#cyclblr

[pro-cycling-primers]

📊The Monuments📊

As promised in my introductory post, it's time to get Monumental...

What are they?

A mostly arbitrary classification of five of the oldest, longest, most prestigious and most difficult one-day races. It doesn't really mean anything beyond a higher UCI point earning but it's a handy starting point for the Classics (one-day races).

Milano-San Remo 🇮🇹 (mid-March)

The longest single race on the men's calendar, this gruelling ~300km outing regularly yields some of the most exciting racing of the season.

But only at the very end. It's an endurance test finishing with the final two climbs, the Cipressa and the Poggio, where the race-winning moves are often made.

Don't bother tuning in to MSR until they're at least on the Cipressa – about 20km from the finish. Outside of a favourite crashing, almost nothing that happens in the first six hours will matter toward the final result.

Expect: To be bored if you start watching early on, but fifteen minutes of absolutely electrifying racing after a long day out. Oftentimes an unexpected winner.

Ronde van Vlaanderen 🇧🇪 (late March/early April)

Spring is well and truly underway; it's time to head to Flanders!

The culmination of Belgian cycling's Holy Week, the Ronde combines cobbles with short, sharp climbs in the Flemish Ardennes for a brutal Sunday's racing. Every climb has a name and a history: the Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, Koppenberg are some of the most iconic and decisive.

Expect: So many Vlaamse Leeuw flags the roadside looks like a daffodil field, aggressive and tactical racing, riders potentially having to dismount on the steepest of cobbled sections.

Paris-Roubaix 🇫🇷 (early April)

The only French Monument, Roubaix is affectionately known as l'Enfer du Nord/the Hell of the North. That's fitting for the conditions riders face: it's pancake-flat but the challenge lies in the bone-shaking cobbled secteurs (rated 1 to 5, 5 being the worst), usually totalling ~50km

The weather often comes into play, with wind and rain rendering the cobbles slippery and dangerous, shown on the 5-star Trouée d'Arenberg in 2021 (left). Finishing in the Velodrome André-Pétrieux (right), the winner even gets one of the cobbles as a trophy!

Expect: Pavé-induced punctures and other mechanicals, commentators debating the pros and cons of a wet Roubaix. A winner usually on the larger side of pro cyclists, as size = absolute power and more stability on the cobbles.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 🇧🇪 (late April)

Rounding out the Ardennes end of the spring classics, LBL is the most climber-friendly of the Monuments, with enough hills to put many of the larger riders out of contention. First held in 1892, earning the race its nickname of La Doyenne, it continues to entertain to this day.

Don't let the lack of cobbles or inordinate length of the first three, LBL is still a brutal race of ~260km with 4,400m of climbing!

Expect: Hills. Hard, and plenty of them. Often better weather than the other three.

Il Lombardia 🇮🇹 (mid October)

Usually regarded as marking the end of the road cycling season proper, Lombardia favours punchy climbers as it meanders through Lombardy – another region steeped in cycling history.

It's a beautiful race, often taking in the shores of Lake Como while chasing up and down the foothills of the Alps. Autumnal conditions can affect the race with potential for slippery roads and chilly descents.

Expect: Assuming past performance predicts future results, Tadej Pogačar to win his fifth consecutive title, equalling Fausto Coppi's record. Beautiful helicopter shots of the landscape; it's not nicknamed the Race of the Falling Leaves for nothing.

See you in March for the last fifteen minutes of San Remo!

[biru-thegoose]

one of my favourite things about the cycling fandom (and cyclblr in particular) is that it's such a small community that people tag posts with their thoughts and not just the fandom tag. All my other fandoms are fairly large and there's not as much interaction, I just love to see it in our funky little corner of the internet <3

[sportsallover]

You know, I’m really happy we have the cycling discord right now, because I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking everyone for their contact info, but at the same time I don’t want to loose this community that has formed, if tumblr were indeed to crash

[obsessed-manuloid]

Every time I go to twitter I wonder how angry, aggressive and hateful it is. But after that coming back to the warm and cosy cyclblr is even more enjoyable than usual 💓

[wow-van-aert]

i love team jv. ❤️

[strigimorphaes]

.

[thecubes]

investigating the tosser hat lore

flourbrays tags got me thinking............... bc i forgot where i even found it lol he only put that its at a welsh cycling clubs dinner so obv i searched it and found their forum talking about that specific years dinner!!! which told me literally nothing of worth except that (upon more searches) these people just constantly call each other tossers. so. i guess its just a Them Thing. which? well i dont really know what i expected

(pause for more keyboard taps like some hackerman in a movie)

OH HELLO (link)

^ this is what i expected

dont look so pissed luke, it means they like you :P

EDIT thread about luke :) he's one of their chief tossers

[tsunoderailleur]

i love cyclblr so much. i come online to see everyone passing around the same 3 posts like a blunt

[pro-cycling-primers]

👋 Welcome to @pro-cycling-primers! 👋

So. Netflix dropped last year the second season of Tour de France: Unchained, and inspired by the fantastic work of @f1-primers, I thought I would start this sideblog to create an introduction of sorts for new fans, and eventually create a repository for all sorts of informative posts here on cyclblr :)

Welcome! Please feel free to ask questions or submit your own primers/guides/introductions on anything you like; particular race/edition of race, rider, team, rivalry, history, lore, tech, whatever! I will also reblog any guides I see/am tagged in.

Please correct me! I'm a lone cycling fan hoping to attract more people to the sport, and don't know or purport to know everything about the sport.

This post will change as this blog grows and more primers are posted :)

✏️ Want to contribute but can't pick a topic? Here is a list of ideas/launching points :)

[biru-thegoose]

the lesbian urge to show up in a male-dominated, heteronormative industry and let them deal with my presence is strong this evening

[sportsallover]

Tumblr: do you remember the 21th of September?

Cyclblr: I do! It’s Tadej’s birthday!

[theglowstickchronicles]

Me getting out of bed this morning after yesterday doing a 60 minute spin class and 60 minute barre class (after not having done barre in 10 months):

[zuzkana]

Yesterday was a disaster . Kids are sick and had kept me awake all night and I didn't even get a nap and various other things so I made it a rest day. The whole point of my cycling right now is consistency so I hope it doesn't hurt it. It's just I have a tendency to overtrain myself at the beginning of things and I don't really want to do that so I'm playing it really safe. Hope the anxiety about me thinking I ruined every thing goes away by Thursday when the next session is scheduled lol!

[strigimorphaes]

me & my dad do a brunch for paris roubaix and last year we made baguettes w french cheeses. talked to him about what we'll do this year (it's a ways away but it never hurts to have something to look forward to!) and we floated the idea of a yellow lemon tart. A visma-coloured wout van tart, if you will. I am now humbly asking cyclblr if they have ideas for a Mads Pedersen related food pun because we do support him more in this household so that would be preferred. the best we've come up with is a mads-arin (mazarin). and it doesnt have to be sweet...

[tsunoderailleur]

one day i will do the cyclblr eurotrip but for now you will have to hear me wax poetic about northern california and the mississippi river. sorry

[theglowstickchronicles]

20 minute Fall Out Boy ride (in German lol), 5 minute cool down, 10 minute upper body, then did some freestyle squats and an stuff, ending with some neck exercises cause mine has been painfully tight and knotted for forever.