2016 UCI Nations Cup Calendar

So while I was in my Richmond bubble, I totally missed the announcement for the 2016 U23 Nations Cup calendar. Not much changes to this calendar from last year except the addition of the Kattekoers, which is apart of the Gent-Wevelgem "day", so to speak, with 4 races taking place on March 27th including the Junior Men, the U23 Men and Elite Women and Men.

The calendar is as follows...

Kattekoers - March 27th

Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 - April 9th

La Côte Picarde - April 13th

ZLM Tour - April 15th-16th

Course de la Paix - June 3rd-5th

Trofeo Almar - July 31st

Tour de l’Avenir - August 20th-27th

17 racing days is pretty good for the Nations Cup circuit plus the other .1U and .2U UCI races on the calendar. If you add up the Nations Cup and the other U23 races, there are 60 racing days just for U23 racers. Not too shabby plus all of the other .2 and amateur racing that most teams take part in through the season. Yet without an overall season competition for all of the U23 races, it seems to be a bit...hollow. Even the Nations Cup is a bit hollow as trade teams are not involved. Imagine a competition with Colpack, Zalf, Axeon, AWT-Greenway, BMC Development, Lotto-Belisol U23 and a bevy of other amateur and continental teams.