{"product_id":"the-monuments-the-grit-and-the-glory-of-cyclings-greatest-one-day-races-9781399407861","title":"The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary \"classic\" races in world cycling.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling's one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called 'Monuments', the five legendary races that are the sport's equivalent of golf's majors or the grand slams in tennis. Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris--Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy date back more than a century, and each of them is an anomaly in modern-day sport, the cycling equivalent of the Monaco Grand Prix. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Time has changed them to a degree, but they remain as brutally testing as they ever have been. They provide the sport's outstanding one-day performers with a chance to measure themselves against each other and their predecessors in the most challenging tests in world cycling. From the bone-shattering bowler-hat cobbles of the Paris-Roubaix to the insanely steep \u003ci\u003ehellingen \u003c\/i\u003ein the Tour of Flanders, each race is as unique as the riders who push themselves through extreme exhaustion to win them and enter their epic history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Over the course of a century, only Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have won all five races. Yet victory in a single edition of a Monument guarantees a rider lasting fame. For some, that one victory has even more cachet than success in a grand tour. Each of the Monuments has a fascinating history, featuring tales of the finest and largest characters in the sport. In this updated edition of \u003ci\u003eThe Monuments \u003c\/i\u003ePeter Cossins tells the tumultuous history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst drawn into the sport while a student in bike-obsessed Spain in the mid-1980s, Peter Cossins has been writing about cycling since 1993, contributing principally to \u003ci\u003eCycling Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCycle Sport\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eProcycling\u003c\/i\u003e, as well \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSunday Express\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSunday Herald\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the author of several acclaimed books, including \u003ci\u003eButcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep: The Tale of the First Tour de France\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the 2020 Telegraph Sports Book Award for Cycling. He lives in the Ariège in the heart of the French Pyrenees.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Sport","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50521538593042,"sku":"9781399407861","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_eed405b6-2a24-4831-8f5f-84b367b5c1e9.jpg?v=1731107017","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-monuments-the-grit-and-the-glory-of-cyclings-greatest-one-day-races-9781399407861","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}