Belgium

Here Come The Spring Classics

Quickstep classics boonen verkenning

You can almost smell the beer and frieten now. This weekend sees the start of the cobbled classics. I’ll do a preview for the weekend’s double bill of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne but ahead of these it’s worth noting and celebrating the start of the spring classics season.

Yesterday Tom Boonen was photographed wheeling a suitcase across a car park. So what? Well that’s the point, a man with a suitcase is newsworthy because he’s a pro cyclist and the classics are starting. And when Boonen rode the course with his team mates this training session was itself a media event with photographers out to record the moment.

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Liège-Bastogne-Liège: The Moment The Race Was Won

For a while it looked like Vincenzo Nibali was going win Liège-Bastogne-Liège but he was reeled in with one kilometre to go by Maxim Iglinskiy and the Astana rider sailed past and soloed to the line, look carefully and you can spot the losing shade of lime green above. But perhaps this time there was no single winning moment and today’s race was instead defined by attrition and endurance?

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Liège-Bastogne-Liège Preview

The oldest one day race of the year. Liège-Bastogne-Liège might be in Belgium but it has over 4,000 vertical metres of climbing, comparable to an Alpine stage of the Tour de France. Steep climbs and twisting descents make this a supreme physical contest where there’s rarely a surprise win.

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The hidden climbs of Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the hilliest of the one day classics. Glance at the race profile and you’ll note 11 climbs on the route, plus the climb to the finish. These are described as côtes répertoriées, or “catalogued climbs”.

Only the race has many climbs that aren’t catalogued. One in particular is crucial as it is climbed with less than 20km to go.

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Flèche Wallonne: The Moment The Race Was Won

Joaquim Rodriguez attacks on the Mur de Huy with 350m to go. Normally riders sprint when they are this close to the finish line. But this isn’t a normal finish and Rodriguez put in a powerful attack to go clear. This was the moment the race was won.

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Flèche Wallonne Preview

It might be a midweek race but the Flèche Wallonne is big classic thanks its history and its finish. The race heads across the Belgian Ardennes before the finish on the vicious Mur de Huy with a gradient that can reach 26%.

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Gent – Wevelgem: The Moment The Race Was Won

Tornado Tom Frits

Tom Boonen won the sprint to the line. As you can see from the image above he is level with the lime green Peter Sagan and the red and white Oscar Freire with 200m to go. But this was not the crucial moment of the race. Instead an acceleration 30km from the finish on the Monteberg climb made all the difference.

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