Men's Cycling

The Tour of Britain is now firmly part of the professional calendar and has risen to be just shy of Worldtour status. It wasn't...

Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne began as a 3-day stage race. The first stage would take riders away from De Panne on the North Sea coast towards the hills of the Flemish Ardennes. The second stage would usually see riders head back towards the coast. The third day would be split between a short start in the morning and a small time trial in the afternoon.

Brabantse Pijl had its first edition in 1961, the race started and finished in Brussels. The first winner was Pino Cerami, who now has a race named after him - the GP Cerami. Pijl is the Flemish word for arrow, making it the Brabant version of Flèche Wallonne.

Amstel Gold is a relatively newer classic, its first race only taking place in 1966. After a few organisational mishaps, it raced from Breda...

It's quite hard to pick a rider type for someone that won Milan San Remo, the Giro d'Italia and Il Lombardia. Our modern rider types either don't fit or don't do justice. Girardengo found the early part of his career interrupted by World War I but he'd already won Giro stages and the National Championship by the time war took over.

Liège Bastogne Liège (La Doyenne) is the oldest monument in cycling, with its first running in 1892. Although it was for amateurs at the time and Spa replaced Liège. 1894 saw professionals allowed to race for the first time and then bizarrely it wasn't held for another 14 years.

Rik van Looy was like the Peter Sagan of his day. Able to sprint but also able to dominate the Classics. He won an Olympic Gold in his last year as an amateur in 1952 before really announcing himself in the pro peloton by winning Gent Wevelgem and Scheldeprijs in 1956.

The race began in 1936 but moved around a lot until settling on its modern Identity of finishing on the Mur de Huy. At various points the race started in Tournai, Mons, Charleroi, Liège, Verviers, Huy & Spa. For a while the race started from Charleroi (or nearby) and then headed east for a finishing circuit or two around Huy.