What are the dates for the Monuments in 2024?
Milano Sanremo
16 March 2024
Ronde van Vlaanderen
31 March 2024
Paris-Roubaix
7 April 2024
Liege -Bastogne -Liege
21 April 2024
Il Lombardia
October 2024
Why Strade Bianche is not the 6th Monument?
Calling certain road cycling races "Monuments" is a tradition. There are no written rules deciding according to what criterias should a race called a monument. At one moment in time people just started calling them so, and it became part of road cycling tradition.
Therefore it seems quite logical when cycling fans all around the world start calling a popular race a monument. Strade Bianche is definitely one of the biggest success stories in the 21st-centurian road cycling world. The cyclists like it, the media like it, the fans like it. Also, a cycling event on the road of the scenic Tuscan landscape has, no doubt, superstar qualities.
It wouldn't even be a problem that this race would be the shortest of all of them.
But there is something Strade Bianche will always lack:
a rich history involving the biggest legends of this sport.
It's very pleasant to see how present day stars are enjoying competing Strade Bianche. And they are really ejoying it. You can tell easily that they have so much fun.
But we will never see how Fausto Coppi or Eddy Merckx (or other legends of this sport) would have raced Strade Bianche if the race would have existed in their days. Withouth them it is useless to call a race a monument.
Read more about this topic on rhe main page of PelotonTales blog: Why Strade Bianche can never be the 6th Monument
What are the Monuments in the world of road cycling?
Traditionally, the Monuments are the five most prestigeous one-day races of the road cycling season. All of them are more than 100 years old, two, Liége-Baston-Liége (1892) and Paris-Roubaix (1896) were created in the 19th century. (Giro di Lombardia started in 1905, Milano-Sanremo in 1907 and Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1913.)
According to the old road cycling traditions, they are quite long one-day races.
But what really distinguish them from other events that back in the old days, when the race calendar wasn't that well structured as nowadays these races were rarely collided with each other, thus it was possible that the biggest stars would gather and compete against each other. The competition at these events was always bigger that at other ones.
10 important cyclist intend to participate
(latest update: 28 January 2024)
Milano-Sanremo
Jasper Philipsen, Tom Pidcock, Filippo Ganna, Michal Kwiatkowski, Julian Alaphilippe, Arnaud De Lie, Florian Vermeersch,Tadej Pogacar, Tim Wellens, Alberto Bettiol
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Julia Alaphilippe, Matej Mohoric, Tim Wellens, Mads Pedersen, Armaud De Lie, Florian Vermeersch, Nelson Powless, Oliver Naesen
Paris-Roubaix
Arnaud De Lie, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Yves Lampaert, John Degenkolb, Jasper Stuyven, Matej Mohoric, Alberto Bettiol, Mads Pedersen, Tim Wellens
Liège-Bastogne -Liège
Cosnefroy, Matej Mohoric, MIchal Kwiatkowski, Alesandr Vlasov, Nelson Powless, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogacar, Tiesj Benoot, Quintem Hermans
Il Lombardia
(it's too early to talk about the possible participants)