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The year of records?

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During the spring classic season of 2026 both Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar are pretty close to surpass everyone, including the greatest legends, in some sporting aspects. Collecting all the five Monuments There are three cyclists in the history of road cycling who won all the five Monuments at least once during their careers: Rik van Looy, Eddy Merckx, and Roger de Vlaeminck. (Also, there are some riders, like Sean Kelly and Philippe Gilbert, who has collected fourkf them, but were unlucky with their fifth, missing one.) Both Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar won 3 of them (but several times). Marthieu van der Poel's Monuments Milano-Sanremo (2023, 2025) Ronde van Vlaanderen (2020, 2022, 2024) Paris-Roubaix (2023, 2024, 2025) Missing Monuments: Liége-Bastogne-Liége and Giro di Lombardia Tadej Pogacar's Monuments Ronde van Vlaanderen (2023, 2025) Liége-Bastogne-Liége (2021, 2024, 2025) Giro di Lombardia (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) Missig Monuments: Milano-Sanre...
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The climb of Paris-Roubaix

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 The course of the 123rd Paris-Roubaix, held on 12 April 2026, will include some interesting changes.    The race will contain 30 sectors, and during sector 26,  relatively early in the race  there will be a 800-metre climb. According to the organizers this would help an early selection in the race.  This sounds bit strange considering that Arenberg (sector 19) used to be the first big sector for "early selection", a cobbled route so important that in the recent years some riders (and their teams), like Wout van Aerts built their tactic around trying to make a decisive split in the peloton before the famous road in the forrest.  Although I never rode Paris-Roubaix, or any professional cycling race, so I don't know the inner dynamics of it,  I still have the strange feeling that this addition won't matter too much. 
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Another big change in the world of Paris-Roubaix

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There is someting ironical (or I mesured well, that it's the right time for bigger changes in the world of one-day cycling races, especially in the life of the Monuments), that since I slowly started disliking Paris-Roubaix for its anachronistic nature, there are some big changes in progress.  Since I didn't watched the race during the last three seasons, when I recently spent a weekend with catching up with the event, I only learnt then that there is a slighly change in the course right before Arenberg for safety reasons.  And now here is another big change, a new official name   Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France.  (although in the everyday use it will remain simply Paris-Roubaix). Although it's partially because of sponsorship reasons, the regional government of Hauts-de-France is a sponsor of the race since the pandemic, I like the idea, that the different French regions related to different famous road cycling competitions get more attention.  It's really...
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Watching Momuments from the last thre years for the very first time

When I decided that ok, this Do I still like...? formula might work for me, I started collecting my memories about the recent few editions of all the Monuments and I had to realised that  I havent seen a single one in the last three years.  It might be even more correct to say, that I haven't seen most of the Monuments since the pandemic, but I clearly remember watching the Milano-Sanremo won by Jasper Stuyven, the Ronde finale between Kaspar Asgeeen and Mathieu van der Poel, the edition of Paris-Roubaix won by Dylan van Baarle. Oh, also, when was that edition of Liége-Bastogne-Liége when Julian Alaphilippe celebrated his victory too early? (And of course I have seen that unique Paris-Roubaix edition made me re-think my approach to the Monuments) But otherwise, I have rather clear memories from the season 2019, with all the bigger and smaller one-day races.  Luckily, the idea of building a blog around a rethorical question ( Do I still like the Cycling Monuments? ) see...
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Ranking the Monuments - my personal preferences

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Every Momunent is interesting. But every Monument is interesting on a different level.  Here are my personal prefeences from the "less" to the most interesting ones.  5. Liége-Bastogne-Liège For many years the date of Liége-Bastogne-Liège collided with the Budapest Book Festival, an important event for me when I was working as cultural journalist. Thus slowly but surely this one became my less favoutite Monument. Undeserved, of course, because it was not its fault.  Nevertheless, there is a dynamics, or bettee tk say, an arc of the story of the spring classics every year, I consider Paris-Roubaix the peak of it, thus it seems hard to invest to the Ardennes Classics emotionally.  4. Il Lombardia   It's similar with Il Lombardia (or with its traditional name Giro di Lombardia), which is often overlooked because it takes place in October. The older of the two Italian Monuments (the first edition was held in 1905, while the other one, Milano-Sanremo was born in 1907...
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Monument winner of the day: Serse Coppi

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Serse, Fausto Coppi's younger brother was born on the 19th of March in 1923 in Castellania, Italy. He started to race professionally in the Bianchi team as the most trusted domestique of his older sibling in 1946.    Nevertheless, he had his own personal success either: he won Paris-Roubaix in 1949, although under disputable circumstances.  Originally, André Mahé crossed the finish line first and Serse won only the sprint among the chasers. But it was told, that a policeman navigated Mahé into the velodrome through a wrong gate. Thus, he violated the rules of the race, but it wasn’t his fault. The superstar Fausto Coppi used his influence wanting the jury to disqualify Mahé and name Serse the winner. After several months of legal quarrel, both Serse Coppi and André Mahé was declared winners of the race.   On 29th of June in 1951, a week before the start of the Tour de France, the Coppi brothers attended the Giro del Piemonte. Only one km to go, three riders c...
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Monument winner of the day: Cyrille Van Hauwaert

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Cyrille Van Hauwaert (1883-1974) was one of the most successful Belgian cyclists of the pre-WWI era.  Van Hauwaert’s story reads like a folk legend. A big, strong Flemish farm boy who didn’t speak French, he arrived at the office of La Française cycling team’s directeur sportif, Pierre Pierrard, just two days before the Paris-Roubaix 1907. In his hand was a letter of recommendation from a regional agent of the bicycle manufacturer sponsoring the team.  Despite the late hour and the lack of available pacemakers to support him, Pierrard took a chance, ordering the mechanics to set up a bicycle for the young Belgian. With instructions to keep up with the pack as long as he could, Van Hauwaert exceeded expectations.  In a stunning debut, he finished second, just behind the winner, Georges Passerieu.  Van Hauwaert’s next race was the prestigious Bordeaux-Paris, where he emerged as the top rider, cementing his reputation as a powerful competitor.  The following yea...
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