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I actually have an amazing suggestion: more pavé races each month ! I think 3 or 4 (fantasy) would be ok, instead of 1 or 2.
It's just a pity too see all the pavériders rotting on the market... Would be better if people had an interest in keeping them.

It would bring more diversity to the calendar as well.
And the races are often very interesting

I guess I am not the first one to ask this though... But it would be really appreciated !

I don't think that people need an additional interest in buying and keeping pavé riders. Since the pavé skill has been seperated from time trial skill, and consequently got cheaper, more users decide to buy the rider with a the better pavé skill, when they have the choice between two similar riders. To me it seems that there are more teams with pavé riders since that reform.

And I also wouldn't prefer more then 1-2 pavé races. I like them. But i like them to be something special. Especially during the real season the calendar is full with races, that have to be ridden, anyway.

Luna wrote:I don't think that people need an additional interest in buying and keeping pavé riders.

You mean, for teams with 12 or 15 riders
What about a small team with 9 or 10 riders ? Then you cant afford to have riders who are more expensive than average when they have only a helping role so often...

Luna wrote:And I also wouldn't prefer more then 1-2 pavé races. I like them. But i like them to be something special. Especially during the real season the calendar is full with races, that have to be ridden, anyway.

I agree that they have to be special. But not everyone wants to ride hill tours like dauphiné/suisse this month. Some teams don't want to have a hill leader. And for big teams, well you have to choose which race you prefer, I guess...

I would say, make it 3 in a month to balance it better between cost and interest. It doesnt seem too much but enough to make a pavé leader a little bit interesting

2 is a good standard.
This month + 1 stage by zealand
other months with special pavés races like PR a.o.
Tour des Pavés +
Sachsen Pavés ?
etc....
But it is good you speak it out, I forgot sometimes to program the pavés races

A Pave-Leader shouldn't be something common that almost everybody have in his/her team...should stay something special...pave-races will loose their "speciality" if there are 3,4 per month...

my thoughts...

I say: 2 one day pavé races per month is good.

So for June I would say, ignore the Zeeland stage.

And make 2 normal pavé one day races. BUT, real ones. May was a bit... soft from what I saw. That's even ok for May actually, after march, April with lots of real pavé races a soft month, ok. But from June on... a bit harder, a bit more real pavé. It doesn't have to be something like "Rund um den Misthaufen", a bit harder. Or like it used to be, one flatter, one hillier, but with real pavé, 3+4+5. The risk is there that we get pavé races that are harder than Paris Roubaix, but that's ok. Paris Roubaix at RSF now is a "sprint", not with sprinters but from a fairly big group since the last pavé is really to far from the goal in our system. Similar with Flanders, there maybe more possible, there the lack of guts plays a greater role than in PR where simply there isn't that much to do for a superpavéman with not much sprint. So make fairly hard pavé stages.. .NOT something like the Zeeland stage. Because that's one of those "interesting" stages where a lot is possible and that basically means it ends in a sprint... the only question is where the cut is going to be. Give us 2 pavé races a month, but real ones!