Tomorrow morning 238 riders will start the 99th Tour of Flanders, or Ronde Van Vlaanderen to give the race its proper, untranslated name. The race is the second Monument of the year and the first on the cobbles of Belgium. Unlike Paris-Roubaix the cobbles and race length provide only half the challenge with hilly sections also
Tag: John Degenkolb
At 293km, Milan-San Remo is the longest of the five Monuments and is sometimes referred to as a ‘Sprinters Classic’. This year the recent trend of sprint wins continued with Giant-Alpecin’s John Degenkolb delivering from a reduced bunch. The German endured the climbs well and played the waiting game well into the final kilometre. Last year’s
Tirreno-Adriatico had the names, the climbs, the crazy weather and quite possibly the bigger following but Paris-Nice remains my pick of the March stage races. Though I’ve frequently championed the Giro over the Tour, the Paris-Nice format usually delivers some cracking French racing and had returned this year to its better format. The race takes