[Burkni]

National champs coming up, they always add some spice to the already interesting June racing.
Some nice races on tap this year:

Belgium:
Completely PAN-flat parcours, favouring Boonen (according to Gilbert)

The Netherlands:
Very interesting parcours here with four hills squeezed tastefully into a loop of just over 10km and 14.9m of elevation gain per km, on par with really hilly worlds courses (think Mendrisio) but distributed over a greater number of climbs. Could go to a number of riders, but the winner will be a strong guy.

Italy:
The Settimana Tricolore takes place in Trentino this year, meaning that long, flat stretches of road are hard to come by.
This is reflected in the parcours, which has a similar total amount of climbing per km to the Dutch one, but concentrated in one whopper climb relatively early in the circuit. Look for the usual suspects, Nibali/Visconti/Cunego and basically anyone who has carried his climbing legs over from the Giro (a tall order - there is a month between)

Switzerland:
A relatively flat affair, with the option for Cancellara to descend his way to the finish line.

France:
Another flat sprinter's affair. Take your pick from the budding young fast Frenchmen.


Please add other items of interest.

[The Rake]

Great Britain

Course based around Ampleforth in North Yorkshire.

Hilly area but necessarily a very hilly course, though there are long drags and the weather will be sure to play a role. Sky will be sending a strong team led by Cavendish with Dowsett, Hunt, Kennaugh, Froome and Luke Rowe. Wiggins not likely to defend his title. Many of the UK based riders are based around the region

[VdB]

Re: the Belgian champs...Gilbert (and everyone else) is a bit quick to propose Boonen as the big favorite on a flat parcours like this one, as they all seem to forget that QST and Boonen are suffering from the same problem they do every year: while they can field a good 10-12 Belgian riders, continental outfits like Landbouwkrediet can field pretty much their entire team with more than 20 riders. And I doubt they want to go to a sprint finish with Boonen if they can help it.

Gilbert himself will be working almost entirely alone of course. He's got Van Avermaet and 2 young riders from BMC and that's it. May as well try to provide Van Avermaet with a nice lead-out if he can help it.

[Leafcake]

Burkni, on 12 June 2012 - 11:42 AM, said:

Italy:
The Settimana Tricolore takes place in Trentino this year, meaning that long, flat stretches of road are hard to come by.
This is reflected in the parcours, which has a similar total amount of climbing per km to the Dutch one, but concentrated in one whopper climb relatively early in the circuit. Look for the usual suspects, Nibali/Visconti/Cunego and basically anyone who has carried his climbing legs over from the Giro (a tall order - there is a month between)

some footage of the circuit -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_gqfCT0T90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIMY4erihd8

It should be noted though, that this year we'll be getting the post suspension riders back in: Basso, Pellizotti, Di Luka, Rebellin, Scarponi...

[micomico]

Leafcake, on 18 June 2012 - 09:57 PM, said:

It should be noted though, that this year we'll be getting the post suspension riders back in: Basso, Pellizotti, Di Luka, Rebellin, Scarponi...

Scarponi has been training at Lo Stelvio for the championships, said his legs were sore for about a week after the Giro.

[Burkni]

Leafcake, on 18 June 2012 - 09:57 PM, said:

some footage of the circuit -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_gqfCT0T90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIMY4erihd8

[Leafcake]

Jeannie Longo finally loses her crown. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot takes the French ITT championship. Sigh of relief.

[Burkni]

Leafcake, on 21 June 2012 - 09:34 AM, said:

Jeannie Longo finally loses her crown. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot takes the French ITT championship. Sigh of relief.

End of an era.

[Leafcake]

Burkni, on 12 June 2012 - 11:42 AM, said:

Italy:
The Settimana Tricolore takes place in Trentino this year, meaning that long, flat stretches of road are hard to come by.
This is reflected in the parcours, which has a similar total amount of climbing per km to the Dutch one, but concentrated in one whopper climb relatively early in the circuit. Look for the usual suspects, Nibali/Visconti/Cunego and basically anyone who has carried his climbing legs over from the Giro (a tall order - there is a month between)

Bad quality, but here are some live streaming addresses that may work -

http://www.accurate-target.com/rai-3-live-stream/rai-3-live-stream

http://www.stream2watch.me/live-tv/rai3-live-stream

[Leafcake]

Pellizotti back with a bang, wins the Italian road championships (bet the UCI are jumping up and down). Di Luca 2nd. Young Moser (3rd) reconfirming his talent in what was a very exciting race. Interestingly, Nibali, who was one of the race protagonists, seems to struggle with his climbing ability; not unlike what we have seen in the Dauphine. His gains during the race seemed to come on the descents and planes, while he lost ground on the climbs.

[Leafcake]

Live streaming links for the Belgian, French and Dutch road championships
http://sports-livez.com/

[VdB]

41-yr old hardman Nico Eeckhout's answer when asked whether it would be a problem (because he'd have to ride another year) if he became Belgian champion again:

"I think it'd be a bigger problem for everyone else".

[VdB]

Vorganov Russian champ
Grivko Ukraine
Bazayev Kazachstan
Wegmann Germany
Mihaljovic Croatie

[VdB]

I'll give you one guess who won the Slovakian championship.

[VdB]

Only 12 riders in the race anymore in Holland. Terpstra going to win!

Rainy race here in Belgium here so far. Also, boring.

[VdB]

Rabon wins in Czech Republic, Sylvain Chavanel winning in France.

He was caught and Bouhani (sp?) won in the sprint

[VdB]

Boonen and QST are dominating the race here now. He's up front with 3 teammates, but only has 30 seconds on the peloton with Gilbert and Lotto with 27 kms to go. Still, the Boonen of Roubaix could probably hold this on his own.

[N.B.O.L.]

VdB, did you have all of those championships on TV or have you been streaming like a madman?

This post has been edited by N.B.O.L.: 24 June 2012 - 03:41 PM

[Leafcake]

VdB, on 24 June 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

He was caught and Bouhani (sp?) won in the sprint

He's got some kick, eh?
It looked a bit weird. FDJ with luxury problems of having too many riders at the end, and too many sprinters for that matter. Demare didn't look too chuffed seeing Bouhanni pass him on the line.

- nn -
(checked only because you asked, as this is coming from someone who's errors have become so frequent, that Leafcake has put them on the ignore list )

[VdB]

Thanks Leafcake!

N.B.O.L., on 24 June 2012 - 03:41 PM, said:

VdB, did you have all of those championships on TV or have you been streaming like a madman?

Yes and no. I'm watching the Belgian champs (Boonen is close to winning atm btw) live stream and it's mentioning all the foreign champs too in the commentary and ticker! Not sure if the video will work abroad

http://www.sporza.be...ennen/1.1336828