The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classics riders as the favourites.
The Bretagne Classic, also called Bretagne Classic Ouest–France, is an elite cycling classic held annually in late summer around the Breton village of Plouay in western France.
The Cauberg is a hill in Valkenburg aan de Geul, a town in the South Limburg region of the Netherlands. The hill played an important role in the early development of tourism in Valkenburg. Today, several major tourist attractions are situated on or nearby Cauberg. The hill's fame is mainly due to the many cycling races and championships that were held here. The length of the climb is around 1,200 metres (0.7 mi), with a maximum grade of 12%.
The women's road race was one of the cycling events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. It took place on 10 August 2008, featuring 66 women from 33 countries. It was the seventh appearance of an Olympic women's road race event and featured a longer course than any of the previous six races. The race was run on the Urban Road Cycling Course, which is 102.6 kilometres (63.8 mi) total. Including a second lap around the 23.8 km (14.8 mi) final circuit, the total distance of the women's race was 126.4 km (78.5 mi), less than half the length of the men's race.
The women's road race of the 2008 UCI Road World Championships cycling event took place on 27 September in Varese, Italy. The course comprised eight laps around a 17.35-kilometre route, making a total distance of 138.8 km. Each lap featured two ascents: the first at Montello ; and the second at Ronchi, Gallarate. The race included a total of 1,937 metres of climbing.
The 2012 UCI Road World Championships took place in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg, also known as South Limburg, between September 15 and 23. The event consisted of a road race and a time trial for men, women and men under 23, and team time trials for elite men and women. It was the 79th Road World Championships. Castelfidardo near Loreto in Italy was also a candidate, but Italy had held the UCI Road World Championships in Varese in 2008. The Netherlands had last hosted the Road World Championships in 1998, in Valkenburg aan de Geul, and 2012 was the seventh time that the country hosted the championships.
The 2015 UCI Road World Championships took place in Richmond, Virginia, United States from September 19–27, 2015. It was the 88th Road World Championships. Peter Sagan won the men's road race and Lizzie Armitstead won the women's road race.
The women's road race of the 2004 UCI Road World Championships cycling event took place on 1 October in Verona, Italy. The race was 73.75 km long, which constituted of 5 laps of a circuit around Torricelle, including the 3.4 km Torricelle climb, with an average gradient of approximately 4% and 7% at the steepest point. 66 junior women's participated in the race. The course was almost identical to the one used for the 1999 UCI Road World Championships.
The Men's Individual Road Race of the 2012 UCI Road World Championships cycling event took place on 23 September in the province of Limburg, Netherlands.
The Women's team time trial of the 2012 UCI Road World Championships cycling event took place on 16 September 2012 in the province of Limburg, Netherlands.
The Women's junior road race of the 2014 UCI Road World Championships took place in and around Ponferrada, Spain on 26 September 2014. The course of the race was 72.80 km (45.24 mi) with the start and finish in Ponferrada.
The Women's road race of the 2014 UCI Road World Championships took place in and around Ponferrada, Spain on 27 September 2014. The course of the race was 127.40 km (79.16 mi) with the start and finish in Ponferrada. Marianne Vos was the defending champion, having won the world title in 2012 and 2013.
The 2015 Amstel Gold Race was the 50th edition of the Amstel Gold Race one-day race. It took place on 19 April and was the eleventh race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. The Amstel Gold Race formed part of the Ardennes classics season, although it took place in the Limburg region of the Netherlands rather than in the Belgian Ardennes. It took place in the week before La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the other principal Ardennes classics. The defending champion in the 2015 edition of the race was Philippe Gilbert, who had won the race three times and had also won the 2012 world championships on a very similar course.
The 2015 Eneco Tour was a road cycling stage race that took place in the Netherlands and Belgium between 10 and 16 August 2015. It was the 11th edition of the Eneco Tour stage race and was the twenty-first race of the 2015 UCI World Tour.
The Women's road race of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships took place in and around Richmond, Virginia, United States on September 26, 2015. The course of the race was 129.6 km (80.5 mi) with the start and finish in Richmond. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was the defending champion, having won the world title in 2014.
The Women's junior road race of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships took place in and around Richmond, Virginia, United States on September 25, 2015. The course of the race was 64.8 km (40.3 mi) with the start and finish in Richmond.
The Men's junior road race of the 2015 UCI Road World Championships took place in and around Richmond, Virginia, United States on September 26, 2015. The course of the race was eight laps over a 16.2 km (10.1 mi) circuit making 129.6 km (80.5 mi) with the start and finish in Richmond.
The 2016 Amstel Gold Race was a one-day classic cycling race that took place in the Limburg region of the Netherlands on 17 April 2016. It was the 51st edition of the Amstel Gold Race and the eleventh event of the 2016 UCI World Tour. It was also the first of the Ardennes classics, although it is technically not in the Ardennes region. The race took place over a 258-kilometre (160 mi) route that starts in Maastricht and ends in Berg en Terblijt on the outskirts of Valkenburg. The key difficulty in the race came from the 34 short but steep climbs. The central climb, the Cauberg, was crossed four times, with 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) between the final summit and the finish line. The favourites for victory in the race included the three-time winner Philippe Gilbert (BMC), the defending champion Michał Kwiatkowski (Sky), and Simon Gerrans and Michael Matthews.
The 2019 UCI Road World Championships was the 92nd edition of the UCI Road World Championships, the annual world championships for road bicycle racing. It took place between 22 and 29 September 2019 in the historic county of Yorkshire, United Kingdom, the fourth to be held in the United Kingdom. The championships are traditionally hosted by a single town or city but, while each event in 2019 finished in the North Yorkshire town of Harrogate, the whole historic county of Yorkshire was the official host. Heavy rainfall caused some of the events to be re-routed and delayed.
The Women's Amstel Gold Race is the women's event of the Amstel Gold Race, the most important annual road cycling event in the Netherlands. Held in mid-April, it is organized on the same day as the men's race at approximately half the distance. Like the men's event, the race starts in Maastricht and finishes in Berg en Terblijt, Valkenburg. It features 17 categorized climbs, including four ascents of the Cauberg.
Valkenburg (NED)
