Ed’s Letter
It’s good to have the Classics back where they belong – in the cold and wet. Happy as I was to see any pro cycling at all last year, there was something wrong with cobbled races taking place in balmy sunshine. Thanks to Covid, the reshuffled 2020 season saw the likes of Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders moved to early autumn, and those races just don’t look right when there are leaves on the trees, dust on the roads and a gentle, golden light falling on the riders. The proper hue for a cobbled Classic is slate grey. The sky, the fields, the streets, the houses, the faces – all grey. And the proper atmosphere for a cobbled Classic is one of grim stoicism. Flanders is no place for tanned featherweights…