Category: Classics and day races
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Gird your barses for Paris-Roubaix
It’s Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. Hills aren’t the issue. The route I remember the first time I discovered the proportion of the Paris-Roubaix route which was cobbles, I thought: “Is that all?” Now, having ridden on cobbles for an incredibly short distance, I see the route and think: “51.1km! Sweet mother of Merckx!” That’s the kind…
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Fabian Cancellara and the truths of cobbled racing
After E3 Harelbeke, I pointed out that the first step to winning a cobbled race was: ‘Somehow get rid of Fabian Cancellara’. At the Tour of Flanders, no-one managed this. In fact, the final moments highlighted many of the truths of racing on the cobbles. Three of the four riders in the front group were…
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What to expect from the Tour of Flanders
I promised you a Tour of Flanders preview, but then realised that I’ve basically been drip feeding you just such a thing since the autumn. This is why there are quite a lot of links below. You’ve probably forgotten most of it though, so why not open all the linked articles in new tabs and…
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Moustaches and flying bikes at Gent-Wevelgem
It was a sprint finish with about 40 riders in the front group. John Degenkolb’s moustache won. Here’s a picture of it. That’s John Degenkolb immediately behind the moustache and then Peter Sagan in the background. Sagan came third, with Arnaud Démare, who won the overblown RideLondon–Surrey Classic last year, finishing second. One man who…
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Peter Sagan follows the steps and beats the Steps
No-one’s unsubscribed in recent weeks, so I’m taking that as a sign that you’re either desperate to hear more about cobbled one-day races or that you’re not going to do much more than roll your eyes and ride it out until I get back to writing about the Tour in July. Our latest appointment was…
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Who won Milan-San Remo and how?
Road cycling is an endurance sport. That was the message after this year’s Milan-San Remo. We tend to think of riders enduring endless climbs up mountains, but here they endured shitty weather and a very long day in the saddle. Technically, the race finished with a sprint, but it wasn’t the usual kind of sprint.…
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Who will win Milan-San Remo and how?
First, an apology – because all the best things start with apologies. Even better, it’s a pre-emptive apology, which is basically just the promise of future disappointment. I am apologising in advance because I’m going to be several days late with my Milan-San Remo report. You’re okay with that though, right? I mean if you’re…
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Alejandro Valverde is always worth beating
Alejandro Valverde hasn’t won any really big races since he returned from his doping ban at the start of 2012. Instead, standing on a lower step of the podium, he serves as a badge of quality for whoever’s above him. He always rides well, in all sorts of different races, but he doesn’t win. In…
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Try and learn Michal Kwiatkowski’s name
It’s not an easy one, but he’s a rider of growing importance so you might as well make the effort. I know, no-one likes effort, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. At least it’s only hearing sounds in your mind’s ear and not actual physical effort, like having to go to the cash machine or something like…
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Cycling up the Swiss Hill cobbled climb near Alderley Edge
In the spirit of research, I cycled up Swiss Hill today to get an idea of what it must be like to tackle the cobbled Flemish bergs seen in the Tour of Flanders and many of the other Belgian classics. It absolutely wasn’t that I couldn’t follow the route I’d been planning on doing, found…