!!!!!!!
GCN+ ending is a real shame. The content has been great and affordable. Now I have no idea where I will see the Giro unless Flo picks it up. The big question is world cup MTB. It was sad that it left Redbull, and honestly, GCN+ did a poor job with the coverage in comparisson, but at least it was available. Now it is just gone or at least that is what it feels like.
I enjoyed GCN+, thank you for all your quality work.
WB/Discorvery execs are complete boneheads! Clearly they do not understand, like or support the sport of cycling… nor do they give a crap about the impact the app has had on the community or the effort put in but so many dedicated people to make it happen..so sad to see such a well made hub for cycling shut down
Keep cobbled races where they are, move the Ardennes races to the autumn.
Also, you forgot to mention the Worlds itself moved in the 90's from high summer to early Autumn and now back again.
Also if I was a top CX rider, I'd get everyone to miss a world cup round and dare the UCI to block them all from the world's.
Maybe, just maybe, if Genius-boy at the UCI hadnโt put all his world championship eggs in one basket (that got rather tiresome after the first week, at least for non-Brits), he would have had something to sell after the Vuelta. It isnโt a problem with the Classics scheduleโฆ.
With global warming it is just going to get hotter and drier in April so it makes sense to shift De Ronde and Roubaix to a potentially colder and wetter time of the year. Cheers.
Move MSR, strade and Tirreno to september/octobre to combine it with the current itallian fall classics. This will prevent P-N/Tirreno overlap, spread out the monuments more and give an extra reason for riders to continue a bit after worlds or ride it before worlds.
I'd say something like Vuelta a week earlier (though I'd like to switch it with the Giro, but ASO will likely prevent that), followed by tirreno 2-4 days after (starting on wednesday or so for 7 stages), then you have strade and emilia the weekend after, followed by MSR, Lombardia and the worlds in the last 4 weeks. The season would thus last around a week longer.
Like I said I would prefer Giro and Vuelta to switch places and ideally with an extra week freed up from moving MSR, you can move all races currently after it up one week so you have more time between Giro(/Vuelta) and the TdF (giving more chance for that combination).
Cycling FANATICS, looks like Dan is using the friendly and energetic moto of Jasper Verkuijl ๐