Two massive, massive races in one week.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like going to your Gran\u2019s for your Sunday dinner and getting two Knickerbocker Glories.<\/p>\n
The Giro di Lombardia comes at the end of the season and it is a bit like coffee, cheese and crackers, all crisp and delicate, the perfect way to end a season, whereas Liege is a prime slice of beef, laid out on the plate medium rare with a little glistening of blood to get the nostrils flaring. It\u2019s an altogether adult pleasure that one, a race for the grown ups. Not necessarily spectacular but not without its flavours and intrigues, but you do need to know what you\u2019re looking at.<\/p>\n
Milan-San Remo? I\u2019m inclined to say it\u2019s becoming more and more a Brussels sprout (poor Brussels, to have first cultivated such a boring and unpopular vegetable, but you could never imagine Paris or Milan growing them could you? The \u2018Milanese sprout\u2019 just wouldn\u2019t do). Quite dull and getting duller each year, I have to say.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0 bit like, uh, a Milanese sprout.<\/p>\n
But Flanders and Roubaix? Full on, sugar-laden, sense-overloading, excitement-in-a-syringe, straight-to-the-vein crackerjack brilliance. A November night sky full of a thousand fireworks, with a bit of violence thrown in from time to time and maybe even a cheeky snog with Karen Braithwaite behind the waltzers if you\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n
If ever crack cocaine was a bike race, it\u2019d be not just one of these but both. They are the only two races that I will not miss a second of, because these are two races where it can all happen, anytime and anywhere.<\/p>\n
Painfully beautiful. If you asked me to choose two words to describe these races, it\u2019d be those. Achingly glorious would be two more. Fractiously perfect, if you were being generous, would be the final two.<\/p>\n
The races preceding these races of races do give \u2013 usually \u2013 an indication of what will happen over the next two weekends (at Flanders this and Roubaix the next). Though this year if there\u2019s one thing we know it\u2019s that we don\u2019t know much.<\/p>\n
Or rather, if there is one rider of that group that have the talents to winwin Fabian Cancellara was second at Milan-San Remo but has yet to be seen to put down that power that has so distinguished him over the past few seasons. Is he trying to con everyone by not turning it on? Wouldn\u2019t be the first time but if so, he is deep undercover \u2013 remember, he was citing fatigue way back in February.<\/p>\n Tom Boonen looks to have the sprinting speed and decent stamina in his legs but he too has shown few signs of the kind of form that saw him winwin Peter Sagan is on form for sure, but he is still not the finished article and whether he will ever be allowed to get away by Boonen or Cancellara, unless he discovers another five per cent between now and then well that would take a large error on both their parts for that to happen.<\/p>\n Ian Stannard of Sky might have been in form to go for a winwin Devolder rode very well indeed at Gent-Wevelgem and who know, should Boonen and Cancellara find themselves too tightly marked then Devolder and Terpstra are perfectly capable of riding hard enough to win.<\/p>\n Then we come to the likes of John Degenkolb and Marcel Kittel. Both are classed as sprinters and yet, strange as this may be to say, they are not in the \u2018pure\u2019 sprinter mold of say Greipel or Cavendish. Each is a little less stocky, more rangy, and while still blisteringly fast, each could, if they took a leaf from Boonen\u2019s book, think about reshaping themselves as men for races just like Flanders or Roubaix.<\/p>\n If either of these two ended up in a bunch of 10 coming into the Roubaix velodrome, you know who would win. Maybe not this year but in the future, I can see this happening.<\/p>\n So, predictions for Flanders?<\/p>\n I could be completely wrong but I think it won\u2019t be Sagan, Boonen or Cancellara, for the reasons outlined. Someone completely new, that\u2019s my guess, but who?<\/p>\n Guess we\u2019ll have to watch to find out.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You can talk about Milan-San Remo being a Monument classic but I think you\u2019ll all nod sagely in agreement with me when I say that the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are truly the Big Ones of the Spring. I mean, naturally, no disrespect to San Remo, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia, but Flanders and Roubaix just are everything that cycling is about. Two massive, massive races in one week. It\u2019s like going to your Gran\u2019s for your Sunday dinner and getting two Knickerbocker Glories. The Giro di Lombardia comes at the end of the season and it is a bit like coffee, cheese and crackers, all crisp and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40955418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":[],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"what we know ahead of Flanders....","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[219577179],"tags":[990449,4853031,188405,108545,767233537],"class_list":["post-3939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-euro-adventure","tag-boonen","tag-cancellara","tag-flanders","tag-sagan","tag-tour"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2OfoS-11x","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3679,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/02\/15\/philippe-gilbert-are-the-glory-days-over\/","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":0},"title":"Philippe Gilbert: are the glory days over?","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"2\u6708 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Philippe Gilbert is one of my favourite riders on the World Tour \u2013 since he debuted with Francaise Des Jeux back in 2003, the man has done enough to be considered a living legend. His first year in the pro peloton brought the Points Classification and a stage win at\u2026","rel":"","context":"punkopinion","block_context":{"text":"punkopinion","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/punkopinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/philippe_gilbert-2_1504455c.