Most Prestigious / Your Favorite One Day Races

[red_flanders]

There's a good discussion brewing in the Ghent - Wevelgem thread about the relative prestige and popularity of some of the one day races. I thought it would be cool to have a thread about it. Adapting the star format from @Volderke , I'll put my two cents in.

My Favorites / Most Enjoyable:
In priority order within a rating:

Flanders, Roubaix
Strade, Worlds*, Lombardia
MSR, Gent Wevelgem, Liege, Amstel
Omloop, E3, Brabantse Pijl, San Sebastian, Fleche
Others...

Less confident about this but I'll take a crack:

Most Prestigious:
In priority order within a rating:

Worlds**, Roubaix, Flanders
Liege, MSR, Lombardia
Strade, Amstel
Gent Wevelgem, Fleche, San Sebastian
Others...

I will say I think the Olympic Games RR is the most prestigious and often quite a good watch, but I left it out because it's only every 4 years. Whatever y'all want to do is fine.

* The worlds is so course dependent. Could be 5 beers, could be 2 for me.
** The jersey to wear all year and the title are hugely prestigious.

Let the mayhem begin!

 

[BlueRoads]

Well, I already told my opinion, but I love your rating system in beers and wine glasses!

 

[Ulfhednar]

Love your rating system! I put this in another thread, but I'll put it here as well...

To me MSR is a monument of course, but a very boring race. I love all one day races. When I competed in the 80s I was much more of a stage racer, and hence a huge fan of stage races. Now that I am older I LOVE single day racing. I don't care too much about race status per se. I love Flanders, PR, Lombardia, Luik Bastenaken Liuk, Dwars, FW and Amstel, GW, E3, Strade, Many of the flat one day spring races, hell, I love em all now. Some turn boring, but that is OK. E3 this year was super exciting. Every Spring I get Belgian cycling fever LOL.

Edit to add...If I was a pro rider, I would be most happy with a win in Flanders!

 

[Koronin]

I LOVE your rating system.

Paris-Roubaix is hands down my favorite race of the season.
Next would be Flanders and Strade.

Those 3 races are typically fun and exciting races.
I enjoy most 1 day races.

Edit to add...If I was a pro rider, I would be most happy with a win in Flanders!

There's a thread in the Enthusiast subform for what type of rider you'd be if you were a pro. I think anyone who is a big fan of the classics would agree with your sentiment. To go along with your comments, I'd want Roubaix.

 

[Pinot's goat]

For prestige I agree with you apart from Strade which I would move up one and Amstel down one so there is a gap between the top 7 and the rest.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

This rating system strangely resembles the test I took, when I joined the AA... MSR was obviously at the top, cause you can drink a lot of wine over the course of seven hours. For Amstel it's always beer (not Amstel, but Heineken which is easier to get a hold of)


Flanders, Roubaix
Strade, Worlds*, Lombardia, Liege
MSR, Amstel, Fleche
Omloop, E3, Brabantse Pijl, San Sebastian, Gent Wevelgem
Others...

Most Prestigious:
In priority order within a rating:

Worlds**, Roubaix, Flanders
Liege, MSR, Lombardia
Strade, Amstel
Gent Wevelgem, Fleche, San Sebastian
Others...

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

5* Worlds, Olympic RR
4* Sanremo, Ronde, Roubaix
3* LBL, Lombardia
2,5* Paris-Tours
2* Het Volk, Gent-Wevelgem, Flèche, E3 Prijs, Amstel Gold Race, Clasica San Sebastian
1* Too many to mention...

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Prestige:
5* Worlds and Olympic RR
4* All the monuments. The gaps between them (biggest is probably Roubaix to Lombardia) are too small to merit separate tiers
3* Strade, Amstel, GW and unfortunately FW
2* Worlds and Olympic ITT (they're still one-day races!), E3
1* San Sebastian, Omloop, Dwars, Kuurne, BP, Euros RR
0.5* All the other one-day WT races. Maybe throw in something like Scheldeprijs, Emilia, Paris-Tours or the Euros ITT here too.

