From the Library: The Monuments

In cycling, there are the Classics, and then there are the Monuments, the biggest one-day races of all - Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Lombardy, Milan-Sanremo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) - each with more than a hundred years of history to look back on. An in-depth look at any one of these races might very well take up enough space to fill two volumes worth of pages; how Cossins managed to whittle it all down to a single book taxes my mind just thinking about. As a result, and as you might expect, some years receive more coverage, while others get little more than a single sentence. It is a disparity that might not be quite satisfactory to a student of history but, considering the breadth of the topic, the author has done a fine job of presenting the path of each race from their inauspicious beginnings up the date of the books' publication.

"The Monuments" provides more than simple overviews of each Classic, in its pages are found information on how each race has changed over the years, alterations in the routes, additions and subtractions of climbs, start and end points, and how the changes have impacted the course of the race from year to year. Here are also found the stories of riders you would expect to see on the podium of a monument, as well as the unlikely heroes, that frequently steal the show and the spotlight.

Cossins, Peter  The Monuments: The Grit and Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races

London: Bloomsbury Sport, 2014