Ahead of Paris-Roubaix and Sunday’s Tour of Flanders (Ronde van Vlaanderen), Kitty and Jack take a look at the prospects of the two hot favourites for both races, Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara. If anyone’s keeping score, the current score so far this Classics season is Tom 2 Fabian 0 … Continue reading
The GP Miguel Indurain is a one-day road race in the Spanish region of Navarra. It started back in 1951 as a Navarran hill-climbing competition limited to local riders. In 1968 it was reborn as the GP Navarra and rebranded again in 1989 as the Trofeo Communidad de Navarra. Finally, in 1998 the race was rechristened Gran Premio Miguel Indurain after the five-time Tour de France winner.
In 2005, with the introduction of the UCI Europe Tour, the race was classified a 1.1 event and then upgraded to a 1.HC event in 2007. These higher grades have attracted an increasingly competitive and international field of racers..
Initially, the race’s organiser, the Estella Cycling Club, was having problems finding sufficient funds to stage the race. Finally, a private sponsor came forward. While the budget remains at €100,000 (€7,515 for the winner) the number of teams taking part has been restricted to 11, albeit each with ten members: seven ProTour teams along with four Spanish ProContinental and Continental teams. Continue reading