Blog - Classics

Maxim Iglinskiy, surprise winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012

The Doyenne of the classics, the last one of the Ardennes season, Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012 again kept interesting until the end! A long breakaway didn't go on until the finish but Vincenzo Nibali went for a solo attack in the last 20 kilometers ... At a bit over one kilometer from the finish, Maxim Iglinskiy catched up with him and the Kazakh rider didn't wait for him and continued alone to the finish line. Iglinskiy thus wins this monument of cycling 4 days after his birthday!

The summary of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012

The Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2012 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth, the profile and the time- and route schedule

The classic race Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which was won last year by Philippe Gilbert, will again take place tomorrow, with a race route which is more similar to the 2010 edition, when the race was won by Alexandre Vinokourov, than to the one of the 2011 edition!

Philippe Gilbert didn't really succeed his classics season so far this year and this could thus give him an extra motivation to try and win the Doyenne. Let's not exclude however the possibility for Joaquin Rodriguez to take a double Ardennes victory of for Jelle Vanendert to do even better than his 2nd place which he obtained at the Amstel Gold Race before taking the 4th place on top of the Mur de Huy in the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday. Other favorites will start and end off their Ardennes campaign with this race, for example Damiano Cunego who did quite well in the ...

The Flèche Wallonne 2012 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth, the profile and the time- and route schedule

Tomorrow, the 76th edition of the Flèche Wallonne will take place. The race which has a 194 kilometer long race route between Charleroi and Huy will see its previous winner, Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing Team), come to the start and he will thus wear number 1.
Looking at the classifications of the previous editions, the conclusion must be that Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha Team) is most probably his main competitor. However, let's not forget the Schleck brothers, Alejandro Valverde, Robert Gesink or for example the winner of the recent Amstel Gold Race, Enrico Gasparotto.

In this article you'll find the Flèche Wallonne 2012 race route on Google Maps / Google Earth, the profile of the race and the time- and route schedule.

The Flèche Wallonne 2012 race route on Google Maps

The Amstel Gold Race 2012 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth and the route and time schedule

This Sunday, the Dutch cycling classic, the Amstel Gold Race, will take place between Maastricht and the Cauberg in Valkenburg.

The race route of the Amstel Gold Race 2012 has been very slightly modified compared to last year's and the removal of one of the two climbs of the Geulhemmerberg brings back the number of climbs to 31 instead of 32 in last year's edition of this UCI WorldTour race (in 2011 it went up from 31 to 32). In this article you'll find the time- and route schedule, the race route on Google Maps and you can download the race route in Google Earth and do a virtual fly-over if you wish to do so.

THe description of the race route

Tom Boonen solo wins Paris-Roubaix 2012: a 4th victory!

The biggest favourite of all, Tom Boonen, showed today in Paris-Roubaix 2012 why it was logical that everyone wished him a 4th victory. When things got serious in the race, the rider from Mol in Belgium decided to make it a solo race for no less than 53 kilometers, finishing it off with a mandatory lap but which actually became a lap of honour in the Vélodrome of Roubaix! With this 4th victory we're sure Tom Boonen now really says "I ♥ RBX"!

This article and the numerous photos you'll be able to find in the Paris-Roubaix 2012 photo category in the photo section, were made possible thanks to Go4Cycling, a small company which organizes VIP trips in the spring classics and which kindly offered me the opportunity to get on board of their trip in Paris-Roubaix today.

The summary of Paris-Roubaix 2012

Paris-Roubaix 2012: its race route, its cobble zones and other details about the Hell of the North

After Tom Boonen's victory in the Tour of Flandres last Sunday, next Sunday we'll see in the Hell of the North if Tommeke can realise, just like in 2005, a double victory in these two Sunday races .. which would make his 4th win in 2 weeks!

In this article you'll find the race route of Paris-Roubaix 2012 on Google Maps and in Google Earth as well as all details about the 27 cobbled stones sections which are, just like last year, part of the 110th edition of Paris-Roubaix.

The race route will be exactly the same as the one used in the 2011 edition, won by Johan Vansummeren (at that time riding for Garmin-Cervélo, currently still in the same team which now has been renamed in Garmin-Barracuda), with still the same 27 cobbled stones sections and 257.5 kilometers between Compiègne and Roub ...

The Tour of Flanders 2012 for Tom Boonen as well!

The Tour of Flanders 2012, Flanders' most beautiful, even with a modified race route, was won by Tom Boonen today when he finished easily ahead of the Italian rider Filippo Pozzato with whom he was in the final breakaway, together with number 3, Alessandro Ballan.

Finally it was not the race route which put his main competitor Fabian Cancellara out of competition and it was not the power of the Belgian rider either but an unfortunate crash of the Swiss rider who will yet again not reproduce his 2010 classics season.

The summary of the Tour of Flanders 2012

The race route

The Tour of Lombardia 2011 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth and the route and time schedule

This Saturday, the 15th of October 2011, one of the very last races of the 2011 season of the UCI cycling calendar, the Tour of Lombardy 2011, will take place.

Il Lombardia will have a new race route this year, still starting in Milan but this time going towards Lecco and without doing the tour around the Como Lake. I think it was therefore about time to present you the Google Maps/Google Earth map of this race course, together with the time and route schedule and the race profile.

Will this race route still please a rider like Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) who won the 2 previous editions?

The description of the Tour of Lombardy 2011 race route

Video flashback on the Grand Prix de Wallonie 2011 - never shown images in the peloton and of Philippe Gilbert's victory

Last week the Grand Prix de Wallonie 2011 took place between Chaudfontaine and the citadel of Namur. Big favorite Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) was without much surprise the winner of this race. Today I suggest you to discover some images which have never been shown before of this race, from the start to the finish passing in the middle of the peloton and close to the leading group of this Belgian race, in this article!

203.1 kilometers separated Chaudfontaine from the final climb towards the citadel of Namur. The short climbs at several places in this race allowed several leading groups to be created with especially the one with 11 riders who left the peloton quite early and the one, more dangerous, with Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar), which left at 25 kilometers from the finish. He got company from 7 other riders including Marco Marcato (Vacan ...

Philippe Gilbert writes history and wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2011

Big favourite after his 3 previous victories in the Ardennes classics, Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) perfectly fulfilled his role by winning, almost easily, Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2011 ahead of Fränk and Andy Schleck (Team Leopard-Trek).

The summary of Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2011