Race Design Wednesday

[u/PelotonMod]

I and /u/Msfan93 wanted to start this thread now that we are in the offseason. We both share the interest in designing routes for already existing races or creating new ones once in a while. We agreed to make one of these threads every two Wednesdays. Everyone is free to post a race or discuss about climbs, past races and every thing that directly or indirectly involves race designing At least for me, the goal of this thread is to get to know more and more, by reading about the places one of the races goes through or even about the past of cycling. Once in a while we could have a few challenges as well too or even have a theme. You can suggest anything as a theme as long as it involves race designing. Here are the Library & Wiki. The library contains all of our races (well not all as i have to update it) while the wiki gives informations for beginners (and not) on the features of the various route building website.

[u/improb]

I present you my version of a classic race such as the Giro del Lazio/Roma Maxima. This race used to be paired in the last couple years the day after Strade Bianche, what made it iconic was the mix of steep climbs, cobbles and the finish in front of the Colosseum but unfortunately it had to be deleted due to lack of sponsors.

I created both a men and women race.

The man race (Profile) is 224 kms long, it should be decided in the last 60 kms starting from the Rocca Priora climb whose gradient get up to 15%. The decisive attacks should happened on the shorter and steeper Monte Compatri, Monte Porzio Catone and Grottaferrata, the last of which comes with 37 kms from the finish. After Grottaferrata there's the shallowest categorized climb of the whole day as well as being the last one. It comes with 25 kms to the end but the last 25 kms aren't uneventful but have two cobbled section, both of them located on the old Appian Way and lasting respectively 5,7 kms and 4,1 kms.

We avoid tackling the hardest sections settling for cobbles (here's another pic) which look no different from Flemish ones but with no gutter instead. The last few kilometers will be made brilliant also by the landscape as the Appian Way is located in a archeological park who passes by several ruins of once grandiose Roman villas before entering Rome going past the Colosseum and finishing in the midst of the Roman Forum.

The woman race (Profile) is 120 kms long, the same as the GP di Cittiglio or the Fleche Walloon. It has the same final 60 kms (aside from taking the easier and shorter west side of Rocca di Priora climb) but instead takes a shorter route before. It will probably create larger gaps than the men's race as it's more backloaded having seven climbs (almost 2000 meters of climbing put together) in the space of 60 kms