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Win a 'Road to Roubaix' DVD

Page 2 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Mar 10, 2009
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I would LOVE to tell you why they get me going, but this year I cannot. Why? Because finally, after years of watching highlights on the following Saturday on TV and more recently on the internet, dating back to Sean Kelly's glory in 1984s Paris Roubaix, the fortunate coincidence of the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox and a fortunately located recently acquired job mean that for the first time ever, I am off to Belgium by Eurostar with my trusty bike (and not so trusty knees).

I get in tomorrow morning and cycle on to Geraardsbergen, and find a spot on the Muur Kapelmuur for Sunday. Then, after cycling on to Kortrijk, I am cycling off to the Kemmelberg on Wednesday morning. The pi?ce de resistance will be on Easter Sunday, when I cycle down from Kortrijk to Roubaix and find a spot in the velodrome.

This won't win the DVD, but I'm willing to bet that who ever does would gladly swap it to be in my spot on Sunday, Wednesday and Sunday again!
 
Apr 4, 2009
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Classics rock!

It's mano a mano like in Johnny Cash singing "Boy Named Sue" with "the mud, the blood and the beer."
And no matter how hard you try, there's the chance of a sucker punch, like Howard Cosell shouting "Down goes Frazier!" except it's a damn *@#! cobble and Phil Ligget: "Down Goes Hincapie!" George Frazier or George Hincapie...hitting the deck sucks!
 
Apr 3, 2009
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It's Like This...

LC - Cyclingnews said:
Here's your chance to win the latest film about the world's favourite Classic, Paris-Roubaix.

Cyclingnews has four copies of 'Road to Roubaix' to give away to readers who love their Classics. Cyclingnews reviewed it ahead of Christmas last year, and liked it so much we had the guys at Masterlink Films send us some more to share.

All you have to do is tell us is: Why do the Spring Classics get you going?

You can tell us about your experiences at the races (if you've been fortunate enough to be there) or whilst watching them on TV. As long as you keep it brief (between 200-300 words) and enticing, you'll be in the running to win a copy of the film that delivers an intimate look at Paris-Roubaix.

The winter has been, particularly, long and hard. Maybe you've started it off with a hernia surgery and subsequent recovery, followed by a weird viral thing with vertigo- like symptoms. When you, finally, begin putting in some miles, you can't seem to get two decent days in a row. Motivation comes harder with the passing of years - it's not so easy to roll out of bed and hit the road when the temp refuses to climb above thirty, or the wind is whipping the neighbor's garbage cans past your front door 'cause it is gonna rain again.
You look forward to that time of year when you can, once again, begin to follow the pros on Cycling News as a welcome alternative to whatever other nonsense is going on in the world. Consider the alternatives...Are you gonna watch basketball ? I'm not gonna rant on the reasons for ignoring the silly options. I'm just gonna say that when we start following, anew, the exploits of those who are the hard working, underpaid, underappreciated heroes of the sporting world; who are out there pounding away over the cobbles of Belgium or the backroads of France, it makes us get up and go out and get a little cold and wet and dirty ourselves. Ride your bike !
 
Mar 31, 2009
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Why the Spring Classics get me going!

The Spring Classics are for real men. Take a good look at the legs of a classic rider like Sean Kelley. They were chiseled out of pure marble. The face of the rider is etched in pain, covered in dust or mud. The body is shivering, sweating, and aching in pain. There is no tomorrow. There is only the hours of agony and the finish line. There is no room for error. There are no luxury suites, gourmet meals, or pampering. Still they race over cobbles and long arduous rides in the hope of glory. They can barely stand to celebrate their victories. These are the men we remember. No one can pry that victory from their hands. No one can ignore their grand achievement.
 
