Just one word.

ROUBAIX.

You can forget your Grand Tours, your mountains, your World Championships, your flat out sprints and so on. Those are for ordinary professional cyclists.

Tomorrow is different. Tomorrow is for the true hard men of the sport. Tomorrow is for the real champions because tomorrow is Paris Roubaix.

I could wax long and lyrical about this race, but its been done far better than I can manage, so all I can add is to turn on the telly, open a Duvel or 3, hope for rain and watch.

At 5 o'clock the season will be over and a new king will be crowned.

La Primavera

Spring is sprung,
The grass is riz,
I wonder where the riders is?

Milan San Remo. That's where. The classics season was opened by the longest single day race on the calendar today. Often described as like an opera in 3 acts, it never disappoints. Ozzie Matt Goss got the win with some seriously intelligent riding in a sprint from a small group of riders after the field was split by a seemingly minor shute at about 60k relegated a number of big names to a chase group at more than 2 minutes. My pre race vote was for Phillipe Gilbert who eventually took third after Cancellara, a good indicator for the following classics. Boonen was washed away in the 2k after the Poggio as were a number of the other favourites such as Sagan, Pozzato et al. Rides of the day have to be Scarponi (Leaky Gas), Offredo and Shainel (FDJ) all of whom did more work than was strictly necessary, but who enlived an already exciting race.

Gent Wevelgem next week, then De Ronde, then Roubaix. Holy week is nearly here for the pros.

Tomorrow, though, us mere mortals have the Maldon Hilly TT which is on a new course taking in two ascents of North Hill in particular and avery tricky course in general . Yours truly is off at No.13 and I confess I'll be riding tempo rather than eyes out trying to get fit for objectives later in the year.

Its Holy Week

Again.....

and the big question is can Tommeke or Stijn make it 3 at Flanders. If I recall correctly, only about 3 riders have got 3 Ronde's in their palmares and of all those currently in the pro peloton only these two, both riding for Quick Step have more than one win. But, but but....Stijn Devolder could equal Antoine Magne's records of three on the trot having won in 2008 and 9. that would be a proper hat trick.

The whole of Belgium is wetting itself in anticipation.....

If he wins don't even bother talking to the Belgies for at least a month.... hmmm.....Mind you, if Tom boy wins a fourth Roubaix next Sunday as well, they'll be totally insufferable until at least the Giro and Roger deVlaemink will probably be scared enough to get back on the bike and try for No.5.

All we need now is snow like we had in 2008.

What a prospect......

(Photo - Stijn Devolder on the Muur Kappelmuur on the way to winning in the Belgian National Champions Jersey) Mrs Kipper and self are behind the KBC banner at the top)

Up yours Clarkson

This is how they do Top Gear in Belgie:

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/MG_sportnieuws/MG_wielrennen/1.619199

Class!

Le Tour

The world's largest annual sporting event is now on. Known to Classics fans as an out of season stage race with minimal influence of what really matters and to the average Joe in the street as the only cycle race there is outside of the Olympics its more of a travelling circus than it deserves to be.
I'm not being curmudgeonly about this...I enjoy all 3 Grand Tours and the TDF is a grand shop window for the sport, but in reality the Giro is usually as intense a race as the Vuelta is boring with the TDF hovering between the two. Certainly the Tour has had elements of both over the years. Indurain riding like a bloody robot for 5 years in a row and Armstrong sucking the life out of it for another 7 has given us a string of very boring and predictable tours in the modern era. On the flip, there have been as many exciting moments to. Fignon losing by 8 seconds, Roche coming out of the mist to ambush the race and Little Tommy holding the yellow jersey through the Alps and against the odds are the sort of moments we all watch cycling for. This years issue is shaping up to be a cracker, but how I wish all those American websites would get over the fact that LA is a to55er and concentrate on things that matter instead of analysing his every fart and (typical yanks) missing the point by a mile.

ITS ROUBAIX!!!!!!!!

Turn off the phone. DO NOT knock on the door. Get out the Leffe and do not disturb until four o'clock because Paris Roubaix is on.

