The European cycling season is coming to a close but the coming week still offers a number of opportunities for riders that have form and motivation at this time of the year. Several one-day races in Italy, Belgium and France offer different types of riders their chances and the first of those is today's Binche-Chimay-Binche which is also known as the Memorial Franck Vandenbroucke. The race is a classic Belgian race with cobbles and short, steep hills and is the perfect preparation for Sunday's big sprint classic, Paris-Tours. Starting at 14.45 CEST you can follow the race on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

While the climbers are looking forwards to Saturday's Giro dell'Emilia, the classics riders and sprinters have set their sights on Paris-Tours as their final big objective. They get the chance to fine-tune the condition in today's Binche-Chimay-Binche and Thursday's Paris-Bourges. Today's race is the penultimate one in Belgium and has all the characteristics that make it good preparation for the French autumn classic.

The race kicks off with a 123km stretch that brings the riders from Binche to Chimay and back to Binche but is the final 5 laps on the 16km finishing circuit that will be decisive. It contains both a cobbled section just 1100m from the line and a hard climb inside the final kilometre. Since the race was back on the calendar in 2010 following a 14-year absence, the race has finished with a hard sprint on the uphill finishing straight and has been won by Elia Viviani, Rüdiger Selig and most recently Adam Blythe. However, it is usually an aggressive and entertaining affair and it is testament to the toughness of the final circuit that a climber like Jakob Fuglsang finished 2nd behind Viviani in 2010.

The race has attracted a great line-up with riders like Greg Van Avermaet, Klaas Lodewyck, Davide Appollonio, Samuel Dumoulin, Lars Boom, Sep Vanmarcke, Mark Renshaw,Michael Mørkøv, Marko Kump, Karsten Kroon, Jurgen Roelandts, Jens Debusschere, Alexander Porsev, Björn Leukemans, Johnny Hoogerland, Danny and Boy Van Poppel, Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg, Ramon Sinkeldam, Jon Aberasturi, Tony Hurel, Evaldas Siskevicius, Adrien Petit, Michael Van Staeyen, Laurens De Vreese, Maxime Vantomme, Danilo Napolitano and Jempy Drucker all being ready to battle for victory in the race that is dedicated to the late Franck Vandenbroucke.

Starting at 14.45 CEST you can follow the race here.