2026 Spring Classics Thread

[wakemalcolm]

MSR, LBL, Roubaix, Ronde for me.

 

[red.rider]

Roubaix > MSR >>> LBL > Ronde

Roubaix and MSR came down to the wire, while the others were over as soon as Pog got a gap.
Roubaix had me glued to FranceTV for the whole race, MSR just the final 45 mins

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Roubaix gets the nod for me because Van Aert won. First person not named Pogacar or van der Poel to win a monument since Philipsen won MSR (largely thanks to MvdP) in '24. Only the second person not named Pog, MvdP or Remco to win a monument since Van Baarle won Roubaix in '22. He'll probably be the only rider to beat Pogacar in a one day race this year (Lombardy is now the Pogacar Invitational, and the World's course is another climby affair, 3.8km altitude gain in Montreal)

Roubaix > MSR > Ronde > LBL

 

[mididoctors]

Everyone is Roubaix I see ..,.hard to go against

 

[wakemalcolm]

Everyone is Roubaix I see ..,.hard to go against

Nope MSR for me: it was obvious what the outcome was going to be doing into the velodrome. It wasn't obvious after the descent of the Poggio.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Race speeds are becoming a head scratcher.
That’s a massive increase.

Aside from the tailwind, races are starting earlier and earlier now - like in Roubaix there was no break, again! Teams going out with a strat of making it hard from the start is very different to the old school "let the break go and then control them until the crux of the race", so speeds aren't really comparable

 

[mididoctors]

Nope MSR for me: it was obvious what the outcome was going to be doing into the velodrome. It wasn't obvious after the descent of the Poggio.

I thought pidcock was going to mug him
That said Roubaix evolved over hours of insane racing

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Nope MSR for me: it was obvious what the outcome was going to be doing into the velodrome. It wasn't obvious after the descent of the Poggio.

Yeah but this:
When he first rode it in 2018 he was 23, riding for pro-conti Vérandas Willems-Crelan, and his teammate Goolaerts died during the race.
Since then he's ridden it every year except covid cancellation in '20 and when he was broken in '24. The results are ridiculous, so close, so often. So deserving of a big rock for his mantelpiece. For me that outweighs the advantage he had in the sprint as they came into the velodrome. But also, I've seen riders fück up a sprint before, so I wasn't counting any chickens!

 

[wakemalcolm]

I thought pidcock was going to mug him
That said Roubaix evolved over hours of insane racing

Roubaix evolved over hours of inane mechanicals.

 

[mididoctors]

Lol

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Roubaix evolved over hours of inane mechanicals.

MSR evolved over hours of inane mileage*




*I actually like the boring length, nice to see a bit of the Italian coastline in the Spring

 

[phreak]

Aside from the tailwind, races are starting earlier and earlier now - like in Roubaix there was no break, again! Teams going out with a strat of making it hard from the start is very different to the old school "let the break go and then control them until the crux of the race", so speeds aren't really comparable

What I don't get is that times in key parts are also getting destroyed. I can get average times going up because they're racing harder from earlier, but rationally, you'd expect times up climbs to be down if you've been gunning it, but they're not. Heck, Pogacar set records on the Poggio despite chasing hard for 30 minutes before getting there.