Puncheur

Tag: Cycling

  • 2025 Tour de France Preview

    It’s almost that time of year again. The 112th Tour de France commences July 5 in Lille. With the final team (INEOS Grenadiers) releasing its squad for this year’s edition, the start list is complete and it’s time to publish this piece. I’ll start by previewing each stage and picking a winner for each one,…

  • 2025 Liege-Bastogne-Liege Preview

    The final Spring Classic on the calendar, the end of Ardennes Week, the fourth Monument of the season, La Doyenne (The Old Lady, named as such because it is the oldest of the five Monuments), the 111th Liege-Bastogne-Liege is, more or less like every year, a hard 252-kilometer extremely hilly battle in Wallonia (the French-speaking…

  • Amstel Gold Race Preview

    The biggest race in the Netherlands is a one-day race at sub-Monument level, but Monument distance. Amstel Gold Race is 255.9 kilometers with 3,200 meters of elevation gain in 30+bergs. As the opening skirmish of Ardennes week, it used to be a race more for Classics specialists and puncheurs, but as the racing has gotten…

  • Ronde van Vlaanderen Preview

    It’s that time of year again: Flanders’ Holy Week is upon us. The best race of the year; the 2025 Tour of Flanders takes place on Sunday, April 6 from Bruges to Oudenaarde. The second Momument every year, Flanders is perhaps the biggest one-day race on the calendar (and according to me, the most prestigious…

  • Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Preview

    The third of the Big Seven one-week stage races gets going tomorrow, March 24. This is the Tour of Catalonia, an ancient race that takes in the beauty of one of Spain’s most famous provinces. This should be a great race. Let’s discuss the route first, according to ProCyclingStats.com: Stage One: Sant Feliu de Guixols-Sant…

  • Milano-Sanremo Preview

    It is time for La Classicissima di Primavera, the first Monument of 2025, Milano-Sanremo. The 289-kilometer (longest UCI event on the calendar) race takes place Saturday, March 22 because the extremely pious staunchly Catholic nation of Italy observes Mass on Sunday (all non-Italian major classics take place on Sundays). This is arguably the most important…

  • Paris-Nice Preview

    Consisting of eight stages starting near Paris and heading down to the French Riviera, The Race to the Sun is one of the biggest stage races in the world. Paris-Nice starts Sunday, March 9. This year, the field is strong, though not quite as strong as the top as the past few years, as only…

  • Pogacar Teases Paris-Roubaix Start

    On Monday, February 10, Tadej Pogacar posted on his Instagram account a video of him “reconning” (riding) the Trouee d’Arenberg, which is the most famous cobbled sector of Paris-Roubaix. The internet immediately went wild with speculation: Will Pogacar ride Roubaix this year? And the Classics peloton probably trembled in fear. Jasper Philipsen (Pogi’s close friend…

  • UAE Tour Preview

    The final race in the Middle East for 2025 is the highest-level. The The Seventh UAE Tour takes place from February 17-23. This race is a seven-stage WorldTour event, the second of 2025. The route is more or less the same every year, with four flat sprint stages (echelons possible), a flat time trial, an…

  • Tour Down Under Preview

    The first race of 2025 kicks off in Australia on Tuesday, January 21. This will be a brief preview because this race simply is not great. Why? South Australia does not exactly have big mountains to create an enthralling parcours (and the race has not utilized all of the hills available), the race isn’t very…