Your Favourite Races?

sonny73

What are your favourite races of the year, one day and stage?
I was beside myself last week watching Flanders which is easily my favourite one dayer and I would have to say the Tour for stage race, though the Giro, Paris-Nice and Basque Country are always up there to.

rick_chasey

For me, Flanders and Roubaix sh!t on everything else.

csp

Paris-Roubaix. Last year's race was the best I have ever seen. I remember David Harmon saying that Flanders had been his favourite, but he was not so sure anymore.

greeny12

Paris-Nice is my absolute favourite. The whole idea of the "Race to the Sun" really gees me up and makes me think of the warm summer rides that are just around the corner.

I also like the Tour du Haut Var as I've ridden on those roads and they're fab.

Single-day race has to be Paris-Roubaix. Anyone who has not seen A Sunday in Hell must seek it out immediately!

warrior4life

I watched my first tour in 1990 and watched all of them until 1998 (never missing a stage)
I got back into it about 2 years ago and i've watched the last 2 full tours but i'd never watched a classic until flanders on sunday and it was amazing...

So for me at the moment its flanders... Until roubaix next week?

moray_gub

Sonny73 wrote:

What are your favourite races of the year, one day and stage?
I was beside myself last week watching Flanders which is easily my favourite one dayer and I would have to say the Tour for stage race, though the Giro, Paris-Nice and Basque Country are always up there to.

One day i rate Rouxbaix and Lombardy on par i love the drama the huge crowds at Arenberg and Carrefour and the way the race unfolds after Arenberg great stuff, i love hilly classics though and Lombardy is the best for that imo the climbs are longer the tifosi make a great atmosphere and the scenery is stunning and its always a last chance for a season rescuer. For Grand Tours for me its the Giro for the hilly routes (usually) with great downhills the tifosi and the scenery and it doesnt have the hype of the TDF.

Neil McC

^ What Moray Gub said

Flanders
Paris - Roubaix
Giro
Lombardy

takethehighroad

I love the Giro, the way it's stacked with loads of climbs in the last week naturally makes it exciting until the end.

I love Paris-Roubaix, as there's not as much chance of an outsider winning, it's generally the strongest rider on the day (also luckiest, but, you know...)

Also I randomly love the Etoile de Besseges, as it's [one of] the first race of the year and is always interesting to see who is riding well, and which new teams are worth looking at.

Kléber

The Giro is very good but you have to suspend belief time after time thanks to endless doping stories, Italian riders suddenly mutate into GT contenders each May.

I do like the Tour. The hype is good, the massive media coverage ensures you can follow the racing at the front but you also get a three week soap opera with plots on many levels, from the yellow jersey to the lanterne rouge. I get withdrawal symptoms in August.

Something in me finds Roubaix too much of a lottery. Exciting to watch but it can a circus spectacle at times, even if the winner is usually the strongest on the day.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege is always good. Other favourites include the Dauphine, the visually stunning Lombardy, the Fleche Waloone and Milan-San Remo. And you can't beat a few of those smaller Flemish classics, watching the smaller teams battling for glory.

DaveyL

Kléber wrote:

The Giro is very good but you have to suspend belief time after time thanks to endless doping stories, Italian riders suddenly mutate into GT contenders each May.

I do like the Tour. The hype is good, the massive media coverage ensures you can follow the racing at the front but you also get a three week soap opera with plots on many levels, from the yellow jersey to the lanterne rouge. I get withdrawal symptoms in August.

Something in me finds Roubaix too much of a lottery. Exciting to watch but it can a circus spectacle at times, even if the winner is usually the strongest on the day.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege is always good. Other favourites include the Dauphine, the visually stunning Lombardy, the Fleche Waloone and Milan-San Remo. And you can't beat a few of those smaller Flemish classics, watching the smaller teams battling for glory.

Yes, I totally agree with all the above but especially the bit about the Tour. The media attaention is so immense and you just get immersed in it for three weeks. If you want you can forget about the battle for GC and there is still so much going on you have trouble following it all. Obviously a lot of the subtely and sub-plots go on at other stage races but they don't get highlighted as much as they do at the Tour just because the attention is so great.

andyp

Moray Gub wrote:

One day i rate Rouxbaix and Lombardy on par i love the drama the huge crowds at Arenberg and Carrefour and the way the race unfolds after Arenberg great stuff, i love hilly classics though and Lombardy is the best for that imo the climbs are longer the tifosi make a great atmosphere and the scenery is stunning and its always a last chance for a season rescuer.

