Classics Greatness: Whose Records Are In Play?

by thebestworldevents.com 28 March 2024 · Cycling

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Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen is the day. There is no more talking about the season to come, or people building to this or that goal. It’s all happening in four days, on the “roads” of Flanders. And it’s going to be … probably incredible? Always beautiful. Rarely dull. Something.

When it is over, or maybe a week later following Paris-Roubaix, it will be time to take stock of what this season is about. For now, it seems pretty clear that it’s not a rerun of last year’s March of the Superteam, when Jumbo Visma — now Visma Lease-a-Bike — won arguably the first five Cobbled Classics that matter, from the Omloop through Dwars door Vlaanderen, and then after a brief pause set about winning all three grand tours. There doesn’t seem to be that sort of phenomenon brewing.

Nor does it seem like there will be a wide range of outcomes in the next month, where every race will have an array of contenders from several super-strong teams, just waging total war on each other. We can hope for that — we see you there Lidl-Trek — but it doesn’t feel overly likely.

No, I would say that with the departure of Tadej Pogačar from the Spring Classics (for now) and the ultra-strong performances of Mathieu van der Poel heading into the Ronde van Vlaanderen, it seems like the best way to describe this current Classics Campaign is the March of the Superstars. Sometimes head-to-head, sometimes alternating dominance, but my guess is that it’s going to be a lot of these two from Antwerp to Liège. Maybe a couple Belgians — Wout Sunday, Remco in L-B-L — will interrupt this narrative, and if nothing more we should all be hoping for robust competition at every stop.

But if we don’t get that, might we at least get Greatness? This subject popped into my head today when I saw this:

Pretty hilarious given that Gilbert, you know, won all four… and some other stuff. I did my requisite number of fawning posts over Gilbert’s career accomplishments but I don’t know that I really gave him his due. As someone who once spent an entire week writing long posts about Tom Boonen, and then appending them to his book, I have set a rather high bar for myself when it comes to levels of fawning over classics stars. And by any measure, Gilbert qualifies for such treatment. But first… let me dig down into what historic performances look like. There are a number of versions.

Oh, and one more ground rule — the races worth including in an historic assessment are the Five Monuments-plus-Worlds Elite Road Race, along with some of the very top Monument-adjacent races that we commonly lump in there. Those would be, at a minimum, Strade Bianche, E3, Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and if we go beyond spring, Paris-Tours and San Sebastián. Some might want to add in the Omloop or Euro Champs or maybe a few of the Italian fall races, but let’s stick to events for which there is clearer consensus. These are the races that crown the classics champions.

Tour of Lombardia 1959: Rik van Looy — Van Looy wins Lombardia

Career Results: Collect Them All!

Probably the greatest record a Classics rider can achieve is to win all five Monuments. Each one is such a singular, career-making accomplishment for any rider, and collectively they cover such breadth of styles, that there can simply be no denying a rider’s greatness once he’s checked all five boxes. Only three riders — Merckx, De Vlaeminck, and Van Looy — can claim this achievement. So far.

In the 21st century, only Gilbert can claim four of the five. He retired at the end of 2022 with the dream of a final win, in Milano-Sanremo, having slipped away, but coming up from behind are those two, Pogs and van der Poel, with three each. It won’t be easy for them to bump up those numbers, however. Van der Poel has only one attempt at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Lombardia, each in oddball 2020, but those two lovely top-ten finishes mask what is a not-great fit for his riding style, and in an increasingly crowded field that is tough to envision. Pogačar, meanwhile, just tried for MSR and didn’t miss by much (Paris-Roubaix is more of a later-in-life goal for Pogs, he says), but he won’t be mollified by that when you consider the many great cyclists who couldn’t crack that slippery nut — Hinault, Boonen, Museeuw, Bartoli, etc.

Sadly, we live in a time where fans under a certain age will not have even heard of, let alone be able to pronounce, at least two of the three names on the All-Five list. So in the spirit of generosity, at least to younger fans, can we agree that a good way to plug a hole in your Monuments resume is with a rainbow jersey? If so, then then we can update the list a bit. Hinault got one, putting him at four major chips (plus, you know, his other stuff). Boonen and Museeuw both added one to their piles, which were otherwise light on breadth. Most significantly, Gilbert got his Rainbows, giving him five of the six. Van der Poel is of course the current World Champion, bumping him up to four of the six. That’s elite company. Oh, and the Holy Trinity of Belgians discussed above all won a World Title.

