Bringing you all autumnal news of the Spring Classics, whether you’re interested or not. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into this in any depth. I can’t be bothered.
For the last couple of years cobbled classic the Ronde van Vlaanderen, has finished with laps of a circuit. This would be rubbish even it didn’t result in very conservative racing – which it did. Circuits take that crucial ‘getting from A to B’ quality away from a race. It doesn’t much matter that A and B are often five yards apart and the whole race is one massive detour. It just feels better to see the riders continually covering new terrain.
In truth, the new route does still see some climbs being repeated, but they don’t go round and round in ever decreasing circles at the end any more. Instead, the route rambles around Flanders, crossing over itself at times. The big changes are seen in the last hour. The cobbled climbs in the closing kilometres are now a little more frequent, whereas before there were long flat bits where those riders who had attacked could be caught. This should hopefully make for a more exciting race.
So mine’s a Rodenbach Grand Cru and yes, I think I will have samurai sauce with those frites, thank you very much. Just getting my order in early. Just getting my order in very, very early (the race will take place on April 6th).
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