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by InitialLastName
1823 days ago
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I have a habit of looking at the calendars of the tracks F1 goes to, just out of curiosity. Many of them have bicycle events in addition to car events, for exactly the reasons you would think (and mentioned): well-maintained roads with no cars, an interesting, undulating course, nice surroundings, and infrastructure for crowds. As an example, the 2020 UCI Road World championship was centered around the Imola track, and looking at their schedule they frequently have other cycling events. |
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Professional road cycling generally has no barriers between spectators and the riders except in key areas or start/finish lines. A race track designed for cars of course has enormous run off areas and view blocking steel safety structures, tire walls for 150mph+ accidents - you don't need these for a bike race. The result is spectators generally sat far, far further away and the atmosphere is IMO much worse for it. I've had far more fun sat at the side of mountain stages with friends and a few beers.
That said, of course it has the advantage you get to see the riders multiple times instead of just once as is case on most point to point stages, but easy access to live streams on phones/tablets makes the race so easy to follow at the roadside anyway.