I agree. I like Flanders too but Roubaix is the race of the spring and harks back to bygone eras where team leaders raced hard for most of the race. How many other races see the likely winners putting their noses into the wind with 80 kms to race?

Lombardy is just a beautiful race. The scenery is stunning, accentuated by the autumn light, and the race is almost always won by the strongest rider.

FJS

De Ronde, De Ronde, De Ronde

Then all the other monuments. Paris-Roubaix, L-B-L, Lombardia and San Remo all have their magic and very special appeal, but none also has the back up of a day of national celebration of a cycling-mad country - De Ronde is 14 Juillet/4th of July/St Patricks Day/etc around a bike race.

Tour de France, Paris-Nice, Giro, and Dauphine are great, but they just don't have the same intensity and concentrated anticipation as as the one-day classics.

le_patron

I'd go Flanders and Roubaix, agree.

It's easy to dismiss the Tour as over-hyped, too big and all-consuming etc, and that the connoisseur's race is somewhere else. However, imagine a year if it wasn't there.

It provides intense drama at many levels during the three weeks, but also has a story around it all year, especially in the build up as contenders gradually reveal form (or not).
Huge withdrawal symptoms each August that I don't get as much with other races.

I also quite like the 3/4 race at Mallory Park on a Tuesday evening..... :P

Gingerflash

Flanders is great, last week's was one of the best I've seen.

I love a massive mountain-top finish in the Tour, the peloton smashed to bits, 2 GC contenders duking it out, other top GC riders blowing up and losing 20 minutes. Brilliant stuff.

deejay

Kléber wrote:

The Giro is very good
Liege-Bastogne-Liege is always good. Other favourites include the Dauphine, the visually stunning Lombardy, the Fleche Waloone

I like all competitive Cycle Racing.

My Favourite Monument is Liege. (especially now St Nick is in there and the finish at Ans)
My favourite Stage races Paris-Nice, Switzerland, Dauphine
My favourite GT the GIRO and it will be great again without the "Strike" and just get on with it without all the whinging.
Who will win Trento next week while I'm in Wallonia.??

My least Favourite Monument Milan-San Remo these days. (I used to love it in the past)
My least favourite GT is France because it's so OTT (again I used to love it and went there regularly)
I think the Dauphine will go the same way now the ASO own it and it looses it's character which is the great thing it had within the newspaper region.

Moomaloid

Flanders!

Kléber

deejay wrote:

My favourite Stage races Paris-Nice...

Ah yes, I'd add this too. It's always a corker.

Like you I like the whole season. Some races are essential viewing but even the smallest race can be great. But there are highlights.

Tom Butcher

Paris Roubaix and Lombardy for me, and the Giro out of the GTs. Flanders seems to have all the ingredients but doesn't always deliver - all subjective of course but take this year I didn't think it was quite as good as some were raving about.

I like the one week stage races too - Paris-Nice, Dauphine etc.

deejay

FJS wrote:

De Ronde, De Ronde, De Ronde

De Ronde is 14 Juillet/4th of July/St Patricks Day/etc around a bike race.

Tour de France, Paris-Nice, Giro, and Dauphine are great, but they just don't have the same intensity and concentrated anticipation as as the one-day classics.

You have seen the Firework Display in Marseille then which takes place anyway on Bastille Day.

The TDF is, and becoming more and more a travelling Carnival and the cycle race a side issue to it and I agree there is more anticipated concentation in a one day classic.
I remember some years ago being in Grenoble and trying to find a TV to see live TDS and each bar I went in they didn't know anything about it until a waitress gave me directions to a bar a quarter of a mile away which did have it on.
It was a scorcher of a day and and I had many beers there and the TDS turned up in the region the next day.!!
A lot different to the days before universal TV and you parked your bike outside any bar and listened to on the radio. That's when I learned it is easier to communicate with pen and paper than with speech. (I still can't speak french and I have even worked there)
Oh yeh and I remember the Michelin Men on motor bikes being the best part of the "Caravan".
Please tell me there is someone else who saw them.