Europoo

Today is the first day of the professional road cycling season. Until now all we've had is training races. The Tours Down Under, Palma-Mallorca, Qatar and California etc. None of these races have any real meaning at all in the grand scheme of things, they're basically just distractions for us and training for the teams until the season proper starts: and that is today. Today is Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (formerly known as Het Volk) and tomorrow is Kuurne Brussels Kuurne.
This weekend is the first chance we have to see the pro's race for real, the first weekend of the classics, the openining races over the hallowed cobbles and bergs, and the first indicators of serious form for the biggest 2 races of the years - Ronde Van Vlaanderen & Paris Roubaix. Nothing else comes near these races, not even the Grand Tours, so why is there NOTHING on Eursport? All through the tours of Qatar and California David Harmon repeatedly assured us that Eurosport would have greater, improved coverage of the classics and what have we got? NOTHING. Not a whisper, nada, F*** all, in fact the square root of f*** all.
I hold little hope of these clowns even showing Roubaix or Flanders, after all they failed totally and miserably last year. For ewxample we got only the last 10k of Roubaix. So we saw no cobbled sections apart from Avenue George Croupeland (at the entry to the velodrome). The race had been long decided (100km previously was the first selection with another sorting our at Carrefour Les Arbres). Flanders was no better, we came home from seeing the race in Belgium on the Monday to find a recording of (I think) Biathlon and sledging.
This is totally unacceptable, not just the failure to show the races, but the lying to us, the viewers that they say they will do. I think a petition to number 10 is in order. Either that or give up sky altogether and take out a subscription to cycling.tv with the savings. What a waste of time and money.

The Greatest?

Today on Eurosport I heard Lance Armstrong described (in all seriousness) as the greatest cyclist ever!!!! I don’t think I have ever heard such a stupid and obviously wrong statement. EVER.

Let’s be honest here, No one can come close to Eddy Merckx. OK he only won the tour 5 times but he did win the Giro 5 times, the Vuelta, the tour de Suisse, Paris Nice (3 times), every single classic at least once, including Milan – San Remo 7 times 1966,67,69, 71,72,75 and 1976, semi classics including Gent Wevelgem, Het Volk, etc. etc. 17 six day races, the World Championship road race three times and the Super Prestige Trophy, not to mention the hour record and God knows how many other tour jerseys.

Second on my list has to be Fausto Coppi. His palmares includes 5 tours, 5 Giros, Milan – San Remo 4 times, Paris Roubaix, 5 Tours of Lombardy together with the World Championship road race and the inevitable hour record among many others. We should also remember that he spent a significant part of the 2nd World War as a POW in the UK, so that knocks out a good 4 of his prime years.

Third: well I guess it has to be Maitre Jacques: 5 TDF (yawn) 2 Giros d’Italia, The GP de Nations 7 times – not bad for a tester! The Super Pretige Pernod (World Cup equivalent, more or less) 4 times, Paris – Nice 5 times, the World Championship road race and as is becoming usual, the hour record. Anquetil, though is best remembered for his incredible performance in riding and winning the Dauphine libere stage race and the now regrettably defunct Bordeaux Paris with less than 12 hours gap.

Fourth, Bernard Hinault? – The usual. 5 tours, 2 Vueltas, 3 Giros, Paris – Roubaix, Liege – Bastogne – Liege twice, not forgetting the 1980 issue, run of in an absolute blizzard. Hinault was apparently so cold at the finish he had to be taken of his bike and had to wait until his bath water was cool before warming up. Only weeks later could he feel his middle fingers again! Now that’s a hard man.

Fifth, Gino Bartali

Sixth, Felice Gimondi

Seventh, Big Mig? Van Steenbergen?

Eigth. Hmm… Louison Bobet or Henri Pellisier? Or how about Maurice Garin (winner of the first tour, Paris Roubaix etc.) or perhaps one of my favourites Octave “Curly” Lapize.

Now. If, like me you value the classics (monuments) over the Grand Tours, (and loads of big name riders including Maggie B and Pretty Boy George have said that one Roubaix takes as much out of a rider as a 3 week tour) we come to some of the REAL hard men of the sport... Enter my all time hero Sean Kelly (who I finally met last year – fantastic bloke, really down to earth) Rik Van Looy and Mr. Roubaix himself – Roger De Vlaemink, Francesco Moser, etc etc.

So where does that leave Armstrong? 7 tours,(a record for TDF wins, but not a record for overall grand tour wins – Merckx has 11, Coppi 10, Hinault's got 8 and Anquetil 7)…a single worlds, 1 tour of Luxembourg, 1 of Switzerland, 1 minor pro tour race (San Sebastian) and that’s about it. Certainly that’s the palmares of a champion, a top rider of his generation, but the “greatest ever”?

Please don’t insult my intelligence.

Enough said.