The Monuments are five classic cycle races generally considered to be the oldest, hardest, longest and most prestigious one-day events in men's road cycling, with distances between 240 and 300 km. They each have a long history and specific individual characteristics. They are currently the one-day races in which most points can be earned in the UCI World Tour and the only 3rd categorized UCI races, only behind Grand Tour races; Tour de France (1st category) and Giro and Vuelta (both 2nd category). Eddy Merckx is by far the most successful monument rider with 19 wins in total. He is the only cyclist in history to win three monuments in one season, a feat he achieved in 1969, 1971, 1972 and 1975.

Origin

On 17 April 1949, at the day of 47th Paris–Roubaix race edition, the term monument appeared for the first time in road cycling sport. French sports journalist Albert Baker d'Isy, specialised in cycling, published an article titled Paris–Roubaix: "monument" du cyclisme in the French newspaper Ce soir.

List of monuments

The five monuments are:

Monuments winners

Statistics

Most monuments wins

Only three riders have won all five monument races during their careers: Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck, all three Belgians, and only Eddy Merckx won each of them more than once. Six riders won four different monuments. With multiple victories in all the other monuments, Sean Kelly almost joined the top group, finishing second in the Tour of Flanders on three occasions (1984, 1986 and 1987). Kelly is the only other rider, after Merckx, to win four different monuments on multiple occasions. Dutch rider Hennie Kuiper won each monument except Liège–Bastogne–Liège, in which he finished second in 1980. Frenchman Louison Bobet also won all but Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Belgian rider Fred De Bruyne came close as well, finishing second in the Giro di Lombardia in 1955 and winning the other four races during his career. Germain Derycke also won four, all except the Giro di Lombardia. Philippe Gilbert is the most recent rider to win four different monuments, all except Milan–San Remo, in which he finished third twice. 23 riders have won at least five monuments in their career. Eddy Merckx also holds the record of most victories in a single Monument, winning Milan-San Remo seven times. Riders in blue are still active. Riders in green have won all five monuments. Number of wins in gold indicates the current record holder(s).

Winners by nationality

Most wins per monument

Winners of three monuments in a single year

Only Eddy Merckx has been able to win three monuments in a single year – and he did it four times:

Winners of two monuments in a single year

26 different riders (including Eddy Merckx) have managed to win two Monuments in the same year. The most common "double" consists of the two cobbled classics (Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix), which have been won by the same rider in the same year on 13 occasions. The Italian "double" (Milan–San Remo and Giro di Lombardia) has been achieved 11 times (including Merckx in 1971 and 1972). Only Merckx has won the combinations Milan–San Remo/Tour of Flanders and Tour of Flanders/Liège–Bastogne–Liège, when he won all three Monuments in 1969 and 1975. Only twice have two riders (Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel) won two Monuments each in the same year (2023 and 2024).

Women's events

Both Belgian 'monuments' – The Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes – organise women's events on the same day and partly the same course as the men's events. A women's version of Milan–San Remo, named Primavera Rosa, was initiated in 1999, but cancelled after 2005. The first edition of Paris–Roubaix Femmes took place in October 2021, after the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 race was won by Lizzie Deignan, who became the first women's rider to win a classic triple crown of the three existing monuments, having won 'Ronde van Vlaanderen' in 2016, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2020.

Winners

Most monuments wins

Winners by nationality