Btw, can you fix the annoying prefix of your signature? Agent, my news reader, ignores everything after the "-- " line by default, so whenever I just *must* reply I have to select your text first. Thanks.
Milan San Remo does suck. The Poggio doesn't force enough of a selection, so you wind up with too many bunch sprints. "Kurgan Gringioni" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
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Ewoud Dronkert said:
Chris said:
Tour of Flanders Liege - Bastogne - Liege Paris Roubaix Milano - San Remo Giro di Lomabardia
I like Paris-Roubaix best. Oh man, I'm high from anticipation a week before. I tell all my rowing friends, "Next Sunday P-R!" and the response is mostly "Ah right". I haven't seen it live in years
because
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it always coincides with a big university regatta I help organize,
but
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when I come home after a long long day I still start the 6h video
tape,
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and invariably fall asleep before Arenberg. I stay in Monday (pre-arranged for the off chance that my club wins) and dedicate it
to
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the Cobbled Classic. I can intensely enjoy the images. Heroes, pure heroes. You can't hide, and there's always drama.
Next is the Ronde. Great too, but I'm not into it that much. It does
get
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hyped hugely by Flemish media, so it's easy to go along on that wave.
In
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the interview last night, Dekker was asked which race he'd pick if he could win just once more. "Can I pick two? The Ronde and Worlds." Boogerd likes it too. Normally more suited to the Ardennes classics,
he
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has a mini obsession for the Ronde (although, he's probably obsessive about a lot of things).
If I have to rank the remaining, it would be: LBL, Lombardy, San
Remo.
Dumbass -
Nice post. I'd put Milan-San Remo last too, by a wide margin.
Btw, can you fix the annoying prefix of your signature? Agent, my news reader, ignores everything after the "-- " line by default, so whenever I just *must* reply I have to select your text first. Thanks.
That could be considered a feature rather than a bug.
"Philip W. Moore, Jr." <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Milan San Remo does suck. The Poggio doesn't force enough of a selection, so you wind up with too many bunch sprints.
Not every race has to have a Lombardy-like parcours. The riders have 300km to make a selection. But ofcourse if they wait until the Poggio, the chances for a bunch sprint increase. And there is nothing wrong with a bunch sprint when everybody knows that is the character of the race. I don't hear anyone complain about Paris-Tours or Gent-Wevelgem. They don't even have climbs like in the capi in M-S.
Not to mention that the relative importance of the participating "cycling nations" is also changing. Look at Spain, Germany, Australia and the US. Cyclist of these countries have centered their interest mostly around the TdF and the stage racing. And it seems clear that the relative importance of the classics have decreased (including the italian ones). Now if your combine that with the collapse of France in terms of generation of talent... (or use of drugs whatever you want to chose).
"B. Lafferty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
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-- Peloton Pigs--Flying Since 1991 "benjo maso" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
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In bicycle racing tradition is more important than any other race. From 1948 until 1958 - in many respects the golden age of bicycle racing - there were in the Clallenge Desgrange-Colombo 8 classics with a special status: Paris-Roubaix, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Milan-San Remo, Flèche Wallone, Paris-Tours, Paris-Bruxelles, Giro di Lombardia and Liège-Bastogne-Liège (added a little later). In the Trophée Super Prestige Pernod which replaced the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo, Paris-Roubaix had always some more points than the other seven. Paris-Bruxelles lost much of its value because it wasn't organized between 1967 and 1972. So did Paris-Tours because not only the direction, but also the name changed continually. On the other hand, the Flèche-Wallone lost its place in the World cup only because it was organized on wednesday, instead of saturday or sunday (suddenly it was superseded by races which were only "classics" by name, instead of tradition). Now that the World cup disappeares, I hope the Flèche Wallone will get back its rightful place in the monuments. The same goes for Paris-Tours and Paris-Bruxelles, with Paris-Roubaix the two classics with the logest tradition (Liège-Bastogne-Liège became only in 1930 a race for professionals).
Benjo Maso
Great post. The importance list would also be influenced by nationality. Wouldn't Milano-San Remo be of greater importance to most Italian riders than the Northern classic, with the exception of Paris-Roubaix? My impression also is that the riders from the North were more interested in Lomabrdy than M-SR.
