Category: Classics and day races
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Michael Valgren is incredibly blond
The absolute state of Michael Valgren’s barnet. Just look at it. The colour’s so far beyond comprehension I genuinely can’t work out whether a feathered side parting is brave or a cop-out. Valgren won Omloop het Nieuwsblad, the first ‘proper’ race of 2018 and a first reveal of who might win the bigger one-day classics…
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Vincenzo Nibali stays the right side of the barriers
Vincenzo Nibali won the final Monument of the season on a day defined by descending. The Sicilian is pretty good downhill but also had to be strong enough uphill to be right at the front for the summit a handful of kilometres from the finish. With the gap made, all he needed to do was…
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Peter Sagan isn’t from the Netherlands
Last week’s Road World Championships ended up decidedly Dutch, bar the one rider who dominated all the headlines. A-loving Chantal Blaak won the women’s road race, Annemiek Van Vleuten won the women’s trial and Tom Dumoulin won the men’s time trial – the Giro d’Italia winner is definitely the rider for Chris Froome to watch…
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Alejandro Valverde is no panda
When Dan Martin won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2013, he was chased up the final drag by a panda. It was a memorable backdrop to a race-winning, perhaps even career-defining, attack. Look at him (Dan Martin) go! Today, on almost exactly the same patch of road, Martin again found himself at the head of the race having…
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Alejandro Valverde, La Fleche Wallonne, the Mur de Huy, etc, etc
Last year, I wrote: “La Fleche Wallonne pretty much always amounts to a hill climb after a 200km warm-up. Alejandro Valverde is still the fastest hill climber, just as he was last year and the year before.” This year, I’ll write: La Fleche Wallonne pretty much always amounts to a hill climb after a 200km…
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Philippe Gilbert has a colourful time at Amstel Gold
Ardennes Week (which is actually eight days long) is when we segue from one-day racing to stage racing. Amstel Gold, La Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege involve much of the hurly burly of the cobbled classics – including that peculiar phenomenon where riders actually race to win, rather than conserving energy for the following day. However,…
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Greg Van Avermaet is King of Spring
If you’re accustomed to the cautious watchfulness of the Tour de France, the relentless violence of Paris-Roubaix can be a bit of an eye-opener. In July, commentators can spend three weeks discussing which mountain stage will see an attack from one of the favourites and some years the answer turns out to be ‘none of…
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Paris-Roubaix has cobbles and the plot from Wipeout
Barses of granite or barses of some sort of hi-tech vibration-dampening material with a made-up pseudo-scientific name? Who’s to say how the riders get through Paris-Roubaix without sustaining permanent damage to their perineums (perinea?). There’s also that whole riding-really-quickly-for-bloody-hours aspect to contend with. As races go, Paris-Roubaix is one on its own. Essentially one long…
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Philippe Gilbert passes his Tour of Flanders interview
The short version is that Philippe Gilbert pushed away from everyone on the Oude Kwaremont with 55km to and was never seen again. That really doesn’t do his Tour of Flanders winning ride justice though. The attack – the surging sustained power that saw the gap created – was really just passing the interview. It…
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Greg Van Avermaet cobbles together a decent start to the spring
Welcome to the next exciting instalment of Greg Van Avermaet’s Fighting Talk. After winning E3 Harelbeke on Friday, the Olympic champion was effusive, offering, “I’m happy things are not so bad,” as his verdict on the race. The Belgian followed that up with victory in Gent-Wevelgem too. Having also won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad a few…