Enjoyable:
Not including Worlds or Olympic RR as they're too course-dependent. Anything from 2 (Bergen, Richmond) to 4 (Firenze, Rio) is quite common here.
5* Roubaix, Strade
4* Ronde, GW, Amstel, E3
3* Lombardia, Omloop, Dwars, Kuurne, BP
2* Liège, Sanremo, San Sebastian
1* Pretty much any other WT one-day race: either they're flat sprints, or at a point in the season where I don't care, or Flèche Wallonne. Or a combination in the shape of Hamburg. Oh, and the ITTs belong here too.

 

[Spine Concept]

My Favorites / Most Enjoyable:

Roubaix, Flanders, Strade
Worlds*, Lombardia
Gent Wevelgem, Liege, Amstel
MSR, Omloop, E3, Brabantse Pijl, San Sebastian
Fleche and the rest

* Very course-dependent

Can't be arsed for Prestige as that's a subjective matter unless you want to throw historic value into it then you might as well just rank them from oldest to newest. I'd much rather just watch races that I enjoy.

 

[Big Doopie]

Roubaix
Lombardia
Strade

 

[Bertram Wooster]

PRESTIGE
WCC
Roubaix
Flanders, MSR, LBL
Strade, Lombardia,
AGR, Fleche, Omloop, E3, Brabantse Pijl, San Sebastian, Paris Tours

MOST ENJOAYABLE TO WATCH
Roubaix
WCC, Strade
Flanders, LBL, AGR
E3, Lombardia, Omloop, Brabantse Pijl, San Sebastian
MSR, Paris Tours, Fleche

 

[RedheadDane]

The thing is, when I watch a race, I watch that race - and maybe some others - and enjoy that, not caring about how much I'd enjoy watching another race when that happens.

 

[Volderke]

Thank goodness I have alcohol-free beer in the house this time of year, or my training would not only severely suffer from watching too many hours of racing, but also from drinking too many beers if I follow @red_flanders' rating system!

I think, in terms of prestige, nothing goes above worlds, and Roubaix / Flanders / MSR / LBL are pretty equal in that regards.
Most enjoyable to watch is Roubaix, hands down. It never disappoints. Strade actually also never disappoints, purely for aesthetic reasons. Not many races are so beautiful to watch, especially for those living in Northern Europe waiting eagerly for spring to arrive (and seeing spring blossoms and some sunny Tuscany landscape)

1 remark:
the Olympics are every 5 years. At first I couldn't believe it either, but I did the calculation several times.

 

[RedheadDane]

Thank goodness I have alcohol-free beer in the house this time of year, or my training would not only severely suffer from watching too many hours of racing, but also from drinking too many beers if I follow @red_flanders' rating system!

At least Roubaix has full-race coverage, giving you some more time to drink all those beers.
I'm assuming that the rule is that you have to drink the assigned number of beers during the broadcast.

 

[tobydawq]

The thing is, when I watch a race, I watch that race - and maybe some others - and enjoy that, not caring about how much I'd enjoy watching another race when that happens.

So you can't at all see that Roubaix is a more entertaining race than the Scheldeprijs?

 

[RedheadDane]

So you can't at all see that Roubaix is a more entertaining race than the Scheldeprijs?

Maybe, but my point is that when I'm watching Scheldeprijs I'm not gonna be all thinking about how much more exiting Roubaix is. I'm also not gonna care that much that I'm likely to miss a good chunk of Scheldeprijs because I have to work.

 

[tobydawq]

Maybe, but my point is that when I'm watching Scheldeprijs I'm not gonna be all thinking about how much more exiting Roubaix is. I'm also not gonna care that much that I'm likely to miss a good chunk of Scheldeprijs because I have to work.

I don't think that constantly thinking of how much better a different race would be while watching a race is a premise to participate in this discussion...

 

[RedheadDane]

I don't think that constantly thinking of how much better a different race would be while watching a race is a premise to participate in this discussion...

Well, I enjoy every race when they happen.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Well, I enjoy every race when they happen.

Redhead Dane is most definitely not a racist

 

[Pantani_lives]

Purely subjective I rank them like this. I like to see tough races with a long final, where strong attackers are likely to be rewarded.

