10 must-watch races in a spectacular season of cycling

The Giro d’Italia is the big one at the start of May, but there’s plenty to whet the appetite before then, with cobbles and climbs aplenty in the Spring Classics.

Nothing signals the start of the serious cycling season quite like ‘La Classicissima’.

Unless something extraordinary occurs, this long and flat one-day race will end with a sprint finish. Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish are expected to be among the big-name sprinters on the start line and are likely to duke it out for the win alongside the Mediterranean on the Corso Raimondo finishing straight.

The first cobbled classic of the season should provide plenty of bumps and bruises, but thankfully no advertising outrage this year… at least not quite as much.

The E3 Harelbeke marketing team have mastered the art of garnering attention with controversial advertising campaigns, but this year have opted for a slightly less contentious approach.

This year’s edition will also see the debut of camera drones in the race’s television coverage.

You can pretty much rely on Gent-Wevelgem to produce drama, such is the undulating and cobbled nature of the course, with tricky weather conditions also usual. The finish is set up for a sprint, but the approach means that breakaways often reap rewards on the narrow streets of Flanders.

This year’s race will also pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the First World War, with the race taking a new detour through ‘plugstreets’ – a small village south of Ypres that houses the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing.

Hans De Clercq, sports manager at Ghent-Wevelgem, said:

The addition of a time trial to this year’s Tour of Catalunya should make it a particularly useful indicator of form ahead of the Giro d’Italia. The 2017 course offers a little bit of everything, with some hefty climbs in the mix to get the legs going ahead the summer’s Grand Tours.

Flanders’ Finest is one of the great cobbled races and its list of podium finishers is a who’s who of the sport's legends.

Ridiculously steep cobbled climbs are the trademark of the race that has a history of successful breakaways. Peter Sagan triumphed last year on the testing course and expect more fireworks from the Slovakian this time around.

The Queen of the Classics has attracted another heavyweight field, despite the 2017 route featuring even more cobbles than last year.

The riders will have to negotiate a bone-jangling total of 55 kilometers of cobbled streets over the course of the 257km course, with a short but sharp cobbled climb adding another challenging feature to the notoriously unpredictable race. Sagan is likely to go in as favourite, but predicting the outcome of Paris-Roubaix has never been easy – especially even the elements add some moisture to the already unstable terrain.

The cobble season drifts into the rearview mirror as the pro teams travel to the Ardennes for the first of the true stage race Classics of the year. But 2017’s Amstel Gold Race has moved away from tradition, with the famous finishing climb removed to try and generate a more attacking mindset earlier in the race.

Climbs will still feature, but the Cauberg will arrive with 19km remaining (rather than as a climb to the tape) meaning that there still should be a sprint finish on the flat closing straight.

The sprinters can take a day off for this one as the famous Wall of Huy faces the riders, not once, not twice, but three times. The notorious climb reaches a ridiculously steep 26% gradient, with only specialist climbers likely to compete for the win.

Alejandro Valverde is the obvious early favourite, but Adam and Simon Yates have the talent to offer a British challenge for once on the slopes of Belgium.

Belgium doesn’t have the Alps or the Pyrenees, but the Old Lady of the cycling calendar proves that you don’t need a mountain range to have a tough day of climbing. It’s been suggested that Liege-Bastogne-Liege’s total climbing is on a par with the hardest days on the Tour de France, with 23 total climbs over the one-day Classic. It’s not for the faint hearted, with La Redoute probably the pick of the hilly sections. Don’t hold your breath for an early breakaway – this will be a long old slog for the very best in the business.

Spring turns into summer with the arrival of the first Grand Tour of the year and there will be plenty of build-up on Eurosport ahead of the opening stage on Friday 5 May.

Two time trials will mix things up for field that is set to include Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali, but not Chris Froome.

Mikel Landa and Geraint Thomas will spearhead Team Sky’s attack, while the two Yates brothers have revealed that they will be taking the Giro and the Vuelta rather than the Tour de France this year, making them possible podium finishers.