In 93/94 my work associates would stir it up with me by saying the Tunnel will not be completed for the race to pass through and my answer was.
No Problem but you have to realise that the TDS is like Royalty here and if they say it is coming and road closures will take place then it will happen.
The same has happened with Farmers or Truck Drivers blocking the roads and along come the Gendarmerie a couple of days before and simply lift them out of the way. No Problem and I've seen some funny sights of men jumping up and down like in a cartoon.

The TDS has become a good money making machine where anything goes and the intensity has been replaced by Hype. ??

guinea

Can anything beat Paris-Roubaix in the rain?

I do love GT mountain finishes though. L'Ape d'Huez or Ventoux towards the end of the TDF is always epic.

all show no go

Liege for me as it's one of the few one-day races that has Grand Tour contenders really duking it out. Amstel is always a great race as well but probably lacks the history and aura of some of the Monuments.
With regards to stage races, the Giro is the one. Amazing scenery and terrain with outrageous climbs thrown in for good measure. the kind of climbs The Tour will probably never see or use.

greasedscotsman

Has to be Roubaix. That's why I'm currently in a hotel in Valenciennes

colomers

Paris Roubaix is the queen of the classics.
The most nationalist is the Ronde
the most beautiful is the Lombardia around lago di como with the marvellous Intelvi and madona del ghisallo
Liège is difficult as a mountain day in a great tour
don't forget Paris Tours across the Beauce,and a difficult finish,hard to win.
I agree for Paris Nice,start with cold weather and finishing with the sun

colomers

Paris Roubaix is the queen of the classics.
The most nationalist is the Ronde
the most beautiful is the Lombardia around lago di como with the marvellous Intelvi and madona del ghisallo
Liège is difficult as a mountain day in a great tour
don't forget Paris Tours across the Beauce,and a difficult finish,hard to win.
I agree for Paris Nice,start with cold weather and finishing with the sun

colomers

Paris Roubaix is the queen of the classics.
The most nationalist is the Ronde
the most beautiful is the Lombardia around lago di como with the marvellous Intelvi and madona del ghisallo
Liège is difficult as a mountain day in a great tour
don't forget Paris Tours across the Beauce,and a difficult finish,hard to win.
I agree for Paris Nice,start with cold weather and finishing with the sun

colomers

to greasedscotman
i'll be on PR this sunday,with car and mountain bike.
I park my car in front of the church of Monchaux sur Ecaillon,and i go the sector Quievy to St Python with my bike.I'll be at the turn of this cobbles sector.
I have a blue and white jersey

Francis

rick_chasey

guinea wrote:

Can anything beat Paris-Roubaix in the rain?

.

A hard raced and tactical Flanders is unbeatable for me.


The nature of Roubaix makes it more regularly exciting, but it's fundamentally a war of attrition. A hard Flanders encompasses all that is exiting and attractive in the sport, apart from say, picturesque views when there's nothing happening < but who wants too much that?

I also thoroughly enjoy Harelbeke every year, but at the end of the day, it means little.

Pokerface

The Grand National. 8)

greasedscotsman

colomers wrote:

to greasedscotman
i'll be on PR this sunday,with car and mountain bike.
I park my car in front of the church of Monchaux sur Ecaillon,and i go the sector Quievy to St Python with my bike.I'll be at the turn of this cobbles sector.
I have a blue and white jersey

Francis

Hey Francis,

Not sure I'll see you, I was planning on going to Troisville, somewhere on the run into Arenberg and then probably the Carrefour de l'Arbe, I'll be looking at sectors this afternoon. But hope you have a great day! It's gonna be great

colomers

to greasedscotsman,
hello
my program for sunday:quievy,verchain-maugré,monchaux,sars et rosières,cysoing,bourghelles and carrefour de l'arbre

greasedscotsman

colomers wrote:

to greasedscotsman,
hello
my program for sunday:quievy,verchain-maugré,monchaux,sars et rosières,cysoing,bourghelles and carrefour de l'arbre

Cool, I might go to the Carrefour so I'll keep an eye out for you. Not sure what kit I'll be wearing, but I'll be waving a union flag at all the Brits!

Rode the sectors around Verchain this morning, nasty!