Before the leaves

De Ronde van Lombardije vandaag! "De klassieker van de vallende bladeren". Voor het eerst met aankomst in Lecco en wellicht voor 'de laatste keer in oktober' want volgend jaar staat de race geprogrammeerd in september, de week na het WK... Ik weet niet goed of ik dat wel zo hard toe wil juichen... Pertinente opmerking daarover vandaag op Cyclingnews.com trouwens:

"Saturday sees the curtain fall not just on the 2011 season, but on one of cycling’s most evocative traditions, as the Tour of Lombardy takes place on its usual October date for the final time. While the route of the Race of the Falling Leaves has changed regularly throughout its history (and does so again this year), the image of the peloton negotiating the rosy-hued shores of Lake Como in low Autumnal sunshine has remained a steadfast fixture in cycling’s collective consciousness from generation to generation."
"From next season, however, the classic shifts forward to late September, before the leaves have even turned to brown in northern Italy, and the honour of bringing the WorldTour calendar to a close is instead bestowed upon the nascent Tour of Beijing. While the UCI’s efforts to spread the gospel of cycling to outposts beyond the Old Continent are justly encouraged, a worrying side effect of such evangelization is that the underlying fabric of the sport risks being unravelled in the process."

Vindplaats: De Ronde van Lombardije - vooruitblik op Cyclingnews.com