Classic Cycle Routes Of Europe, Werner Müller-Schell (2012)

Routes guides based on the professional peloton’s fixtures

Bloomsbury 9781408157527 180 pp £16.00

The ‘classics’ in question here are the one-day races that form the backbone of the professional European racing callander, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Milan-San Remo and the rest. Müller-Schell provides instruction on riding the routes of 25 of the biggest single stage races, including the ‘monuments’, a decent selection of the lesser races, and one or two of the biggest European sportives.

These are races that for any fan of cycling as a spectator sport will be burned into their imagination. Some have been staged for over a century and all have provided the backdrop for racing heroics and mythic triumphs. It is easy to see the appeal of trying the routes for yourself.

Before you do, however, a few things are worth bearing in mind, none of which merit a mention here. The imperative behind the creation of these routes was certainly not to create interesting cycle tours. Some owe their courses to parallel railway routes. Newspaper circulation areas and other commercial considerations have shaped the others. The actual races are also run on closed roads – not a privilege generally extended to cyclo-tourists.
Still, the idea of riding in the wheel tracks of giants is probably enough to sustain a jaunt through the dreariest Flemish villages, or the busiest Italian roads.

For each route, Müller-Schell provides a short potted history of the race, a narrative guide to the route, a profile diagram and a small map, generally at the scale of 1cm to 5k. It is a fabulous selection box of possibilities, that certainly had me calculating which might make a good weekend sortie in the Spring. I fear that actually following one of these routes without a much better map, or better still a GPS, would be difficult indeed.

Nonetheless, the book is lavishly illustrated and makes for an enjoyable perusal. If nothing else, Müller-Schell’s notes on the physical condition needed to ride some of these routes (several years of intensive cycle training doing at least 6,000 km a year are probably essential if you are going to ride (the 262km Tour of Flanders) route) serve to add to you appreciation of the condition that pro riders attain.

PS Nov 12

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *