March – the end of the Northern Hemisphere winter. Remember how that warm sun feels on your face? The smell of freshly cut grass? The daffodils lining the sides of motorways? The newborn lambs playing in the fields? The wicked vibrations transported to your fingertips, through your hands and down along your arms, sending your body into spasm as you race across the cobbles at 50 kilometres per hour?
No, not that last one?
For cycling fans, March is about so much more. The Spring is when the cycling season comes alive. Sure, there have already been races, and increasing cycling’s global appeal is no bad thing, but with all due respect, spring is when the cycling season really kicks into gear.
Opening Weekend kicked us off and gave fans and riders the first taste of cobbles, a mere appetizer of what is to follow. Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico told us which grand tour GC men are already in form. The big classics start and come thick and fast from the end of March. San Remo, Flanders, Roubaix, Amstel, Liege. It’s enough to make the head spin. So many amazing stories about to unfold before our eyes. So many emotions. So much hope and speculation….
Heroes and villains
It’s not just the crisp Spring air that’s refreshing. There’s a positive feeling around cycling with ferocious attackers such as Van der Poel and Alaphilippe.
And so it is that we arrive again in March, where we’ll stand on the roadsides, we’ll shout at TV’s, we’ll stream races in the office while the boss is away. Remember to get on your bike, ride your own mini-classics in the sunshine, picture your own name painted on the road as you put minutes into that pensioner in the wheelchair. Spring is finally here so breathe it in, savour the feeling and most of all, enjoy the cycling!