SPRING CLASSICS

We profile cycling's most revered one-day races and compare the favourites' form cards

- James Shrubsall, Adam Becket, Tom Davidson, Tom Thewlis, Vern Pitt

For a select group of riders, any race with a date after April is just an epilogue to the real season. By the time the sun rises high in the sky, the battles have been fought and the victors crowned, the rest of the year is just a long drawn-out afternoon in the sunshine.

Sure, you could pick up stages in big races here or there, burnish your palmarès, but the reason you got up early and headed out the door in the rain in December has, by that point, been and gone.

There remains something special about the Classics. On a cold and dull morning in a Belgian (or French, or Dutch) town square around 180 riders will start out with the same hopes and dreams, if not for themselves then for their team-mates. OK, that may be the recipe for any one-day race, but add in the seasoning of the history, the hallowed roads, and perhaps most importantly the fans, and you've got a unique recipe.

This is bike racing for the hardcore racing fraternity - there is nothing casual about standing on the side of little more than a farm track in sideways rain, much less riding your bike in it. That's why it captures the imagination year after year. Only one of those riders on the start line will get to put their hands in the air at the end of the day but they all played a part, they all have a story to tell and the fans at the Classics understand that.

It's not that Classics aficionados don't enjoy the summer races like everyone else - no one dislikes the warmth of a long afternoon in the sun on their skin - just that they recognize that it's in this place for this brief period of time that the beating heart of cycling can be most keenly felt.

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