Mar 14, 2009
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after a winter without racing [i love cross but it's the college basketball to pro football] we wait all this time for these epic races. i swear my heart-rate is just as high reading the updates of the finale of the races here than it used to be when i was gearing up for a sprint
 
Apr 6, 2009
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I don't just get going, I get "Cranked" by the Spring Classics.
The soft-pedalling is over, everyone who thinks they have good form comes out and only the strong men survive.
Who couldn't love pro cycling when it hits the climbs of the Oude Kwaremonte and the cobbles of the north. It must be hell just for a rider to survive, but if you do, you're a fan favourite and if you win, you've taken a step on the podium with riders like Van Petegem, Kelly, Tchmil, Bartoli. An international flavour of the best in cycling, joined now by two-time Ronde winner Stijn Devolder.
Stop my heart-rate monitor, I love the Classics.
 
Classic

First of all it has to be because they live up to their name every time. All the races are classics. You can re-watch them over and over and the chills sent down your spine will still be there. As each rider put his foot down in the hills it was amazing how much power is transmitted through the television, I can only imagine what it must be like to be standing on the Muur with thousands of beer swigging Flandrians. Awesome, simply awesome. Team tactics play a role but the super human effort of individual's is what normally counts. As Devolder powered to victory I put on my kit and went for a ride in the late evening. That is what makes these Classics so great, they inspire us mortals to get back in the saddle and enjoy the ride. I can't wait for the Roubaix
 
Mar 27, 2009
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It's not just the Spring Classics, it's all classics because they each have their own personality in a way that stage races never really achieve. In all honesty, the only major difference between the Tour, Giro and Vuelta is the pre-dominant language at the race and the number of media. Other than that, they are pretty much of the same formula; some flat stages, some rolling stages, a couple of TTs and some mountain stages. We have got excited these past few years at the "adventurousness" of the Giro and Tour routes. Yet, for the average armchair cycling fan, the races will still look the same as each other.

You simply can't say that for the classics, particularly of the 5 monuments. Milan-San Remo with its oxymoron of being the longest but with the shortest selection phase, the Ronde with its cobbled climbs, Paris-Roubaix with the hellish, insistent wind-exposed cobbles, Liege-Bastogne-Liege with it's steep tarmac and the Tour of Lombardy with its longer climbs.

And that variety of personality means that a larger variety of riding styles can win. With a stage race, it comes down to climbers trying to gain as much time as they can before they get destroyed in the TTs or rouleurs trying to minimise their losses in the mountains. Not so with the classics.

Sprinters can win, particularly M-SR. But so can rouleurs, attacking all-rounders and, with L-B-L and Lombardy, so can climbers. As a result, we have a chaos that can't be controlled by the dull, stifling, radio-communication assisted tactics that good time triallists with strong teams assisted have used to kill stage races.

And, when you condense that chaos into 6 or 7 hours rather than 5 days to 3 weeks, you end up with the greatest spectacle cycling has to offer.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you saw a dull classic?

Graham.
 
Mar 19, 2009
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Just waking up in the morning gets me jacked up for the Spring Classics! After all, I still hold the record for Roubaix wins, and I could have won Roubaix 3 or 4 more times if it wasn't for "The Sheriff" and a pesky "Badger".
 
Mar 14, 2009
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For me, the spring classics really come down to two things: motivation and entertainment. The first being more important than the second because it forces a mental shift from time off taken in the winter to when training plans are put on paper and begin to be executed. They also get me motivated for the upcoming season because I like to record the classics and watch them when I ride the trainer early in the morning before work or if it is raining out. There is nothing more motivating during an interval session than when the riders are mashing up the Koppenburg.

As for their entertainment, the reason they are so interesting to watch is because of the level of uncertainty within them and the amount of discussion they drive at the water coolers on Monday. I am sure everyone can remember when George Hincapie?s fork snapped and he went flying into the ditch or when the riders were relegated for going through the railroad crossing. Events such as those usually don?t transpire during a tour/vuelta/giro and are really what make fans fall in love with the classics. Hopefully one of these days I can persuade my employer to move me to Europe so I can take the family to witness these events first hand, but until then I will have to experience it all on tv and through cyclingnews.com.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Why do the spring classics get me going

The spring classics, coming as they do early in the season, are some of the first events that grace the new calendar after an interminably long off season. For any avid cycling fan, it seems like an age and to finally see the cream of world cycling in action again is a tonic.

