Often in the shadow of their Northern counterparts, the Ardennes Classics often feel like the ugly step-sister of the one-day calendar. Without the glitz and glam of the burly cobbles, the prestige of a swanky champion’s jersey or an international gold medal – the Ardennes have always struggled to stick out in the cycling conscience.
An overhanging sense of fatigue looms over the cycling-sphere after the cobbled Classics. An underwhelming set of races saw the galacticos pick apart the field one-by-one in the name of emphatic glory. That’s not to take away from Mathieu van der Poel’s achievements, but we are left hungry for some meat-and-gravy racing.
For the wellbeing of the sport, we need to end the Classics on a high note before the Giro d’Italia kicks off in less than a month’s time. So often the afterthought of the one-day calendar, the Ardennes Classics come at a time of cycling crisis this year. With volatility, accessibility and memeability in spades though, the Ardennes Classics offer more than you might think.
The terms and conditions
Cycling can often feel like a ritualistic-driven voyeurist celebration of human suffering. You’ll be glad to hear, therefore, that this suffering bleeds into the Ardennes period. The attraction of the challenge is certainly on display, but the Ardennes is a far more humane than the brutal cobbled Classics. Don’t expect hands covered in blisters or bloody noses, expect a fair trial of intrepidity.
The relentless profiles of the Ardennes Classics makes way for a merciful test of strength where a long-term strategy is rewarded without the merciless variable of luck that has plagued the cobbled Classics all too often.
With men’s profiles in excess of 200km and a respectable buffet of women’s racing over the 150km marker, the Ardennes Classics aren’t meant to be easy.
With a comparable amount of climbing in Liège–Bastogne–Liège to a Tour de France mountain stage, these races shouldn’t be underestimated either, even though their surroundings seem far removed from the Alps.
While not too long to eliminate favourites or bring about seismic gaps, the short and sweet nature of the climbs create a fine-tuned equilibrium of action and suspense.
Think of the short Ardennes côtes as tequila shots. With a tray-load of tequila shot climbs, Liège–Bastogne–Liège can make for a fiery watch as it builds up to a more blurry and hectic finale. This isn’t the rich, refined and candidly pretentious IPA of the Flemish Classics.
In their volatile nature, the Ardennes Classics have become real wildcards on the one-day race calendar. Nothing proves this melange more so than the ‘Ardennes Triple’ sweep – the act of winning Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in the same season – which lurks in the dusty back-shelves of the pro cycling archives. In its rarity, it has been completed on just four occasions across both the men’s and women’s peloton’s.
In comparison to the 12 Flanders-Roubaix doubles across history, this is the hipster’s Classic grand slam of choice.
The everyman’s classics
While the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix transport us to cobble roads steeped in cycling chronicle, this feels like a world away from our kind of riding. The allure of the Arenberg is palpable, yet it is a distant place that only TV could bring us.
As unassuming as it seems, the Ardennais countryside has a universal relatability. We can picture our local climbs looking like the Redoute. Heck, the Cauberg is just as hard as any old hill out of town. I’ll put it this way – the Ardennes Classics are the aspirational Classic for the suburban man.
Let’s be real, Amstel Gold is just a glorified Home Counties Sunday ride with prize money and a hefty piece of silverware for the first rider over the top of the local Strava KOM. A man can only dream of riding the Carrefour de l’Arbre, but with a little teaspoon of imagination, you could have yourself on the Mur de Huy in no time.
We know how it feels to see these more accessible gradients, weather conditions and, importantly, road surface. After a diet of exotic bump and grind on the cobbles, the Ardennes Classics bring us a slice of real-life cycling — a real home-cooked meal.
Classics worthy of the title
It’s farcical to believe that the cobbled Classics are the one-day races steeped in stories and iconic moments. There are plenty of tales from the Ardennes Classics worthy of their place in the cycling zeitgeist.
Phillippe Gilbert’s exploits in the 2011 Ardennes campaign warrant a legendary status, while a panda running alongside Dan Martin became an icon in cycling circles in 2013, countless blizzards in Liège and the slapstick comedy of errors for Julian Alaphilippe at Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2020 all make for great anecdotes among cycling’s vast mise-en-scène.
That said, one-day racing doesn’t get much better than Mathieu van der Poel’s win at the 2019 Amstel Gold Race.
After dragging a group back of plenty of A-List names, Van der Poel overhauled the leading group to steamroll his way to victory on home roads. As he fell to the concrete in relief – cycling had turned a corner. In his break-out season on the road scene, the Amstel Gold Race 2019 marked an important cornerstone in the upcoming career of the great Classics phenom.
Let’s get back to sitting on the edge of our seats
In an era of intermidable standing ovations in the one-day calendar, the Ardennes provide a grounding reconnect to cycling’s roots. Standing true to the dictionary definition of the Classics, we play witness to an open, unpredictable day of racing, all tucked up into a perfectly self-contained and relatable narrative. There’s none of the excessive savagery for both the viewer and the rider that we see so often in the Cobbled Classics. No one is talking about putting a chicane before the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, are they?
Despite all eyes being placed on Flanders and Roubaix in early April, sometimes our most compelling, wackiest and most unpredictable stories emerge from the late-April expeditions through the Ardennes. Hold back your eye-rolls, your scoffs of discontent and wained attention, it’s time to respect the Ardennes Classics for what they are — a real representation of ciclismo.
That got you going? Check out our guide to the Amstel Gold Race.