Sports Poets Society

https://www.velonews.com/events/classics/milan-san-remo-preview-favorites-course-details-and-who-will-rule-the-poggio/ Who will be first down the Via Roma in the easiest monument to finish but the hardest to win? MARCH 16, 2023 -  ANDREW HOOD 114th Milan-San Remo Date: Saturday, March 18, 2023 Start: Abbiategrasso Finish: San Remo Distance: 294 km 2022 winner: Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) Milan-San Remo opens monument season Saturday in what’s the easiest race to finish, but the hardest to win. All eyes will be on Tadej Pogačar to see if he can fend off the sprinters and drop his rivals on the always decisive stampede up the Poggio. Of cycling’s five revered monuments, Italy’s La Primavera is a race that’s many things at once. It’s the longest race on the élite men’s calendar, but technically and vertically one of the least challenging. San Remo is also one of the oldest races on the calendar, yet there’s no tried and true winning formula. Every year is a different scenari...

https://www.velonews.com/news/road/2022-mens-strade-bianche-preview-the-years-best-dust-up-even-better-with-no-clear-favorites/ The absence of Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel will make for a more unpredictable men's race as Strade Bianche sets to deliver one of cycling's best one-day races of the calendar. ANDREW HOOD Velonews.com - MARCH 2, 2022 Strade Bianche — cycling’s best new race in a generation — is front and center this weekend to deliver one of the most tantalizing and dynamic days of racing on the men’s international calendar. What’s not to love? There are the Tuscan hills, arguably cycling’s best finishing stadium in the historic Piazza del Campo in Siena, and more than 60km of its namesake roads. With the men’s event now in its 16th edition, the 184km course loops up and around some of Italy’s most spectacular backdrops. Vineyards, green hills, ancient farms, and dusty powdery roads with the peloton’s biggest names racing for victory — it’s all straight o...

https://www.velonews.com/news/road/racing-to-the-sun-with-stephen-roche/ Catching up with Triple Crown winner Stephen Roche on the eve of Paris-Nice, a race he won once and finished second four times. By Steve Thomas Spring 1981 and the Paris-Nice headed into its iconic time trial stage up the Col d’Eze. A 19-year old Dubliner riding for the Peugeot team was about to formally open his long chapter in the annals of cycling history. His name was Stephen Roche. Paris-Nice Paris-Nice starts Sunday and VeloNews.com will bring you complete coverage – with on the scene reports from Andrew Hood, photo galleries from Graham Watson and live coverage every day. Related: Hood’s race preview In the weeks before that race the young Irish rider had taken his first ever pro race victory — the Tour of Corsica; slaying a certain Bernard Hinault in the process. Then on the fabled and sunny slopes rising from central Nice, the affable youngster was about to take one of the biggest honors in cycling, a spo...

The 1985 edition of the Tour of Flanders featured  such heavy rain that only 24 riders finished the race The Koppenberg is slick on the best of days, even the dry days, when thin dust covers stones laid at 22 percent. Then it rains, and slick turns to impossible. Oh, did it rain in 1985 . It started as a drizzle, normal Belgian weather, then morphed into a downpour. Then it went biblical. Two hundred kilometers into the race, there were 50 riders left in the field . Only 24 finished, the smallest number in cycling’s modern era. What happened?  Eric Vanderaerden, 23 years old in April of 1985 , suffered a bro ken wheel early and was chasing as the Koppenberg approached and the rain began to come down. He was near the back of the thinned-out peloton when he hit the berg’s stone slopes. As the grade rose, rear wheels began to spin. Riders on the front lost grip and tipped over, some still stuck in their pedals. Thus began a game of human dominos. Vanderaerden, through luck or s...

Johan Museeuw won his final Flanders title with a display of  dominance  by his Mapei team, which ruled the classics in the 1990s. https://www.velonews.com/news/studying-flanders-1998-lion-of-flanders-roars-for-the-last-time/ In the 1990s, the Ronde van Vlaanderen saw the emergence of classics powerhouse Johan Museeuw . Though his legacy was later tainted with doping allegations, no one was bigger or more commanding than the “Lion of Flanders” during his heyday. During his run, he reached the Flanders podium eight times . Three of those finishes were victories , making him one of six riders to have a trio of Flanders wins . His most emphatic victory was his last, in 1998 , when he and his Mapei team pummeled the field into submission. Museeuw put down a searing attack on the Tenbosse and no one could answer . What happened:  By 1998, Mapei riders were the undisputed kings of the cobblestones . Though there were efforts by rivals Andrei Tchmil and Peter Van Petegem , no on...