I have been following cycling since the early seventies, and there is something about these events that fires the imagination. Maybe back in those days they were largely the domain of the Belgian hard men, or the grainy black and white images of the rain, mud, vicious cobbled climbs and howling winds off the North Sea that make these events so special. Little has changed since those days. The same terrain, weather and actors grace the stage of these legendary events.

Thank god its spring!!!!
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Rvv

Last night Brugges? Medieval market square thundered with euro pop at it?s worst. The Belgium people can produce cycling world champions by the trailer load; but they aint got a handle on rhythm and rock. The big haired denim on denim- on shoulder padded, leather ballads, were enough to counteract all the respect I was developing for their brewing industry.
10 hours later and 30,000 filled the square looking for a glimpse of Boonan. Regardless of Devolders win last year, big Tom was Quickstep?s favourite and the supporter?s idol. Yet, no one thought it was to be plain sailing there were other contenders. George circled the Columbia enclosure looking fit, handsome and already beaten. All the Italian camera crews stood outside the Katusha bus looking to interview their hopeful Fillippo Pozzato. The French journalists clutched at straws and shouted beleaguered questions at any rider with onions round his neck and dreamt of Hinualt. While the Spanish hacks lit candles and fidget with beads outside the Rabobank bus for Juan Antonio, praying that he might just win the 93rd RVV.
I stood and chatted to Dan Lloyd of Cervelo test team in the security of belonging, under their massive bus awing. The previous hour and a half made me realise how town centre religious preachers feel. The Saturday afternoon gospel sermon to those who don?t want to know. Sounding out the end of the world and repentance. I visited five team buses and was met by the similar reaction to the preacher: bowed heads, total invisibility. Real looks of pity as I spread the word for BikePure and Dope free cyclesport. The doping problem in cycling is whispered in the major league. Thankfully, the evidence for its existence is on the decrease. It is a side of the sport few, understandably want to talk about on the morn of the Ronde van Vlaanderen. I console my self with a handful of sincere discussions, signings and a cheer from three Swedish guys in the crowd who see my Bike Pure jacket and raise their fists aloft to reveal a trio of beautiful blue wristbands. Rockin.

I agree that the focus in cycle sport should be on the racing, not rumored enhancement and at 9.45 the 248 riders depart to an explosion of hope and passion. Ahead is 265km. 140km of a run in to sap the energy before the last half of climbs to the finish. The ?Tour of Flanders climbs ARE the race. All the Flemish towns have evolved from defensive settlements atop the few, scattered rises in a flat country. These towns have steep ascents, and most are cobbled. There are modern twisty roads up the ?Bergs?, but the climbs are preserved for the few times a year cycling transforms an empty, stone surfaced cart track into a stadium of wonder and noise.
The race hits the Molenberg and already riders are gone, cursed by their directors and forgotten. At the Wolfenberg all is together at the front and like a comets tail at the back. By the assent of the holy Kwaremont, the seven intervening cobbled section have done serious damage, The best 240 classic riders on the planet, now number under half that. All have raced through 180 km of concrete country roads to have a vision of pain and broken dreams. I photograph the leaders on the climb and cry with empathy for the back markers, fighting the 25 sprockets and the 10% gradient.
There are constant attacks but it all seems just a battle of erosion. With 50 k to go and the length covered of most pro races there at 80 riders in contention. Dan Lloyd is in the mix but every one knows it is all ablaut the last hour and a half. No matter how many 6-hour sessions the starters all did, by the Valkenberg with 35 to go, attrition has left 40 riders remaining in with a chance of the podium. The other 200 fine, professional cyclists genetically discarded. Cervelo?s Henrich Haussler, Hammond and Hushhovd in my nursery rhyme brain provide The Quick step director with a tongue twister, as they mark his men?s constant attack. Pozzato never leaves Boonan's side and when they both get clear, Pozzato runs out of courage and wont work.
Such a day, racing around the concrete back roads of Belgium. Thousands of cars, all looking to see the event at multiple points. Finally, ignoring the finish, I land in Geraaldsbergan for the fine De Clerc?s tearoom and of course, the Muur climb. The most famous of the race whole race is furiously hard at the bottom; then steepens a lot, before it reaches the toughest bit, around the chapel at the summit. If a rider can shell his follow contenders and reach the top alone, a whirlwind of adrenalin and supporters energy will propel him the 20k to the finish line a victor.
Quicksteps Chavenel and Devolder had taken it in turns to test their two break away companions legs on the Tenbosse and when Devolder attacked on the lower Muur, it was like a rocket launch. Down two sprockets, out of the saddle and eyes focused on the cobbles, one meter ahead and half a meter up. Chavenel grimace as the choice had obviously come from Peiters in the team car.
Devolder charged ahead and by the time he hit the big ring climb of the Bosberg (big ring for him, 39 by 16 for me on Sat!) he was 35 seconds clear and fixing his jersey. His fellow companions were swept up in the closing minutes and then with a K to go Henrich Haussler launched the same attack that nearly won him Milan SanRemo two weeks before and held of a rampaging bunch for second. His attack timely avoided a terrible crash where his team mate Thor touched wheels or a barrier or five other fallen riders but ultimately the ground at 80kph, to break his wrist.
It is a magical affair the RVV. If you race, if you follow pro cycle sport or if you are like the half a million Belgium folk who just come to see the race, Some time in your life make the effort to arrange the vacation on the last Sunday of March: to see the finest pro cyclists in the world, be overcome and vanquished. Most of them even look normal suffering up the Koppenberg. Greatest one-day show on earth.


