Your favourite Monument?

[craig1985]

Would have to go for Paris - Roubaix.

 

[Anonymous]

Also Roubaix. I guess that follows from growing up in an era when Sean Yates was the only decent British roadie, and that was the only race he went for.

 

[TRDean]

The Ronde for me...period!! I love that race!! But really, they are all beautiful!

 

[L'arriviste]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, top thread!

Would have to go for Paris - Roubaix.

Flanders and Roubaix for the drama - the back of the race is just as (if not more) interesting as the front. Looking forward to seeing both at the roadside this year.

Lombardy for the scenery and the autumn light and the melancholy at it being the end of the season.

Milan San Remo is just nice because it's when a lot of folks first properly show their teeth (no pun on Cav, honest). And the emotion is the opposite of the one I described above at Lombardy: spring's definitely here!

 

[ak-zaaf]

De Ronde. Just slighly above Liege.
One of the reasons is that Vlaanderen is a week before Roubaix. The Belgian press goes nuts in the weeks before Vlaanderen. The broadcast on the day itself usually starts in the morning. 'They' even say it's like a national holiday in Flanders. Basically it's a race I'm looking forward to for months. De Kwaremont, Koppenberg, Paterberg, Muur, Bosberg....What's not to love? After that Roubaix is just a week away and it's hard to build up the same kind of enthusiasm

Liege is the ultimate bike race IMO. It's the best and most honest parcours for a one-day race possible. The guy who wins Liege is always one of the best in the world at that time. Not many races have that.

 

[B.Rasmussen]

Paris - Roubaix for me, but only just. They are all special for reasons such as those mentioned already, and I appreciate them more every year.

 

[bianchigirl]

Is there a better weeks racing in the calendar than RvV - P-R? Impossible to choose really but P-R would just edge it as the first one I saw live and for the romance of the 'Hell of the North'

 

[Zen Master]

Liege is the ultimate bike race IMO. It's the best and most honest parcours for a one-day race possible. The guy who wins Liege is always one of the best in the world at that time. Not many races have that.

I couldn't agree with you more..

 

[Fourier]

MSR: that's when you know the winter is over and the serious racing begins.

 

[Francois the Postman]

PR will be as close to religion as i get. Although De Ronde comes in a much closer 2nd than it would based on viewing pleasure alone, thanks to the Belgian celebration circus that surrounds it.

Then a big gap to the rest, without any of them actually being low on my radar.

 

[karlboss]

milan san-remo is not a monument.

Edit: though I'm not old enough to be sure...

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

1. P-R
2. L-B-L (just about on par with P-R though)
3. Flanders (not far behind either)
4. Lombardy
5. MSR

P-R, Flanders and L-B-L imo are epic epic races, no other one day races compare.

 

[elapid]

Paris-Roubaix and then Flanders. I am so excited to be watching both of these races live for the first time this year.

 

[bianchigirl]

Enjoy elapid - the Monuments are monuments for a reason

 

[Libertine Seguros]

There's a relationship between how likely a sprinter is to win a race and how much I am likely to enjoy it. Hence LBL and Lombardia are my favourite Monuments and MSR is easily my least favourite.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

There's a relationship between how likely a sprinter is to win a race and how much I am likely to enjoy it. Hence LBL and Lombardia are my favourite Monuments and MSR is easily my least favourite.

pretty much my feelings, except the fact I love flanders/p-r because they can be such a struggle... if it rains nothing compares. I find sprints (stages races, one day races.. woteva) such a bore.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

I chose Roubaix because IMO that's the race the best epitomizes the "cobbled classics." It's not the oldest, but I think its come to have the most mystique. However, Milano Sanremo is the one I look forward to most; that is probably because we've waited so long for spring, and it tells us we're finally there.

I'm missing the live coverage of MSR this year, so that I may race myself

 

[Mellow Velo]

Depends upon which of the big 3 in April turns out to be the most exciting race!
Hedging bets, I know.
Given wet conditions, I'd go for Paris-Roubaix, no question.
In the dry, back to above, I'm afraid.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

pretty much my feelings, except the fact I love flanders/p-r because they can be such a struggle... if it rains nothing compares. I find sprints (stages races, one day races.. woteva) such a bore.

Oh, races like Flanders and Roubaix are always more entertaining than your usual sprint, and especially when the weather is terrible. But the problem is, when it comes to stage races and the like, because I find sprint stages so dull, the majority of the riders and teams I develop a vested interest in specialise when it's hilly and/or mountainous, and hence I have more people I'm specifically rooting for/against in the hilly classics, which enables me to get more absorbed in it even if the racing isn't that good (which isn't usually a problem cos it's usually good).

 

[Anonymous]

Toss-up between P-R and Flanders. Both are unique, crazy races and unfold in strange ways year after year. They are the only bike races where I'm on the edge of my seat for hours at a stretch.

If I have to choose I'd say P-R in bad weather by a fraction.

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

I don't want to choose between them.

 

[Jan the Man]

1. Paris - Roubaix (the mystique)
2. Ronde van Vlaanderen (the occasion)
3. Liege - Bastogne - Liege (the parcours)
4. Giro di Lombardia (the scenery)
5. Milano - San Remo (the finale)

 

[franciep10]

This is like trying to choose between you're mom an dad but I have to go with Ronde

Edit: who put wigans there

 

[theyoungest]

Vlaanderen for me. Living in the Low Countries, you get infected with the cult, I guess.

I wonder who voted Milan-San Remo? For the scenery, maybe.

 

[al_pacino]

It's just good to know you have plenty of great races coming up isn't it?