Paris-Brussels

Infobox Cycling race
name = Paris-Brussels


date = Mid-September
region = France-Belgium
english = Paris-Brussels
localnames = Paris-Bruxelles fr icon
nickname = Course des Deux Capitales
discipline = Road
competition = UCI Europe Tour
type = Single-day
organiser =
director =
first = 1893
number = 88 (as of 2008)
last =
firstwinner = flagicon|BEL André Henry
mostwins = flagicon|AUS Robbie McEwen
(5 wins)
mostrecent = flagicon|AUS Robbie McEwen

Paris-Brussels is a semi classic European bicycle race. It is one of the oldest races on the international calendar.

History

Paris-Brussels was first run in 1893 as an amateur event over two days. The race was a Spring Classic towards the end of April, between Paris-Roubaix and Gent-Wevelgem. The event lost its prestige in 1966 when Dutch promoted the Amstel Gold Race. The race was also affected by traffic problems and was not run between 1967 and 1972.

When the race returned in 1973 it was midweek towards the end of September, just before Paris-Tours. The 1973 race was won by Eddy Merckx. The most individual wins stood for a long time at three, by Octave Lapize (France) and Felix Sellier (Belgium). Lapize won in 1911, 1912 and 1913 and Sellier in 1922, 1923 and 1924. Lapize was disqualified after winning the 1910 race for not observing a neutralised section. In 2007, Robbie McEwen broke the record by winning his fourth race, and bettered this again with a fifth win in 2008.

English-speaking riders

Paris-Brussels has only seen moderate success for British riders, Sean Yates finished third in 1994 in a break with Rolf Sørensen and Franco Ballerini. There was animosity between Yates and Sørensen after shirt-pulling in the 1994 Tour de France. Sørensen broke away to win.

Tom Simpson finished second in 1963. He went away well before the border into Belgium. A small group went with him and established a 13-minute lead. The group contained Jean Stablinski and Simpson lost to him when his gears slipped and Stablinski got away for the win.

Robbie McEwen won in 2002 after the peloton caught Erik Dekker with 500m remaining. Another Australian Phil Anderson finished third in 1992. Irishman Seamus Elliott was unfortunate in 1958; with three miles to go he had a lead of a minute when he smashed his frame. He took a spectator's bike but finished down the rankings.

Race length

Before 1926, the race was always over 400km, but this has reduced over the years with 2004 being 225km, although as recently as 1987 the distance was 309km when Wim Arras triumphed. The quickest race was 1975 when a tailwind helped Freddy Maertens finish in 46.11kmh.

Route

The race starts at Soissons, in Picardie, 85km north-east of Paris, although prior to 1996 the race started in Noyon and during the 1980s in Senlis. The race is level but towards the end there are cobbled climbs such as the Alsemberg, Mont Saint Roch and the Keperenberg. The race ended for many years in the Anderlecht district of Brussels outside the Constant Vanden Stock football stadium in the Place de Linde. However, 2005 concluded at the Atomium north of the centre of Brussels. 1996 saw another change when it was moved from midweek date to a Saturday.

The quality of field has suffered since the Vuelta a España moved to September in 1995, many sprinter-roadmen preferring the Spanish Tour.

Results

References

*cite book | author=Henderson, Noel | title=European Cycling - The 20 Greatest Races | publisher= Vitesse Pr | year=1989 | id=ISBN 0-941950-20-4