The Route: 198.5km and that wall. It’s a 197km warm-up and then the world hill climb championships. After a start in Seraing the race heads south and then loops around some of this Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège route including the climb of La Redoute before heading west to Huy. The Mur de Huy is tackled three times … Read more
Paris-Roubaix is this Sunday and it’s a race like no other. While most of the Flemish classics and semi-classics seem to be merging into one settled format looping around the Flemish Ardennes and VIP tents, Paris-Roubaix’s route barely changes these days.
It’s Quick Step versus the peloton this Sunday as the home team take on all comers, including Peter Sagan, Greg Van Avermaet and Sep Vanmarcke. It’s live on TV from start to finish and in front of an estimated million of roadside fans, an event of national importance to the Belgians.
Michael Valgren has gone solo and Sep Vanmarcke gives chase in the final straight. The strongest rider didn’t win, the strongest team did.
The season goes up a notch with the start of the cobbled classics this Saturday and racing that supplies action for hours rather thanks to the tricky course and the ferocity of the peloton as it twists around the Flemish countryside. More than ever the Omloop is a mini Tour of Flanders and all the better for it.
This Saturday is openingsweekend and the start of the cobbled classics season with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. It’s an old race but a copycat contest too that has found its place on the calendar by constantly frontrunning the Tour of Flanders. So much so that this year’s Omloop poaches the beloved old roads of the Ronde.
In the past the blog has opened with some predictions for the year ahead but forecasts so far out inevitably go wrong so instead here’s a collection of known things which look promising…
There’s news that the trial of Alexandr Vinokourov and Alexandr Kolobnev over the alleged sale of the win Liège-Bastogne-Liège is going ahead next March. This is an old story or rather a slow story that has yet to reach a conclusion but brings some intriguing angles from how the law will deal with race tactics; to helping us explore how much a race is actually worth rather than the prize list and more.
The final spring classic and the oldest, the race began in 1892 and these days marks the transition from one day classics to the hilly stage races thanks to a course that’s as hard as a day in the Alps with plenty of vertical gain from the ten marked climbs and many more that are unlabelled. Alejandro Valverde is the obvious pick for Sunday this time he’s got more challengers in a race that is harder to control.
