Tag: Spring Classics
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Shot: Paris-Roubaix 2019
Click or not: Shot: Paris-Roubaix 2019Throw out all the superlatives you want, there’s just not enough words to portray Paris-Roubaix to a level anywhere near its reverential status among its suitors. See, even when trying not to, it makes you. It’s best left to the camera and a denizen who knows where to point it to relate one of the… …
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Roubaix: Anatomy Of A Shithole
Click or not: Roubaix: Anatomy Of A ShitholeOne of the best, most memorable (and repeated) lines from the movie In Bruges is “it’s a shithole”. Of course this isn’t true; Bruges (or Brugge in the local parlance) is a beautiful city with many a charm to captivate the senses. On my third visit to the city running a Malteni Classics Tour in 2015, the shithole… …
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Insider Rides: Mathieu Van der Poel’s Canyon Aeroad
Click or not: Insider Rides: Mathieu Van der Poel’s Canyon AeroadThe kassien is calling. Around Flanders, frites are frying in questionable fat sources under makeshift gazebos, truckloads of cheap generic beer makes its way into muddy fields to be dispensed in the worst kind of plastic cups that render the beer even more tasteless, ending up trampled into the slop alongside broken yellow flags and… …
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In Den Hengst
Click or not: In Den HengstThe Classics are more than just bike racing. It’s the melting pot of people that fill the cafés and bars, most not cyclists but each and every one with a knowledge of the sport, the history, the riders. You can pick out anyone from the throng of lubed fans lining the cobbles and kassien and… …
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No One Tires Of Spring
Click or not: No One Tires Of SpringIt’s here; the best time of year. The tasters have come and gone with their heat, dust and sand, the embrocation and rain gear are back out and Northern Europe is the rightful epicentre of bicycle racing once again. When tasks, nay rituals, such as gluing on tubulars become the most important thing, when bad… …
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Trinities Part 3: La Doyenne
Click or not: Trinities Part 3: La DoyenneA monumental Spring Classics season wraps up on Sunday with the oldest race of the Monuments, The Old Lady, La Doyenne, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The cobbles are far behind, their place on the pain scale taken by brutally steep and punchy climbs like La Redoute and the Stockeau, as evidenced here in the latest Trinities preview. And… …
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Roubaix Week: The 2001 Mudfest
Click or not: Roubaix Week: The 2001 MudfestEvery year the most sadistic of road racing fans hope for one thing; a wet Paris-Roubaix. We want the most epic of races to be even harder for the riders, the punishment of the pavé amplified by a decent coating of precipitation, the ancient farm tracks made more treacherous by adding to the already slick… …
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Roubaix Week: Hayman’s Zwift Recovery
Click or not: Roubaix Week: Hayman’s Zwift RecoveryIt’s the most exciting week in professional road cycling… the Spring Classics bookended with the two greatest monuments, the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) and the Queen of the Classics, Paris-Roubaix. Last year’s edition of the Hell of the North was a true fairytale story, with the King of Belgium Tom Boonen going for… …