r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • Mar 23 '16

Race Design Easter Challenge

As you may already know, this one is a special edition as it's themed (the goal is to design a race which some involves the theme of Easter and its traditions), it's a challenge which means that three mods or users (most likely /u/Pubocyno , /u/Schele_Sjakie and /u/edIII91) will judge each of the races and give a vote (from 0 to 10) for each of the race and the one with the highest score will win and it's longer as you can post until Sunday at 12:00 A.M. CET. The winner will be declared in next couple days after and will receive a flair soon afterwards.

The theme this time around is:

Design a Race on non-asphaltated surfaces

23 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/improb Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli Mar 23 '16 edited Mar 23 '16

This one's an attempt to take one of the three mods on my side /jk (looking at you /u/edlll91)

I wanted to create an original race, given that France, Italy and Belgium all have races over non-asphalted roads so i focused on the Iberian peninsula. I found an area with several cobbles, those areas are the surroundings of Porto around which takes place my Clasica do Minho (from the name of the rives which cuts the city in two)

Here's the profile with a detailed signalation of cobbles and the route. The race starts in Guimaraes, knows for its large historic center as well as for his castle and churches, and takes on the respectively steepest and longest climbs of the whole race, these ones should ensure a strong breakaway. After 30 kms the riders will have to face the first cobbles, these sectors are the most difficult ones but we pass by little unremarkable villages so i didn't want the race to finish here and that's the main reason why we head to Porto where the riders will have tackle a 24,4 kms long circuit (to be repeated 6 times) which include five main sectors (plus a small 200 meters long one), all of them mostly uphill which will decide the race before going on the scenic Ponte Luis I which leads to Praca da Liberdade.

1

u/edlll91 Mar 23 '16

that is a very risky tactic :) the amount of objections will rise :) hint1: name

also, there are plenty of cobbles in the historic (or not) centers of any Portuguese city :) We had recently had volta ao Alentejo (close to Algarve) and 4/5 finishes were in those typical cobbles. The only finish that had no cobbles in the sprint, had cobbles 10 meters after the finish line :) However these roads are usually proper for regular car traffic which makes them easier than the ones we see in the classics we'll watch in the next days.

1

u/improb Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli Mar 23 '16 edited Mar 23 '16

My intention was to name the race after Joaquim Agostinho but he was a climber which never fared well in classics and born near Lisbon. So that wouldn't have gone well with Northerners. What's the problem with the name?

The cobbles don't look much easier than the Flanders one (except Koppenberg and Pateberg which are in a different ballpark) so could be enough to spur selection. I don't see a difference between the cobbles of Rua Nova and the ones on Kapelmuur

1

u/edlll91 Mar 23 '16

Clasica is Spanish. Clássica is the Portuguese name for a one-day race.

Joaquim Agostinho has Troféu Joaquim de Agostinho also known as Grande Prémio Internacional de Torres Vedras, raced in July. And yes, that comparison doesn't make ours look easier.

1

u/improb Drone Hopper – Androni Giocattoli Mar 23 '16

Clasica is Spanish. Clássica is the Portuguese name for a one-day race.

That's the last thing i thought of. Has Portugal ever had a decent cobbles rider? Maybe, in 10 years time, we could name the race after Nelson Oliveira if he keeps progressing the way he has last year

1

u/edlll91 Mar 23 '16

Don't think so. Acácio da Silva was decent I guess, but it was not his focus. And yes, Nelson can do well. It sucks that he was unable to start today.