The cycling World Cup
Created | Updated Mar 22, 2003
The World Cup of professional road cycling is held every year, and involves ten one-day 'Classics' from March to October. These ten races are deemed to be those that have the greatest reputations and the most challenging courses, and the rider in the lead of the World Cup at the end of the year can reasonably be said to be the 'King of the Classics'.
Points are given for the top positions in each round of the World Cup. First place in one round will earn a rider 100 points, 70 points are awarded for second place, 50 for third, and so on all the way down to 1 point for the rider who finishes 25th. There is also a team competition in which points on a seperate scale are collected for each member of a team who finishes among the high placings.
The 2002 edition of the World Cup was won by Paolo Bettini, an Italian riding for the Mapei team in their final year of cycling sponsorship.
Milano-San Remo
The first round of the World Cup is contested, as the name implies, between the cities of Milan and San Remo in northern Italy, and is one of the longest races in the year at 287 km. Although its traditional position as the cycling season opener has been usurped in recent years, it is still the first race that can be described as a whole season target for some riders.
Although it is a very long race, the vast majority of it is almost totally flat. Theoretically, the famed climbs of the Poggio and Cipressa are the logical and expected launch-points for a race-winning attack. Thousands of 'tifosi'* gather here every year expecting to see their heroes leap off the front of the peloton and cruise to victory.
Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Although they are a serious challenge after well over 250 km, neither hill is particularly steep or particularly long. Although a strong rider can break away and build a small time gap on the ascent, the main contenders are usually paying close attention at this time of the race and the opportunist is usually caught either on the descent or not long after. In fact, the two climbs have recently only served to weed out the weaker riders and leave a strong group of well over 30 sprinters to decide the race in the final kilometre.
Because of this, the recent history of the race has been dominated by German star Erik Zabel, a sprinter who is as strong on hills and mountains as any you will find. This skill has earned him a remarkable four victories in Milan-San Remo, as well as winning the green points jersey at the Tour De France a record six times. The 2002 edition was won by Mario Cipollini, and achieving this lifelong aim in the Autumn of his career rejuvinated him enough to have arguably his best season ever, culminating in October's World Championship triumph at Zolder, Belgium.
The only real exception to the recent dominance of the sprinters came in 2000, when 38-year old Belgian Andrei Tchmil broke away with only a kilometre and a half to go and held on until the finish. Despite his widely acknowledged riding ability in Classics, this still came as a complete surprise, and showed just how clever a sportsman he is.
Ronde Van Vlaanderen
As one of the heartlands of cycling, Flanders feels very strongly about its national tour. It is the aim of every young Belgian to grow up and win the Tour of Flanders, and those who do are taken to the heart of the nation. Of the current crop, only two Belgians have won, Peter Van Petegem and 'The Lion of Flanders', Johan Museeuw. Museeuw has won it a total of three times, and is practically a legend in his own lifetime. The fact that he has twice recovered from life-threatening injuries to compete again only adds to his reputation.
Apart from the fact that all Flemish pros are fired-up and impassioned for the race, one of the key challenges of the Tour of Flanders is the cobbled climbs at various points along the route. If you have ever tried to ride a bike over cobbles, you will know how hard it is. The Tour of Flanders has not one but 19 cobbled hills, and they ensure that any leading group which reaches the finish line is composed of only the cream of cycling talent. The legendary Bosberg and Kappelmuur hills, with average gradients of 8.4% and 9.3% respectively, complete the selection and finish off the race for good.
Paris-Roubaix
The world governing body for cycling, the UCI, classify this as a French race* and it is true that both start and finish lines are in France, but the heart and soul of Paris-Roubaix is in Belgium. Nicknamed 'Hell in the North' (partly a slight pun on the fact that 'hell' is Flemish for 'hill'), this competition has a reputation as the hardest day of cycling a rider will ever experience. Although it does not awake the kind of patriotism found at the Tour of Flanders, Belgians are proud of the 'Belgian hardmen' who suffer through months of winter training in cold and rain, then suffer through hours of racing in cold and rain to prove that they are great Classics riders.
Flanders may feature some very hard cobbled sections, but Paris-Roubaix is cobbles. Indeed, so much so that every winner is given a stone of the pave* which they usually prize over any gold or crystal trophy supplied by other races, often giving it pride of place on their mantlepiece.
A truly great edition of Paris-Roubaix is usually characterized by mud, crashes in plenty, and a group of no more than half-a-dozen reaching the Roubaix velodrome at the front. Often, the winner has to wipe the worst of the dirt from the front of his jersey simply so that the name of his sponsor is visible to the photographers. A total of 26 sections of juddering pave will shake the strength out of even the strongest riders, and the likes of Spanish teams, more keen on the stage races, and sprinters such as Mario Cipollini usually don't even bother turning up.
