I will sum up my experiences of each venue after each World Cup race. The first would be Treviso.
1. Venue
– Getting there: it took me a bit more than 45 minutes to get to Treviso from the Marco Polo Airport in Venice, so the only reason it can’t get 5 points is that it still cannot beat the 20 minutes tram ride from the Lille train station to Roubaix. 4 points
– Sights&City: Treviso is a beautiful city, the historic city offers plenty sights, has an amiable atmosphere, one could spend time there easily and in case you need to buy something, it can won’t be a problem – as long as you don’t want to do that during the siesta. 4 points
2. Course
– Getting there: the organizers provided free shuttle buses from the Treviso train station, so spectators without car could get there without problems. 5 points
– Layout & getting around: I liked the layout of the course and it offered quite a few spectacular spots, however, it was quite hard to get to the more distant parts of the course without risking catching the finish of any given race. 3 points
– Skill level: there was one very tough climb but the rest of the course can be labelled as fast instead of too technical. The lack of sand pits was also a bit disappointing, though the riders might not agree with me on this one. 3 points
3. Press services
– Distance from course: hands down the best course, so far. The finish area was roughly 10 meters away from the press center, so there’s not much to be said. 5 points
– Internet – the speed of the internet was good, though I didn’t really understand the reason why they had a password. 5 points
– Handouts – another fiver. By the time the awards ceremonies ended, the final result sheets had already been handed out. Impressive speed, even though it’s sometimes up to UCI to release the data. 5 points
– Staff – extremely helpful, in every aspect. They not only arranged me a lift to and from my hotel, but when my Macbook Pro was unable to connect to the WIFI network, the local IT guy did everything possible to fix the problem. 5 points
– Catering – it was all right, nothing fancy, not that I’d expect anything fancy. The warm lunch was a nice touch. 4 points
Overall score: 43/50 points – well done!