myles@bikepure.org

http://www.bikepure.org


Results
1 Stijn Devolder (Bel) Quick Step 6.01.04 (43,455 km/h)
2 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team 0.59
3 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Silence-Lotto
4 Martijn Maaskant (Ned) Garmin - Slipstream
5 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha
6 Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank
7 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) Team Columbia - Highroad
8 Bjorn Leukemans (Bel) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
9 Martin Elmiger (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Bert De Waele (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago
11 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom
12 Johnny Hoogerland (Ned) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
13 Roger Hammond (GBr) Cervelo Test Team
14 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team Saxo Bank
15 Nick Nuyens (Bel) Rabobank
16 Roy Sentjens (Bel) Silence-Lotto
17 Kevin Van Impe (Bel) Quick Step
18 Frederik Willems (Bel) Liquigas
19 Bert Scheirlinckx (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago
20 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
21 Gerben L?wik (Ned) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
22 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Silence-Lotto
23 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha
24 Andreas Klier (Ger) Cervelo Test Team
25 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
26 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana
27 Leif Hoste (Bel) Silence-Lotto
28 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Barloworld
29 Fr?d?ric Guesdon (Fra) Fran?aise Des Jeux
30 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Rabobank
31 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 1.08
32 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Liquigas 1.11
33 Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Rabobank 1.14
34 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - Highroad 1.44
35 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Silence-Lotto 3.02
 
Apr 1, 2009
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I love this time of year,the birds are singing, winter is over and Het Volk starts the racing season.Its not only about man and machine v the elements, its about man and machine and the cobbles.To see these gladiators on their bikes tackling some of the toughest roads,cobbled climbs, not to mention hair raising descents gives me the greatest pleasure,just to be able to watch.Not for me the play acting of so called professional footballers,some better divers than Jacques Cousteau,no for me the spring classics are my favourite time of the year.The skills of these modern day knights on bikes are to be admired.The classics have everything for me.Bravery,great skills,fearless descending,and if they fall off up they get and try and finish.Yes my favourite time of year.
 
Apr 7, 2009
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The Spring classics get me going for too many reasons to count. The intensity. The raw power of the racers. The determination of slicing through harsh weather to bridge up to a possibly winning break. One day events in inclement weather truly test the riders like no other event can. So many reasons to love the classics but maybe the reason that this year I am so excited about the spring classics is how it inspires me on my rides. I live on the North Shore of Lake Superior and our weather is not unlike Northern Belgium. As everyone around me complains of the cold, wet, windy conditions and how it's hard to get out to exercise, I smile internally and relish even more my next opportunity to get on my steel road bike, find the roughest roads I can and hammer for miles with the a cold wind coming of Lake Superior. Without the Spring Classics, this is an arduous sufferfest. With the Spring Classics, this is pure bliss.
 