In the past 10 years or so, the race has been dominated first by the Italian Mapei team and then Belgians Domo when many of their Classics specialists changed teams at its inception. It is no coincidence that Johan Museeuw was among those to change. After all, he has now won Paris-Roubaix three times, and knows it like the back of his mud-splattered hand. The fact remains, though, that all of the top three places have been from these teams on more than one occasion, and have not been absent from the podium since 1993. In 1996, the three Mapei riders Museeuw, Gianluca Bortolami and Andrea Tafi were in the race-winning break togther, and legend has it that the Mapei owner Giorgio Squinzi was phoned to ask who he wanted to win. It is certainly true that the top three finished exactly the way he wanted.
With the Mapei-Quick Step team bowing out during the winter, and great activity on the transfer markets between Domo and the new Quick Step-Davitamon team, it is unclear who now inherits the control in the 'Hell in the North', but it goes without saying that whoever does will ahve earned it on the hard Spring roads between Compiegne and the Roubaix Velodrome.
Amstel Gold
Despite being seen as one of the traditional cycling countries of the world, Holland has only one World Cup race, and the Dutch are often frustrated that their local lads can't seem to raise their game for it.
Amstel Gold is also among the last of the Spring batch of World Cup races, and those disappointed by their performances until now may see this as their last opportunity to take advantage of the form which they have been slowly and carefully building since the winter.
Despite the overall trend in Classics over recent years to end in a bunch sprint*, a number of recent editions of recent editions of Amstel Gold have finished in two-up sprints in which one rider is exhausted after having been forced to ride at the front all the way and break the wind for the coasting rider behind. This refusal to do the fair share of the work (as the victims like to see it) caused the fans of Lance Armstrong to ciy injustice in 1998 and 2000 as well as Michael Boogerd and Maarten Den Bakker on other occasions.
The course itself, a 250 km succession of three intersecting circuits that criss-cross the area arounf Maastricht and Valkenburg, is not actually terribly arduous compared to those that precede it, the highlight being three ascents of the Cauberg, the last of which leads straight up to the finish-line. It is this hill that usually proves decisive, with the cleverest and most opportunistic attacker managing a breakaway that only a select few are both attentive and strong enough to catch. The proximity to the finish also ensures that the breakaway does not have time to gain a substantial lead, typically between 15 and 20 seconds, over the peloton. At this point, the rider with the initiative is usually only able to watch in agony as the more cunning rider behind him glides past with his ars in the air. They will, of course, have the excuse available that they were working for their team's fast-man waiting behind in the bunch to challenge in a potential sprint.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege
After the four practically national events preceding it, Liege-Bastogne-Liege has gained a reputation as a Classics-rider's Classic. There is no fervent and highly partisan crowd, and the only pride at stake is professional pride. Admittedly, the Walloon Belgians are very proud of what many see as their version of the Tour of Flanders, and make sure everyone knows it, there is also a large Italian expatriot community in the area, and a range of other national communities also make the journey.
Because of this, sheer strength falls back slightly and tactics take center stage. To win 'Le Doyenne', a rider must know which hill to attack on, which break to chase down and which to let go, when his rivals are weak and when he is in danger of cracking. This more cerebral quality has made it a target of the season for such riders as Paolo Bettini (winner twice in the last three years), Michele Bartoli, Davide Rebellin and George Hincapie, who are neither sprinters nor Belgian hardmen.
The main famous climb of Liege-Bastogne-Liege is La Redoute, but this appears 35 whole km from the finish line, a perfectly reasonable distance in which the peloton could chase down a break. However, the course is also peppered with smaller climbs such as Sart-Tilman at 16 km to go, and these serve to make the roll in from La Redoute much more interesting and challenging. While a selection is usually made on the famous hill, effectively ending the race for a large portion of the peloton, the decision of a winner from within this smallish group has only just begun.
After Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the first half of the World Cup is over and the attention of the cycling world turns elsewhere, to the Grand Tours of Italy and France. Most of the Classics specialists will now make the decision on whether their standing in the overall World Cup classification warrants the heavy and carefully controlled training required to reach peak fitness again once the Autumn rounds start.
HEW-Cyclassics Cup
Despite the fact that so many of the other races often have peloton-sized finishing groups, the UCI has deemed that it is necessary to have a round of the World Cup that is designed to especially favour the sprinters. This is the HEW-Cyclassics, and probably the most controversial choice in the World Cup calendar.
Critics of the race claim that it does not have either the history or the challenging route to stand alongside other races in the World Cup scheme, and was only put in to satisfy the German representatives, who have only moderately recently taken a place at the top of world cycling. Many say that the British races that preceded it, such as the Rochester Classic and the Leeds International Grand Prix were rather more appropriate for the position, although these quickly withered and have now died without the support of the UCI and attention the race brought for sponsors. It can be seen as one of the reasons for a decline in British cycling from which there are only now signs that it may be recovering.
