The greatest one day race in the world takes place on Sunday. Giant crowds, fierce climbs and more await. This year’s edition promises an open edition with no particular rivalries there’s a long list of contenders and pretenders.
2015 Critérium du Dauphiné Route
More than the race resembles a mini-Tour de France, this race as an Alpine dress-rehearsal for the Tour, complete with an identical mountain stage and a comparable team time trial. Held between the 7 and 14 June, here’s a look at the stages and what to expect along the way.
Held to Higher Standards
Cycling’s imagery means that thoughts of spring don’t always turn to blooming flowers and warmer weather but instead generate dark images of leaden skies and muddy fields, Belgium at its most dismal. Another theme is the omnipresence of the Etixx-Quickstep team. The name has changed over the years but story remains the same, a team expected to deliver big results ahead of every other team. While some squads are delighted with a podium placing this one risk being blasted for “losing” the race should a rider come second.
New Fan Lobby Group Being Formed
Cycling fans are grouping together to form a lobby group called Association de Vélo de Route Internationale. AVRI will campaign on behalf of fans to ensure their voices are heard and stake a claim to share in the spoils of professional cycling and lobby for improvements to help fans such as better race websites and sharper TV production.
40 Days to the Giro
All eyes are rightly on Flanders in anticipation of this weekend’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, one of the best races in the world. All the more reason to take a quick look at a different subset of riders and evaluate where things stand for the Giro.
Team Victory Rankings
Time to look at the teams and the number of races they’ve won. It might be early in the spring classics season but we’re almost a quarter of the way through the season as measured by the number of days of racing and therefore the amount of wins up for grabs.
It’s also the chance to evaluate some issues from Tinkoff-Saxo’s managerial mess to Astana’s looming licence loss.
The Moment The Race Was Won: Gent-Wevelgem
Luca Paolini goes solo in the final kilometres, his breakaway rivals only a murky blur behind. He was dropped over the Kemmelberg but kept chasing and eventually latched on to the small group of riders chasing Jurgen Roelandts. Hiding among giants Paolini emerged in the finish with a sneaky seated attack to catch Etixx-Quickstep out once again.
Gent-Wevelgem Preview
This Sunday’s race is the most sprinter-friendly of the cobbled classics and it’s World Tour race too, so we get action and a deep field. Cobbles and climbs feature but so does a long section to the finish line to suit the sprinters. Only the weather could ravage the race with very strong winds forecast.
The Moment The Race Was Won: E3 Harelbeke
Geraint Thomas goes solo with 4km to go. A year ago he reached Harelbeke with Peter Sagan and paid the price in the sprint. Now he went clear of Sagan and Zdeněk Štybar to win alone.
It marked a tense conclusion to a dramatic race, although the number of crashes will cast a shadow over the rest of the cobbled classics.
E3 Harelbeke Preview
It may not be the Ronde van Vlaanderen or Paris-Roubaix but chances are millions have heard about this race in recent weeks. Only for forget the Photoshopped poster because the E3 Harelbeke is a real race that’s growing in stature to become one of the finest cobbled classics of the season. Better still there’s a long list of riders and teams who really need a win starting from today.