Apr 7, 2009
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Why do the Spring Classics Get Me Going?

Simply put, more than the grand tours or any other race, the spring classics provide an allegory for life -- especially in these hard times.

Over the past two years, I have suffered many life setbacks: my father passed away due to inoperable lung and liver cancer, I was laid off, had to take a much tougher job with less pay to feed my wife and kids, have had to work on the side to make ends meet, and have endured an increasingly frustrating search for a better work arrangement with no positive outcome so far. (Needless to say, my family time and cycling mileage have plummeted as a result.)

My experience is hardly unique, and not nearly as bad as what other people the world over are experiencing. But there is one commonality among us all: we must keep going. Our lives might be plagued by loose cobbles and technical failures; we might bonk or lose our legs; our confidence and bodies might be shattered -- but we keep hammering, because that is the only thing we can do. And, at the finish, whether we podium or not, we know that we have withstood the obstacles and trials thrown at us.

To see any rider in any of the spring classics give it his all reminds us, despite momentary self doubts or bouts of despair, that we too can give it our all. The spring classics are both affirmation and inspiration to keep surging toward the red kite and that final home stretch. That is life, and that is the spring classics.
 
Apr 8, 2009
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Spring Classics

The stage is set with a route through demanding, almost timeless, surroundings. Villages with stone buildings, small rural lanes, stone walls, fallow fields. Stone roads, courtesy of a long lost Empire. A landscape adorned with the labor of centuries, millennia.

Add some weather, wind, rain, sleet or snow. Mud!

And an audience whose fervor is unmatched, and they are on stage.

A script that demands a long work-day, six hours or more, packed with thrills, agonies and numerous sub-plots. A long history of events and efforts with an epic, heroic quality.

A cast of characters that include villans, opportunists, escape artists, heroes; a horde, driven by a desire to vanquish, to demonstrate the ultimate fulfillment of their passion! It's Homeric.
 
Apr 8, 2009
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Common grit

Theres so many things about the Spring Classics to get you going, whether you're a competitive cyclist or just a dreamer. First, it's the end of winter. It's not quite Spring, but the blossom is on the trees, cherry and almond, even if it's sleeting and blowing a gale. And there's the second thing, for us in Northern Hemisphere anyway, that the Classics are in our reach, not that we're ever going to ride them, but with the mud and grit and cobbles, as well as the new sun, blue sky and a fair breeze, it's more like what we do out on the roads now than the Grand Tours will ever be. And finally theres the history and the heroes, not always the ultimate greats, the hyper-?lite, but all sorts of conditions of guys like you and me, only more so, the Belgians and Dutch, Ozzies and Brits, French and Spanish, Italians and Kiwis, Khazaks and Germans and Danes, we all know the names, stretching back through history, and we know for a moment what it feels like to be out there up the road, the fork pounding, the legs aching, but ahead, with not another rider between us and Roubaix.
 
Apr 8, 2009
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win a road to roubaix video