Tom Boonen won his first Tour of Flanders in 2005,  arguably one of the biggest seasons of his storied career https://www.velonews.com/news/studying-flanders-2005-tommekes-first-step-toward-legend/ Tom Boonen finished third in his Paris-Roubaix debut in 2002 . He won two stages of the Tour de France in 2004. Then, in 2005, the kid known as “Tommeke” took proper steps down the path to becoming a legend. He won the Tour of Flanders for the first time, and completed the double the following week by winning Paris-Roubaix. He later went on to win stages and the green jersey at the Tour, and then became world champion in Madrid. What a year . It all started in Flanders. How it happened:  With 17 kilometers to go on the feared Kapelmuur , a handful of riders remained in the front group, including favorites Tom Boonen and Peter Van Petegem , T-Mobile teammates Erik Zabel and Andreas Klier, Roberto Petito, and Alessandro Ballan . A substantial group was chasing a minute behind. Boone...

https://www.velonews.com/news/studying-flanders-2012-new-route-winner/ Cycling fans were up in arms in 2012, when a new Tour of Flanders route was introduced, but a familiar Belgian won the day. Let’s step into our time machines and zip back a few years. We find the peaceful Flemish region of Belgium overcome by chaos. Pitchfork-toting cycling fans surround the Ronde van Vlaanderen museum in Oudenaarde, demanding that the race’s new owners, Flanders Classics, return the decisive Kapelmuur and Bosberg climbs to the course (OK, I made that up). Goofballs stage a mock funeral for the departed climbs (that actually happened). Pundits question whether this new Flanders route — which includes three trips up the Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont — is blasphemous. Former champions chide the new course , saying Flanders has lost its luster. Everyone wonders whether the Tour of Flanders has jumped the shark. What nobody knows is that the new Flanders route will be rad. What happened:  Yes, remo...

https://www.velonews.com/news/studying-flanders-1992-breakaway-stuns-the-favorites/ Take a look back at the 1992 edition of the Tour of Flanders, which featured a 212km breakaway. If you watched pro cycling in the 1990s and early 2000s, it was easy to catch a glimpse of Jacky Durand , often wearing a pirate-style bandana, always off the front in a suicidal attack . French magazine Vélo even tracked his kilometers in the break with a “Jackymètre.” He rarely won out of those breaks , especially not on one of the biggest days of the season, a monument race, up against former winners such as Ed wig van Hooydonck or Moreno Argentin and champions in waiting like Johan Museeuw . But at Tour of Flanders 1992 , an important appointment for those cycling superstars — among others — Durand’s Gallic pluck shown through and he rode the breakaway of his life to the first French victory since 1956 in De Ronde . What happened:  Durand’s early breakaway went after around 45 kilometers of racing o...

https://www.velonews.com/culture/team-tensions-and-power-struggles-from-hinault-and-lemond-to-sastre-and-the-schlecks/?fbclid=IwAR19l8Ic1b_qQPmRwG9GgONZBxjRj7wNMkTM_gEbUU2fy31ZeHdYta6p50E Rivalries within La Vie Claire and CSC-Saxo Bank reveal the tension between cycling's team ethic and personal ambition. James Startt Velonews - MAY 27, 2020 News that Chris Froome could leave Team Ineos is providing endless fodder during this unexpected lull in racing. It can be interpreted in many ways. Perhaps it is no more than the four-time Tour de France winner testing the waters for a potential move in 2021. Or perhaps it reflects an internal power struggle with what has become the sport’s biggest grand tour team. It is many things to many people, but one thing is certain—such a situation is anything but new in the sport of cycling. Certainly, when Egan Bernal became the third rider on the team in three years to win the Tour, in 2019, it became clear that there w...

https://www.velonews.com/news/how-primoz-roglic-made-the-leap-from-ski-jumper-to-grand-tour-winner/ The story of Primož Roglič’s unimaginable rise to the top of Grand Tour racing. JANUARY 27, 2020 -  ANDREW HOOD This story appeared in the January/February 2020 print issue of VeloNews. Anyone watching the podium ceremony at the end of the 2019 Vuelta a España knew it was coming. After the handshakes, the trophies, the jerseys, and yes, even an unbridled smile for what was a very tense and pressure-packed three weeks for Primož Roglič , it was inevitable. And finally there it was. Roglič spread his arms wide and split his legs beneath him like a pair of scissors. With his signature victory salute, Roglič was soaking up the moment of his incredible journey to become Slovenia’s first grand tour winner . And just as fast as Roglič could tuck his knees, someone out there on social media raced to be the first to post on Twitter, “Hey, did you know Roglič used to be a ski jumper?” Roglič’...