The thrilling world of one day races

One-day races are like thrillers, so they say, high-stake character driven dramas with plenty of twists and turns in the narrative. On other days, they are just long-long (sometimes 300 km long) build-ups for a spectacular finale.

One-day races, especially the so-called Monuments are carrying so much history in themselves. Not just the heroic past of road cycling races, but also European history in general. The optimism of the end of 19th century, and the devastating impact of wars.

I never made a secret of it that I, for many reasons, like one-day races more than grand tours. As a content creator I have been always aware that with writing about Tour de France I reach far more people than with writing about the Spring Classics. I regret that I was not enough stubborn in this case for so many years.

But for the last time, as part of My last road cycling season special project, I intend to dedicate myself (almost) entirely for the thrilling world of one-day rscew, especially, but not exclusively, for the Monuments.

CYCLING MONUMENTS 2025

OTHER ONE-DAY RACES

On popular demand, Cycling Monuments 2025, a special project of PelotonTales blogfamily, is about to include some other one-day races besides the five Monuments. But not the entire list. I have rather chosen some of the most popular ones, also those events I'm happy to write about.

For example, Omloop Het Nieuesblad always gets big attention, because it the first race of the traditional Opening Weekend, but Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne earns far less respect from the global audience (including, unfortunately, me).

During spring classic season, there are some events, very famous, very popular, also, very historical, but not part of the big five of Monuments. Amstel Gold Race, or, speaking not only about the spring events, Giro dell'Emilia in autumn, are well-known, but not Monuments. Neither is Strade Bianche.

And yet, somehow in the curious world of online content creating, they need eachother. The Monuments the non-Monuments, and vica versa.