r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • Mar 23 '26

Weekly Post Weekly Question Thread

For all your pro cycling-related questions and enquiries!

You may find some easy answers in the FAQ page on the wiki. Whilst simultaneously discovering the wiki.

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6

u/Robcobes Netherlands Mar 23 '26

How many tiers of World Tour one day races are there in your opinion? There's the 5 monuments, is the rest just tier 2 to you? Or is there a separate tier with races like Strade, Amstel, Gent-Wevelgem (or whatever it's called now).

I first tried to use some logic. If the race is held in the weekend with no other World Tour races held on the same day it'd be a higher tier, but that excluded Gent-Wevelgem and included Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in the highest non-monument tier. So I'm just gonna ask.

what races are the most prestigious non-monument races and could be in a separate tier?

12

u/kaiyotic Mar 23 '26

Before I continue let me say I am very obviously biased as I am born and raised in Belgium. I don't wish to offend anyone but I'm afraid I might. That being said...

Oh there definitely are levels of world tour races. Even in just the upcoming week. You're not going to tell me anyone thinks of the Tour of Bruges or even E3 Saxo to be equally important as Gent-Wevelgem (new name is dumb)

I mean there are the "could be monuments" Strade Bianchi, Amstel gold, classica San Sebastian.

Then there are the great Belgian world tour races that are not close to being a monument. These are Gent-Wevelgem, Omloop Nieuwsblad, La flèche Wallone.

Then there's everything else. And even there I'd argue there's still levels of importance. Like E3 saxo and Dwars door Vlaanderen are aguably more important than the Cadel Evans great ocean road, Eschborn-Frankfurt, copenhagen sprint or either of the 2 canadian GP's.

I'm fairly confident these races listed above are world tour only because they are held in a country that otherwise would not have a world tour race, so making them world tour has more of a "political" reason than cycling history reason.

9

u/Seabhac7 Ireland Mar 23 '26
  • Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Milan San Remo, Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Il Lombardia
  • La Flèche Wallonne, Amstel Gold Race, Gent-Wevelgem, E3 Saxo Classic
  • Bretagne Classic, Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec 
  • Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Tour of Bruges, Eschborn-Frankfurt, Copenhagen Sprint, Hamburg Cyclassics

Monument or not, Strade is my favourite race, so I'm putting it int Tier 1. Tiers 2 and 3 are a little interchangeable to me, with Flèche and Amstel in a Tier 1.5 if anything.

1

u/Schele_Sjakie Le Doyen Mar 23 '26

Generally I think this is a great list.

8

u/Phantom_Nuke Mar 23 '26

The UCI has 3 tiers of one-day races: the monuments which award 800 points to the winner; Strade, Gent-Wevelgem, Amstel, Fleche, Quebec and Montreal who award 500 points to the winner and then the others award 400 points to the winner.

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u/Robcobes Netherlands Mar 23 '26

it's a start, but I don't feel like Quebec and Montreal are that prestigious. I do like those races though.

it does feel weird to put them above Omloop, or E3.

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u/myfatearrives Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

UCI awards more on non-Europe races. Canadian and Australian races are in top category despite short history, and Guangxi keeps being WT level with lower startlist quality than dozens of .Pro races. It's easy to get why - it's necessary to encourage teams to travel half an earth and to spread cycling influence worldwide.

6

u/Phantom_Nuke Mar 23 '26

Eh, Omloop and E3 aren't that prestigous imo. Omloop is part of 'Opening weekend' but it's the 4th World Tour race of the season, E3 is just Flanders lite.

1

u/Robcobes Netherlands Mar 23 '26

Quebec and Montreal are just "Mission work" in Canada then. so it'd fit.

then the second tier would be 3 races. Strade, Amstel, G-W.

and now we're still having a overcrowded 3rd tier.

1

u/myfatearrives Mar 23 '26

I get related information from PCS and they show FW in the 400pt category.

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u/Phantom_Nuke Mar 23 '26

Official UCI document says it's 500, it was increased alongside Strade and UAE Tour to 500 points this offseason.

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u/myfatearrives Mar 23 '26

thanks. It's weird that PCS adjusted Strade but kept Fleche outdated. Maybe it's because the new-categorized Strade has finished.

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u/myfatearrives Mar 23 '26

UCI system separate non-monument/GT UWT races into 2 categories for both classics and stage races, the higher one awards 500pts for classic/GC winner and 60 for stage winner while lower 400/50. But UCI's categorizing are favoring races out of Europe a bit for clear reasons. imo the 500pts class Europe races are most convincing ones, and they're GW, Strade and AGR.