When I was stationed at NATO headquarters in 1968 I had never even heard of the sport of bicycle racing. A couple of young Belgian soldiers there asked me to go with them to watch a bike race, they were interested in a "young kid" who was "going to be good". That Sunday I found myself sitting beside an old cobbled road in the town of Geraardsbergen, watching a young Eddy Merckx attempt to win the Tour of Flanders. He came 9th that year but I had such a great time I went the next weekend to France and watched him take the victory at Paris-Roubaix. I was so fascinated with bicycle racing I bought a motorcycle took a 3 week leave, and followed his exploits at the 1968 Giro d'Italia. Since that spring I have raced bikes for 30 years and been involved in every aspect of bike racing, from mechanic, to official, from soigneur to director, to race promoter, to cycling photographer. I have seen many changes come to the sport, not all for the better, still one thing stays the same, The Classics! Every year I start to get wound up as Milan-San Remo approaches, and then April, the heart of the classic season, they come hard and fast, Flanders, Ghent-Wevelgem, Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, L-B-L, Amstel Gold. In a period of a couple of weeks the season is made or destroyed for many riders. I stand beside the cobbled roads, I ride them, the same cobbles ridden by Iron Man Briek Schotte, the same roads ridden by Maertens and Merckx, by Magni and Moser, The spot in the Arenburg Forest where Museeuw crashed and nearly ended his career, Here is where Duclos made his escape to win on his 13th try, here where Hincapie's stem broke sending him, and his hopes, tumbling into the field.
Here where Jesper Skibby was hit by the race officials car on the Koppenberg. Here on the Bosberg where van Hooydonck attacked for his first win. The stone showers in Roubaix where a mud covered young Greg Lemond sits, exhausted but smiling. I think of mud spattered wet miserable days where riders like Roger de Vlaeminck, Jan Raas or Eric Vanderaarden are flying through the rain and mist, Steve Bauer's bike throw on the Roubaix velodrome coming up millimeters short of victory. Names like the Oude Kwaremont, or Carrefour l'Arbre bring visions of past battles, past warriors, and past glory to life, renewed every Spring. The Classics are the affirmation of the annual rebirth of our sport, year by year, decade by decade, century by century, the battles fought and refought over the same roads give our sport a richness and drama unmatched by any other. In short the Classic's are bicycle racing in it's finest, purest form. Let the seson begin!!
 
Apr 7, 2009
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Hard core, puking over the handlebars riders

I like the classics because they showcase the kind of riding I do from time to time in my best dreams. I'm a bigger fellow. I live in Asheville and ride with a bunch of superlight climbers. I like riding when it is cold, raining, snowing, miserable...they don't. They complain about wind. Wind doesn't bother 180# near as much as it bothers 130#. They freeze, I laugh. When it gets warm and we head off on a 12 mile climb they kill me. But in those classic-like rides when it is 40 degrees and raining I think of the studs that dominate the classics and try to break my crankarms off as we race up hills.

Paris-Roubaix caught my attention as a kid and was the reason I convinced my dad to buy my first "racing bike" when I was 12. I tried to find brick sidewalks to ride on. One day I'll get over to the cobbles and realize how incredibly miserable those races are...but until then they seem just about perfect to me!
 
Mar 13, 2009
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Spring Classics

I love the spring classics as they show the real stars of intense endurance. Whether it's the severity of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the ending of the Fleche Wallonne, the speed of the Amstel Gold, the distance of the Milan SanRemo, the severity of the Paris Roubaix, the endurance stars are tested in different ways.

It differs from the Tours as it tests different things.

A Classics winner has his/her name etched into cycling folklore... Girardengo, Lapize, Binda, Olmo, Van Looy, Selier, De Vlaeminck, Van Steenbergen...
 
Apr 9, 2009
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the road to Roubaix

How do the spring classics affect me? Well, I live in Minnesota. Winters are long and hard up here, more so this last winter. A lot like the winters in Northern Europe. I start to ride the neighborhoods in March. But it is tough with a lot of rain and such, mixed in with some sunny days with temps in the 30ies. And then I watch these guys race around 200K often covered in mud or fighting the wind and rain. I figure they can race that distance in any kind of weather, then I can do a 50 K ride in the same kind of weather. And this year that is exactly what I did. I watched the Ronde on Sunday. Monday I did a 50 K ride on the parkways. It was sunny, but cold and very windy. No personal best records and a lot of pain, but the hurt felt good.
pj
ps, Nothing beats the simple pleasure of riding a bike. John Kennedy
 
Apr 9, 2009
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It is new, all over again

What a terrific week of Spring Classics -- Tour de Flanders, Ghent-Wevelgem, then Paris Roubaix. After a long, cold winter, the days grow longer and racing starts in earnest again over the storied roads, cobblestones, and mud that are such an amazing part of professional cycling history. All the great ones have made their mark on the classics. But there's always a surprise, too, with unexpected wins by new riders that shake up the mix.

It's a brand new season, and the past is bumped aside by new goals, new enthusiasm, and new names competing with familiar ones. This particular week, for me, sets the tone for cycling for the year. Everything up to now has been a warm-up. There are so many fantastic, historical races in such a short time span. This is the week that kicks off the professional season!
 

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