Why do I still love the Ardennes? I know Paris-Roubaix is the best classic, I know Flanders is the second best and I’m quickly beginning to think Strade Bianche is the third. Nevertheless, I always look forward to the Ardennes week. Perhaps it’s due to the Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday structure we’ve seen organisers adopt in recent years.
Category: Previews and Reviews
It the end it wasn’t to be for Tom Boonen. The stars aligned a week before for Philip Gilbert but Roubaix posed too many obstacles for Quick-Step to mastermind his perfect finale. It would be Greg Van Avermaet who finished the two velodrome laps first, returning from an early deficit to drag a small group
One of my recent Twitter polls asked if we preferred a brilliant edition of Paris-Roubaix or a Tour de France decider on Ventoux/Alpe d’Huez/The Tourmalet. With 57% of the vote Paris-Roubaix was the winner and it’s considered by many to be the best racing of the season. I’ll always have love for the Grand Tours
…which leads me to today’s daily prediction: Philippe Gilbert will not win the 2017 Tour of Flanders. — Just Pro Cycling (@justprocycling) January 12, 2017 Well, I got it wrong. There was nothing in Philippe Gilbert’s post-2015 BMC form to suggest he would take to any race – regardless of the surface beneath his wheels
It was all relatively calm… and then Peter Sagan went ballistic. If the Slovakian’s attack on the Poggio was eyebrow-raising then Michal Kwiatkowski’s stealthy, slipstreamed sprint on the Via Roma was jaw-dropping.
The Volta a Catalunya dates back to 1911, making it over 20 years older than the Vuelta Espana. It’s therefore no surprise the race has been part of the top tier calendar since the inaugural ‘Pro Tour’ in 2005 and has an honours list stacked with big names. Despite its rich history, Catalunya has never
Tirreno-Adriatico starts tomorrow; the unpredictable, sometimes fantastic, sometimes snowy, sometimes boring, springtime rival to the ASO’s Paris-Nice. I was unable to write a ‘Quick Picks’ for Paris-Nice but I can assure you I would have talked up Richie Porte (currently 15 minutes down) and Romain Bardet (currently sitting on his sofa eating croissants and reading
I confess I was not as excited for Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Belgium’s curtain-raising classics weekend as the rest of the cycling world. Perhaps I was foolishly distracted by Green Mountain and the Abu Dhabi Tour, intrigued to see if Rui Costa and company could upset the leading GC guys. I’ve had no such distractions
Just Pro Cycling 