The Classics 2011

The 2011 editions of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad & Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne are in the books, as well as the “not quite reached classic status but still totally badass” Strade Bianche. They all were awesome. The next event of real consequence (speaking strictly of European based, men’s Professional cycling, of course), Paris – Nice starts today and runs through the 13th. We’ll see who’s got the legs in the Race to the Sun.

A short summary the 2001 Classics:

3/19 Milano – Sanremo
3/26 E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
3/27 Gent – Wevelgem
4/3 Ronde van Vlaanderen
4/10 Paris – Roubaix
4/17 Amstel Gold Race
4/20 La Flèche Wallonne
4/24 Liège – Bastogne – Liège

The folks at www.steephill.tv have organized the entire 2011 UCI calender on their website. You may query the site’s database by the location and rank of event. Pretty damn cool, if you ask me. There are also links to the specific race’s official website (when available), race descriptions and/or written reports of past events, video of past events (when available), and the start list for each event (in pdf format): http://www.steephill.tv/uci-cycling-calendar/.

In case you have absolutely no idea what I’ve been prattling on about, Wiki has a concise little piece on the Classics. Read it. You will learn: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_cycle_races.

And, if all that doesn’t have you drooling with eager anticipation, we’re going to round out the Spring of 2011 with these two gems:

4/26 – 5/1 Tour de Romandie (Please note that friend of Drunkcyclist.com, and fellow Arizonan, Chad Beyer, took the 2010 Sprint Competition.)
5/7 – 5/29 Giro d’Italia

Boom.