There is an average of 18 teams participating in all races this season.
1 race was oversubscribed
Grands Prix Cyclistes is a stage race last year, combining the 2 previously existing GP Montreal and GP Quebec classics. It was a popular addition to the calendar, with 26 teams interested - leading to 2 CT teams being turned away.
13 races with 20+ teams
Of the 47 C1/C2 races, only 13 have 20 or more teams involved (8 C1 and 5 C2). GP Cyclistes is the only full race, but C1 hills are clearly popular with 23 at the Tour of Norway, and 22 at both Seskin Classic and Scandinavian Open Road Race. The tours of Taiwan, Slovenie and Herald are the most popular C2 races with 21, while Monterrey TTT has 20 teams - having been the 3rd least popular race last season with only 12.
Most 'empty' races
Duo Differdange and Viana do Castelo will have the smallest fields with only 13 teams involved. Thus, all teams entered in Differdange are guaranteed at least 10 ranking points. The stage races with the fewest teams are Vuelta al Tachira and Circulo de Juarez, with 14. GP Kigali, FBD Eire Tour and Windhoek ITT come next with 15.
CT teams in C1 races
There are an average of 4 CT teams in each C1 race. The highest amount comes at the Philadelphia International Championship, where 8 of the 18 teams involved are CT. There are also 8 CT teams at GP Plouay, which has a slightly higher amount of 21 teams in total. There are only 2 races with no CT teams participating: Tour of South Africa and Tour of Bulgaria. They both have 17 PCT teams involved.
PCT teams in C2 races
The average number of PCT teams in C2 races is just 1.4. Tour du Faso is the highest with 4 teams involved, while the Tour de Taiwan and Tour of East Java features 3 PCT teams. There are no PCT teams in 4 races: Cauberg Classic, Circulo de Juarez, Herald Sun Tour and Tour de Slovenie.
Long race fun
Having attracted only 12 teams last year, the Tour of America field has grown to 17 teams this time around, with 14 PCT teams and 3 CT teams. The longest C2 race Tour of the Middle East also has 17 teams: 1 PCT and 16 CT.
Riding all of the oversubscribed hilly C1 races which should mean we don't score hugely in those, but also riding Differdange where we should score nicely with so few teams. Thought Monterrey would have less teams which is why I decided to race it in the end, many managers seem to have thought the same. That could mean a low scoring race there for us.
Only venture in to C2 is Azerbaijan where Kudus will lead, although with such climber depth I think I would be happy with a top 10.
Happy about the Duo differange line-up especially as I got crap duo there.
Kinda saw that ToA lineup comming with all the talk about it, so not dissapointed, should be a fun race nevertheless!
Also avoiding C1 hilly races were always in the cards, so happy those are the most popular.
The selections were pretty much what I was hoping for so all good here atleast.
We went to Tachira with 14 teams and the FBD Eire Tour with 15, the latter will hopefully pay off. The Tour of America should be interesting with 17 teams, hopefully some nice leaders there!
