Bad weather hits spring racing again as snow shortens another stage race
Racing fans across the Twittersphere lament the late spring snows that have now affected both the Tour of the Alps and the Tour of Croatia
The Tour of Croatia is the second race in as many days to shorten a stage due to snowfall, with stage two of the race shortened to just 107km.
That also means that the race has lost one of it’s two summit finishes, with the general classification now appearing to come down to stage five’s summit finish to Ucka.
The UCI 2.1 event has joined the Tour of the Alps, who yesterday had to cut 40km from the second stage of the race.
Tour of the Alps and Croatia shorten stages today due to cold weather. Croatia caravan drove a mega-500km overnight. #TotA #TourOfCroatia
— Gregor Brown (@gregorbrown) April 19, 2017
Bahrain-Merida enjoyed the overnight flurry of snow…
#TourofCroatia ❄⛄Let it snow… pic.twitter.com/rc8BsgC2X4
— Team Bahrain Merida (@Bahrain_Merida) April 18, 2017
While others weren’t so happy…
A shame snow affected Finish Sveti Jure 1762 metres at today's Stage 2 @Tour_of_Croatia – now 107km & Finish is Vrata Biokovo 860 metres 😢
— Tim Brierly (@tbprocycling) April 19, 2017
The snow fall was a first for some of the riders though, including Team Novo Nordisk’s Chris Williams.
Never thought that I would have to come to Croatia to see snow falling for the first time in my life!
— Chris Williams (@c1williamsau) April 18, 2017
The bad weather that has hit both weather led to very similar experiences for team bus drivers making their way to stage starts
C'è qualcosa che non va #snow #winter #croatia @tourofcroatia pic.twitter.com/1kSYHNcAVx
— yaroslav popovych (@yaropopovych) April 18, 2017
Due to the 🌨🌨 conditions, #TotA stage 2 will now start from Vipiteno at 12:00 CET. This was our view on the way to the original start line. pic.twitter.com/5U7X1DE1Zl
— BMC Racing Team (@BMCProTeam) April 18, 2017
Either way it will certainly provide some interesting conditions for riders to tackle as Kiel Reijnen of Trek-Segafredo recognised.
From snow covered mountains to the sun baked coast and back again. Time for stage 2 @Tour_of_Croatia !!
— Kiel Reijnen (@Kielreijnen) April 19, 2017
Let’s hope that tomorrow won’t bring further snow to some stage race somewhere in the world.