If you can, spin up Stage 5 of this year’s Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (from April 14th). Starting around 1:36:00, it features one of the most exciting race finishes, in any sport, I’ve seen.
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Thanks for the heads up. I’ve watched stages 1-3 so far. No spoilers please!! 
Watching it now. Only 30 minutes in. Glad to know I’ve got some exciting racing coming up!
The finishes of stages 1-4 were pretty good, but partly that depended on who you were rooting for. lol
Thanks, I haven’t been following this one but I’ll take a look on Eurosport later.
Really enjoyed the Tour of the Basque Country last week - awesome final stage.
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Used to be not long ago that I could only watch the Tour de France, even if I did know about other races (which I didn’t). Thanks to GCN I can now watch racing almost every day of the week. There is so much great racing that I’m glad I’m no longer missing. And a lot of it makes the TDF look positively dull.
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Wow, that was an exciting finish! That hurt just watching. Ouch! Oof.
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I know, right? I feel like I’ve been that guy!
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Last stage of the Tour of the Basque country (stage 6) is going to the books.
Before watching the replay try to check the GC classification at the start to understand the tension.
Enjoy!
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That was a great one! Really enjoyed the end to the Basque tour. I always enjoy a stage where the tension builds throughout like that.
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@AlexEllermann The grade on that climb was extraordinary - great ending! I really enjoyed watching that one.
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@emacdoug Agreed - GCN+ has been great and hopefully they will have even more content next year.
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Reynaldo, what’s a GC classification?
@AlexEllermann
GC is the term used for General Classification in stage races (redundant when used as GC classification).
In stage races there are several classifications or standings, from the top of my head these are:
- Stage classification, which is the standing of every single stage
- Points Classification, which is the standing of cyclists as they accumulate points through the stages. Every stage will have marked lines (in green for the Tour de France) at different points of a stage where points are gained by passing first, second or third. Points are given to the stage winner and podium as well. At the end of the tour (stage race) the leader of this classification wins the Points Classification which for the Tour de France is the Green Jersey. Peter Sagan is famous for winning this jersey 7 times. The points rules vary between races.
- Mountain Classification, this is similar to the points classification but the points for this category are given to the riders getting through the top of mountain passes first. In the Tour de France this is the Polka dot Jersey
- General Classification (GC) which is the overall standing of the tour. Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France. This is the person who does the entire tour in the least amount of time.
- The Giro d’Italia used to give the Maglia Nera which was awarded to the last cyclist in the overall standing who finished the tour. This looks pretty bad but being the last means being the person who spent the most amount of time pedaling/suffering. It is was only used up to the 50’s but commentators mention the maglia nera when commenting the Giro.
Hope this helps!
For points and mountain classification it is better to google how they are awarded as it depends on the type of stage flat/hilly and also each tour has its own rules.
Cheers,
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Reynaldo, thank you for this clear explanation. Not only does it help me understand what’s happening when I watch a race, it helps when Suffering through a workout (particularly an inspiration video) in which they mention things like polka dot jerseys.
It was very nice of you to take the time to write it!
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The equivalent of this for the Tour de France is ‘lantern rouge’ (red lantern). It’s not actually an award that is given, but the commentators will refer to that rider using that term. I believe it derives from the railways, where the last car in a train would have a red light it indicate that it’s the end of the train. It’s definitely not a negative term; someone has to be last, there are many rider roles that don’t involve competing for the GC, and, as @Reynaldo_Lopez said, that rider has been racing for more hours than anyone else!
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No problem, glad I could help!
Cheers!
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