The monuments : the grit and the glory of cycling's greatest one-day races
Cossins, Peter2023
Book
An awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary "classic" races in world cycling. The 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, Lige-Bastogne-Lige 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. 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 hellingen in 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. 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 The Monuments Peter Cossins tells the tumultuous history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.
Main title:
Author:
Cossins, Peter, author
Edition:
Revised and updated second edition.
Imprint:
London : Bloomsbury Sport, 2023.©2023
Collation:
441 pages : maps ; 24 cm
Notes:
Previous edition: London: Bloomsbury, 2014.Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Part 1: Lige--Bastogne-Lige - La DoyennePart 2: Paris-Roubaix - The Hell of the NorthPart 3: The Tour of Lombardy - The Race of the Falling LeavesPart 4: Milan-Sanremo - La ClassicissimaPart 5: The Tour of Flanders - Vlaanderens MooisteEndpieceAppendixBibliographyAcknowledgementsIndex
ISBN:
9781399407861 (pbk)9781399407861 (paperback)
Dewey class:
796.62094796.62
Language:
English
BRN:
777972
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| narrm ngarrgu Library and Family Services | -Art and Culture | ARTS 796.62 COSS | Available |