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Falling leaves

[ posted by Iain Sunday, October 19, 2008 ]

I was out on my own today due to a late withdrawal on account of injury. Luckily I got the message after I was already out of bed and in my kit, so managed to resist the temptation of a lie-in. Haha! As if that is possible with 15 month old!

The route for today was over Newlands Corner to Abinger then Farley Green and then out into Sussex and back via Box Hill, the nasty way. I say nasty, not becasue of the 15% gradient, although it is tougher than the 'Zig-zag' approach, but because it's a much busier road and the cars really scrape past on the steepest section at the top. After the tea stop the run home was via Ranmoor Common Road up to Denbies Farm and across the hills before dropping off via Staple Lane. Around 50 miles in the end.

All through the ride today the lanes were sheltered by trees turning colour and dropping their leaves. I was thinking about yesterday's Giro di Lombardia and the wonderful alternate name "race of the falling leaves". You couldn't have picked a better phrase to describe the mood of the weekend's riding.

Over the weekend I heard the Giro di Lombardia described as a 'Monument' and did a little investigation. The 'Monuments' seems to be generally defined as the 5 major classics:

  • Milan-San Remo - "La Primavera";
  • Ronde van Vlaanderen;
  • Paris-Roubaix - "l'Enfer du Nord";
  • Liège-Bastogne-Liège - "La Doyenne";
  • Giro di Lombardia - "la classica delle foglie morte".

Reading a little more I found this post (The Monuments) that gives very interesting explanation of their history and significance.

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