Classics explained

Just what is a “Classic”? Or what makes a race a classic?

There is just no official definition of what a classic race is but I can characterize it as, 1- it’s a one day event, and 2- it should more than 250km long. And then there are the “semi-classics”, also one day races but with distances around the 200km mark.

A classic can also be defined based on the road surface, like a “cobbled” classic as in Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders. The profile of the race routes are also used to determine if it’s a hilly (Liege-Bastogne-Liege) or as printer’s classic like the Paris-Tours. The “hilly” classics are also known as the, “Ardennes.”

The seasons of year are also used to group the classics. The spring classics are the Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix while the fall classics includes the Paris-Tours and the Giro di Lombardia. And BTW, there is no “summer” classic, since summers means Tour de France.

The granddaddy of the classic classifications is termed as the “Monuments.” There are only five monuments and are the oldest and considered as the most prestigious classics in cycling. They are the Milan-Sanremo (1907), Paris-Roubaix (1896), Tour of Flanders (1913), Giro di Lombardia (1905) and  the “La Doyenne” the Grand Old Lady, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which was had its premier race back in 1894.

Only three riders have won all monuments in their careers- Roger Vlaeminck, RIk van Looy and the G.O.A.T., Eddy Merckx. Another thing that these three have in common are their nationality, they are all   Belgians, aka, the “Flahutes.” In cycling, the Belgians are known as classics riders, the hard riders and that’s were they get their names, from winning the hardest one day, all or nothing, no tomorrow races, in the world.

Of the riders currently racing, Tom Boonen (who will be missing Milan-Sanremo) has the most monument wins with seven victories. On his heels with six victories is the Swiss machine, Fabian Cancellara. For classic riders like Boonen and Cancellara, their whole season is based on their performances these next few weeks. Win a Monument and you’ll be OK for this year. Fail to win one and it’ll be a lost season.

For those who are still on the outside looking in, one monument victory is already a lifetime of palmares. 

The World Championships is also a one-day race and whose distance is also more than 250km, but its not considered a classic. The main difference is that its location changes every year. It is also more prestigious palmares-wise and financially-wise than the monuments.

So for the next few weeks, stay tuned for the hardest and the most beautiful bicycle races in the world.

Finally, a picture can paint a thousand words but I don’t really need 999 shots to tell me that what happened during that football game two Sundays ago was very, very disappointing. What made it more disappointing on my part was that after the dust settled, the organizers and the game officials never got any part of the blame. A huge part of the blame should be targeted on the sponsors and officials for failing to control the game. If you watch the major sports, the referees are trained to prevent fights before it happens. We all know how heated these type of events can become, so where was the security guys?