Roubaix, Flanders
Strade, Liège, Lombardia
World's†, Sanremo, Fleche Wallone‡, Amstel, Wevelgem
Omloop, E3, Brabantse Pijl, Plouay, Mont Ventoux
San Sebastian, Kuurne, Tours, Emilia, M-Torino

†The World's had too many boring editions ending in a sprint, with nothing happening until the final lap. However some of the more recent editions were much better.
‡This is the exception to my rule of preferring long finals.

 

[Blanco]

6* WC, OG
5* Monuments
**** GW, Amstel, Strade
*** Fleche, Omoop, DDV, San Sebastian
** Kuurne, Brabantse Pijl, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Plouay, Quebec, Montreal, Emilia, Milano-Torino, Paris-Tour
* Every other one-day race

 

[Fernandez]

1- Worlds
2- Monuments
3- Classics >200kms WT + Strade Bianche
4- Classics <200kms WT
5- Classics >200kms non WT
6- Classics <200kms non WT

 

[happytramp]

Surprised the Olympic Road race is rated so highly on here... Like I know it's a biggy for the general public, but I've never really considered it a real cycling event, more like a side show that rolled out for the non-fans once every four years... Like an open day at a school or college where joe public can try (and fail) and gain an understanding of our wonderful sport.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Only ranking the WT-races here.

Prestige:

Olympics, Worlds
The monuments
GW, Amstel, Strade, FW
Omloop, San Sebastian, E3
DDV, Hamburg, Bretagne, Frankfurt, Quebec, Montreal, De Panne

The Olympics is a special one to rate, because inside the cycling world it's probably not as prestigious as the monuments and Worlds, but outside the cycling world nothing comes close to Olympics. If I had to pick only one race I would win, I'd definitely take the Olympics. The Worlds has a special place and is ranked above the monuments in my opinion. The monuments aren't exactly equal in terms of prestige, but as someone else mentioned, the gap between them is too small to give them different rankings. I'd rate them as PR, Flanders, LBL, MSR and Lombardia in terms of prestige. I'm actually tempted to only give Strade two stars because of its short history, but it has quickly become both a fan and a rider favorite and the field is so strong that I think three stars is ok. I'm not too sure about the one and two star category so this is just off the top of my head.

Enjoyability:

Worlds, PR, Flanders, Strade
MSR, LBL, Omloop, E3, Amstel
Olympics, DDV, Lombardia, San Sebastian
Quebec, Montreal, Bretagne, GW
De Panne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, FW

Although Worlds is on a different course each year, and some of the races in itself admittedly aren't that great, it's still my favorite race of the season. The build up, the tension, it's just the most special race of the year. Once again I'm tempted to move Strade down one step because there's just not as much on the line as in PR, Flanders and Worlds, but it's always a magnificent race. MSR might be high up here, but I just love the slow build up before everything explodes on Poggio. The last 10 kilometres are always great. Omloop usually delivers and its place on the calendar makes it special for me. Olympics is hard to rank because of the shifting parcours, so I just kinda jammed it in there somewhere. FW I can only give one star because it's basically just a slow motion sprint, even though the last few editions have been decent.

 

[Panda Claws]

I always think this is so difficult because I would say that historically MSR was not super prestigious (sprinter's classic) but recently it has been fiercely contested and very difficult to win. A race like LBL on the other hand was amazing in the past but has often been a sprint on the final climb in recent years.
PR is imo more prestigious than RVV but both suffer somewhat from being so niche. But both are also being contended by a greater diversity of cyclists again in recent years. Lombardia is just badly placed on the calendar.

Worlds, PR (1)
**** MSR, LBL
*** RVV, Lombardia
** GW, Strade, San Sebastian, AGR, FW
* E3, Canadian races, whatever you are biased towards (e.g. I value Belgian races like KBK over Milano-Torino)

1. It is just so recognisable.

I don't know why but I really don't care for GP Plouay and Vattenfall Cyclassics.

National championships can be one-star if certain circumstances. If the country is a major cycling nation and it is a good course to be more precise. Being the Belgian, Italian, Spanish, ... champion means something but of course that is not an option for everyone.

A lot of prestige in a palmares has to do with variety anyway (e.g. Gilbert).