The exact calendar will be revealed a bit later when the race profiles are finalized.
Though here already the 2022 Race List.
GTM remains same while PT obviously was reduced here and there.
Biggest change clearly the downgrade of the stage race duo Tour de Suisse and the Dauphine, which both go down to PTHC making it an interesting clash there. Also the Grand Prix Cyclistes got the same downgrade and is a classic only now.
Macskako Kerekparverseny and Scandinavia Open is going the other direction being new on the PT calendar.
The movement between PTHC, HC, C1, C2 and the former C2HC is too huge to name everything. Main thing is that several races were changed in number of race days, e.g. some of the longer stage races were reduced by 1-2 rd while some others got extended, e.g. the famous East Java 2 day event is now up to 4!.
Barbados Cycling Festival is now the Tour de Guadeloupe with a fully new profile, which also goes for Slovenia or Lithuania while the Celtic Chrono became the Isle of Man ITT.
New races, back on the calendar actually are Windhoek TTT, La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, Le Samyn, Berlin ProRace and the Great Ocean Road Classic.
While some races were removed this season with some clear highlights:
Course de Solidarnosc, Kenya Mountain Classic, SAA Tour d'Afrique, Sakartvelo Trophy, Tour de Langkawi, Tour of Eritrea, Tour of Japan, Tour of Southland and Vilnius GP.
Thank you very much to everyone working behind the scenes to compile the races. Always good to see some changes to keep things fresh. A bit tough to see 3 African races being cut with only one new race added. Eritrea especially, given how many strong cyclists are native to it. But I guess someone's gonna be unhappy no matter what you do, so I won't complain too much
Obviously Tour of Japan was removed because Bennett was coming back to PCT and it's unfair to let him race it after his dominance in 2019 and 2020. Gutted about it though Hoping Guadeloupe is a mountain/hill race to make up for it, especially with Eritrea going too.
Thanks to the calendar crew, your work is huge and goes unappreciated a lot but you do a better job than most of us complainers could
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Would have preferred a few different places instead of Guadeloupe for a re-worked, more bumpy, Caribbean event. But at least a Caribbean event remains on the calendar. Time to push for a Mauritian one-day to join in 2023 as well?
I like the name change for the IoM ITT & Return of some cool events as well.
Edited by TheManxMissile on 21-07-2022 10:49
Once all the main posts are done introducing the routes I might do a post on some odds and ends across all races but posting a few thoughts on items mentioned above. Thanks to Roturn for the intro.
I like the races to actually be in the places they are touring. I might be the only one who cares but since I do a fair amount of the stage editing others get to share in that.
So Lithuania, Slovenia, Guadeloupe and Isle of Man are all on the actual terrain in those countries.
Lithuania I created from scratch (it is a lot less hilly the old one, there aren't many hills in Lithuania) but the rest are adapted from other stage makers because that is 10x easier than building from scratch. That is why Guadeloupe was the choice - because Il Lince built a very nice zcts. Credit to Aussie for the Slovenia stages, some of which are straight from him some of which I adapted. Isle of Man also uses an old zcts by AG2R. And the Tour of East Java is now mostly actually on Lombok, which is the next island over, but also had some nice pre-existing Il Lince stages to work from.
Thanks for the thanks and sorry we cut some favorites but we know which ones to prioritize to bring back. I will take responsibility for killing Eritrea because it was just not a pretty race from a stagemaking perspective. Maybe I will work on nice new Eritrea in the season (although not sure there is a DEM file).
And thanks to Abhi and Red, it was good to get the band back together.
Edited by Ulrich Ulriksen on 21-07-2022 23:03
Great work Ulrich (and also Abhi and redordead), very much appreciated even if I'll always complain about fan favourites going out. You're doing a tremendous job!
First of all: huge thanks to the calendar team for your great work! It surely wasn't an easy task for you, but I think you did well
Obviously, everyone will be unhappy with some decisions, that's inevitable. Personally, I'm a bit disappointed by the Tour de Suisse relegation - but at least that way two Swiss teams could potentially participate this season And happy you didn't drop Romandie.
However, I'm not a big fan of the Tour of Japan removal. It's not that I'm particularly fond of Japan, but this kind of race was pretty unique; with the MTT being the only really decisive stage, it is - or rather was - pretty much the only stage race for pure diesel climbers (like Nairo). I hope there will be a similar replacement in terms of profile
Hoping Guadeloupe is a mountain/hill race to make up for it, especially with Eritrea going too.
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
