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, Li--Bastogne-Li- 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
