THE BIG NINE ARE IMPREGNABLE

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Milan-San Remo, Flanders, Roubaix, Liège, Giro, Tour, Vuelta, Worlds and Lombardy. Every year the big nine are the season’s weight-bearing events. They’re the pillars and lintels that stop cycling collapsing into a heap. This year these races and the action they served up was a counterpoint to the chorus that cycling must change to suit a modern audience. All these races, which are long and demanding and reward the patience of riders and spectators alike, were memorable. The action and poignancy of the victories added greatly to the races’ respective stories. Vincenzo Nibali’s solo revived the Poggio as a viable place to attack in San Remo; Peter Sagan became the first world champion to win Roubaix in more than 35 years; Bob Jungels used the Roche aux Faucons to launch a 19km escape to win Liège; Chris Froome evoked a bygone era with his 80km solo on stage 19 of the Giro; Alejandro Valverde finally won the Worlds after a career-long hunt; and Thibaut Pinot’s battle with Nibali on the Civiglio in Lombardy was compelling. The stories of perseverance behind Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates’s Tour and Vuelta wins add to the races’ rich histories. These nine races are old and gnarled, but they are still sound. If they survive, cycling survives.