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2589,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/08\/14\/the-spring-classics-better-than-the-grand-tours\/","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":1},"title":"The Spring Classics: Better than the Grand Tours?","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"8\u6708 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Professional cycling nowadays is a year-long occupation. Gone are the days when a pro would jump off the bike in October and take four weeks off, his trusty steed tucked away in the box room under the stairs or down in the old garden shed. The libations might flow, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"punkopinion","block_context":{"text":"punkopinion","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/punkopinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4157,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/05\/08\/the-classics-and-the-classics\/","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":2},"title":"The Classics and The Classics","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"5\u6708 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"this article originally appeared in the April edition of Spin Magazine by Lee Rodgers \u00a0 \u201cTell how at the first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were\u2026","rel":"","context":"history of cycling","block_context":{"text":"history of cycling","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/history-of-cycling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/p2090035.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/p2090035.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/p2090035.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/p2090035.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/p2090035.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/p2090035.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17892,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2023\/12\/19\/2024-uci-world-tour-road-cycling-season-preview-sepp-kuss-memes\/","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":3},"title":"2024 UCI WORLD TOUR ROAD CYCLING SEASON PREVIEW + SEPP KUSS MEMES","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"12\u6708 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Fare ye well 2023, and let's bring on the 2024 season! 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It's an impressive collection of placings for any rider in any era. This rider,\u2026","rel":"","context":"history of cycling","block_context":{"text":"history of cycling","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/category\/history-of-cycling\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/bradley-wiggins_62_1621333a.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/bradley-wiggins_62_1621333a.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/bradley-wiggins_62_1621333a.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3896,"url":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2014\/03\/28\/can-peter-sagan-gatecrash-the-cancellara-boonen-classics-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":3939,"position":5},"title":"Can Peter Sagan gatecrash the Cancellara & Boonen Classics Show?","author":"Lee Rodgers","date":"3\u6708 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"this article originally appeared on The Roar There are a couple of anecdotes about Peter Sagan that tells you just how precocious the 24 year old from Slovakia was as a teenager. Having started racing bikes at the age of 9, he had already made a name for himself by\u2026","rel":"","context":"2014","block_context":{"text":"2014","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/tag\/2014\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tom-boonen-quick-step-gear-11-japan.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Lee Rodgers","author_link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/author\/crankpunk\/"},"rttpg_comment":2,"rttpg_category":"2014 Euro adventure<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"You can talk about Milan-San Remo being a Monument classic but I think you\u2019ll all nod sagely in agreement with me when I say that the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are truly the Big Ones of the Spring. I mean, naturally, no disrespect to San Remo, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia, but Flanders…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40955418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3939"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17152,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3939\/revisions\/17152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdncache-a.akamaihd.net\/items\/it\/img\/arrow-10x10.png?resize=10%2C10\"){kind=icon}
<\/a> at Flanders and in Roubaix that truly is head and shoulders above the rest, he is playing a very clever gamegame<\/a> of rope-a-dope.<\/p>\n![\"booncacel.jpg.h380.jpg.568\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crankpunk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/booncacel-h380-568.jpg?resize=568%2C369&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/a> so brilliantly at Paris-Roubaix in 2012.<\/p>\n<\/a> but he\u2019s out injured after Gent-Wevelgem. Nikki Terpstra, Boonen\u2019s roght hand man, will be one to watch as he is going very well, as is another golden oldie, Stijn Devolder.<\/p>\n