March cycling events to mark on the calendar
March means great cycling and triathlete events.
Strade Bianche, IronMan Lanzarote, the great Bilbao-Bilbao cycling event. These are just a few examples of what usually comes off in cycling in the month of March, key appointments on the calendar for professional and amateur cycling. Here are 6 to highlight in red.
Index
Although the Strade Bianche has only been taking place for the last 15 years, the first edition did not take place until 2007. Inspired by other historic races such as Paris Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, this race became one of the most popular one-day classics, with epic sterrato sections all over Tuscany, Italy. Packed with the biggest names in pro cycling, Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel claimed victory in last edition, ahead of Alaphilippe and the recently injured Egan Bernal. An exciting edition will see the light of day on Saturday 5 March, packed with a large part of the elite of world cycling. The Strade Bianche guarantees the show.
Lanzarote is an island from another planet to practice any kind of outdoor sport, a good reason to welcome the highly anticipated Club La Santa Ironman Lanzarote 70.3, the ultimate triathlete event on the island. On March 19, the participants will experience another vibrating triathlon at a unique location.
After the Tour de France, the Paris-Nice is the quintessential French cycling stage race. The event is knicknamed “The Race to the Sun” and one of the great ones, UCI WorldTour category race, and which is gradually approaching its centenary (held anually since 1933).
The German Maximilian Schachmann won the race for the second year in a row in 2021, although in the last 20 years there is no clear dominant, with 17 different winners and with only 3 runners repeating victory (to the aforementioned German cyclist we have to add Alberto Contador and Alekszandr Vinokourov). Of course, if there is a historical record for most overall wins, this is the Irish Sean Kelly, the “King of the Classics”, 7 year reign of the Paris-Nice editions in the 80s.
We can enjoy this stage race from March 6 to 13.
The one-day classic “Classicissima” with a distance of 293 km returns and is scheduled next March 19, the Passo del Turchino is back. Like Paris-Nice, it is a UCI WorldTour category race, on a par with the major classics such as the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix or the Giro de Lombardía.
The first edition was held in 1907, but from the 1950s onwards it was no longer dominated by the Italians (it should be taken into account that until then a large part of the participants belonged to the transalpine country) and since 1954 only 15 Italian cyclists, in almost 70 years, took first place. Nor has it been a race with a major dominator in the past 20 years, where the only one to repeat the title was Óscar Freire, winner in 2004, 2007 and 2009 respectively.
However, the king of Milan-San Remo is none other than the Belgian Eddy Merckx, who, with his 7 victories over 10 years, defeated the historic Italian runner Costante Girardengo, who won the classicissima 6 times between 1918 and 1928.
La Volta a Catalunya is one of the great masters of Spanish Racing. The 101st edition is scheduled from March 21 to 27, 2022. Although the routes have not yet been announced, the start and finish locations for each stage are known with cities such as l’Escala, Sant Feliu de Guixols, la Seu d’Urgell, la Pobla de Segur, Barcelona or Perpignan. The latter is again part of a stage of the Volta a Catalunya after more than 60 years. A Volta a Catalunya in which many great cyclists of the UCI WorldTour will certainly participate.
The 33rd edition of the quintessential Bilbao cycling tour will celebrate its special cycling holiday on March 27. 3 routes of different distances (respectively 85, 115 and 125 km) suitable for any cycling lover to enjoy the roads of Bizkaia. The longer distance offers some of the most popular climbs, such as Andraka, Unbe, Artebakarra, Gerekiz, Morga or Vivero. It is also one of the events with a more affordable price, 25 euros for federated members and 30 for non-federated members.
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