That sounds like a great idea, Dave. I highly recommend it.

Personally, I think that for the real Classics experience you should try and check out at least one of the three races of what I like to call The Classics Week. It all starts with the Ronde van Vlaanderen on April 4th – Easter Sunday. If you can only take in one event and are looking for the crazed Euro-fan, knock-down, drag-out bike race experience, this is the one to take in. The Ronde van Vlaanderen is admittedly not as much on the radar of American fans as Paris-Roubaix is, but most of us consider it to be the harder of the two. Also, without too much difficulty, you can check out at least a couple different sweet cobbled climbs without having to break too many laws. In fact, I have often talked about bringing a small group over for the Ronde and riding bikes from one cool viewing spot to the next.

If you’re free for the entire week you could then check out Gent-Wevelgem on Wednesday. This semi-classic is one the favorite races I rode – it is fast and has lots of side-wind. There isn’t much in terms of interesting places to watch other than on and around the Kemmelberg, but the people I know who have checked it out always report having a great time on top of the Kemmelberg. If all you did was plant your flag in that one spot you’d get to see plenty of dudes suffering over the top of it … twice.

Sunday the 11th of April is obviously Paris-Roubaix. It is an incredible event and pretty much a must-see for true cycling fans, because until you actually see it live, you cannot understand how gnarly it really is. However, Paris-Roubaix doesn’t offer as much opportunity to see multiple places on the course without quite a bit of effort.

My vote … do the whole week, but if that isn’t a possibility hit one of the Sundays. I would say that Flanders is more spectator-friendly, but that is mostly based on the fact that I have seen the same faces at multiple points on that course, but didn’t remember that same thing for Paris-Roubaix.

If you want an even more immersed experience, check out one of the various tour companies. I found this one just looking for next year’s race dates.

Have fun!