Hi everyone.  My name is Becky, I live in London and I love cycling.  This obsession began innocently enough when I bought a bicycle to make my daily commute more bearable, but before long I was signing up for cycling challenges, booking cycling holidays and tuning into Eurosport to watch the professional races.

Like many people I started watching the Tour de France, the gateway drug that ultimately led to my addiction to the Class A one-day races known as Classics.  In addition to the actual racing, I became fascinated by the geography and history of road racing, which conveniently evolved on my relative back door step in Western Europe.  I quickly learned that the best races are just a mini-break away and wanted to experience them for myself.

My husband and I were already keen travellers but this new angle to our holiday planning has taken us to some wonderful parts of the world that we may not have visited otherwise. I’ve become embroiled in an unexpected love affair with Belgium, its obscure cobbled farm tracks that hold massive significance for cycling fans and its incredible beer.  We’ve cheered on our sporting heroes from the roadside and even tackled some of the same roads as them (at a more sedate pace).

Planning these trips is fun but not always straight forward. Getting to the races is usually easy enough but finding the best place to watch them involves picking through charmingly shambolic official race websites and gleaning bits and pieces from the millions of cycling forums out there.  I hope sharing my experiences will be useful for anyone who wants to go and see these races for themselves, and that you’ll share your own tips for visiting the races that I haven’t been to yet – the 2014 Classics season has only just begun!