Cycling: 101st Tour of Flanders 2017 / Men

Expanding out to include the next level of top classics gets maybe a bit too convoluted for this post, though you can start by assuming that Merckx holds all the records, taking everything but E3 and Strade Bianche, the latter because it didn’t exist and the former eluding him inexplicably, including the time he lost a two-up sprint to Hubert Hutsebaut. Cycling is weird. Anyway, Gilbert again rockets up the charts with his two more Ardennes chips, San Sebastian, Paris-Tours, even Strade Bianche — ten of the fourteen greatest Classics races on Earth. This is absolutely the modern standard, well beyond even Boonen and Fabian Cancellara, his contemporaries in marauding campaigns.

[I haven’t forgotten the Olympics road race. It just doesn’t happen often and hasn’t been won by anyone worth talking about here. But maybe after Paris this changes.]

Other names to include in this discussion: Jan Raas (three monuments, worlds, multiple E3 and Amstel wins); Francesco Moser (3x P-R, 2x Lombardia, MSR, Worlds, Paris-Tours, F-W, G-W); Sean Kelly (4/5 monuments and thrice second at Flanders, his only omission; scores of other wins)… Maertens, Kuiper… there are too many to name.

Career Results Plan B: Set Some Records

If your career marks can’t check all the boxes, the next best way to make yourself an all-timer is to hammer the ones within your reach at record levels. Let’s call this the Boonellara Strategy. Who holds the record for Paris-Roubaix wins? Tom Boonen and Roger De Vlaeminck (4 each), one ahead of Fabian Cancellara. Ronde van Vlaanderen? Several riders at 3, including Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara. E3? Boonen with five. Gent-Wevelgem? Boonen et al, with three. Strade? Cancellara with three. If you want, you can add Alejandro Valverde in here, with his record five wins at Flèche Wallonne. Valverde has four wins at LBL, second to Merckx, and a rainbow jersey, but no other Monuments, so his case looks a lot like Boonen’s.

Let’s Go Crazy: One-Year Deluge

This is probably my favorite measuring stick of classics greatness, guys just going on crazy heaters and winning everything in sight. A few notable examples:

1962: Rik Van Looy is the first rider to sweep the trio of Gent-Wevelgem, Flanders and Roubaix. This was before the 8-day Holy Week format, taking place on three consecutive weekends instead. No rider ever pulled off the complete Holy Week treble.

1969: Merckx goes on the first of several incredible spring classics streaks winning the three early monuments of MSR, Flanders and LBL, though Walter Godefroot gave him a two-minute drubbing in Paris-Roubaix.

1972: After two years of mixed results (for him), Merckx goes on another streak claiming MSR, Brabantse Pijl, Scheldeprijs, Flèche Wallonne and LBL.

1973: Determined to top Merckx, Merckx rattles off Het Volk, Gent-Wevelgem, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold and LBL again.

1975: Take a wild guess at who won three of the four spring monuments and Amstel, while only missing out in Paris-Roubaix in a sprint?

2009: Finally someone else to talk about. This was the first great Gilbert run, in fall, where in ten days he won Coppa Sabatini, Gran Piemonte, Paris-Tours and Lombardia. I believe, without checking, that his P-T/Lombardia double was unprecedented — surely I wrote multiple posts to this effect at the time — because Paris-Tours is notably a sprinter-friendly race, even more so then than now, and Lombardia could not have been more different. The number of riders even starting both of those races is probably in the teens. [Gilbert brought a couple lieutenants; a few Italians went to both…]

Boonen vs Cancellara. 2010 RvV Kapelmuur

2010: Cancellara levels up from a P-R winner with no luck in Belgium to a guy with supporters clubs breaking out all over Flanders, after taking the trio of E3, Flanders and Roubaix, each time off Belgium’s reigning king Boonen. Coming into 2010, he’d been a bit of an enigma, the strongest solo rider in the world with all the time trial records to show for it, plus a very cool MSR win and his breakthrough at P-R in 2006. Statistically his 2010 streak wasn’t long, but if you believe that the quality of a win is measured by who finishes second, then his run in Flanders/Roubaix was one of the greatest performances in modern times. Oh, and that year E3 and G-W were on consecutive days, and he made only a token shake-out-the-legs appearance in the latter after a pletwals-rolling win in E3. All of this happened in front of my face, including me almost getting run over by him when the G-W peloton left the station prematurely without him, so my feelings about this are not especially neutral.

2011: Gilbert, again, goes on his all-time hot streak, starting in Belgium at Brabantse Pijl, before becoming the second rider ever to sweep the three Ardennes races (Amstel, FW. LBL) — another four-wins-in-ten-days trick. Oh, and the other rider to sweep the Ardennes was Davide Rebellin, soon to be recognized as a notorious doper, so either Gilbert joins slimy company or wrests a glorious record from the late Italian’s dirty fingers.

2012: After watching Cancellara take the mantle of top cobbles rider for a couple years, including the decisive head-to-head battle in 2010 Flanders, Boonen battles back and sweeps the four major cobbled classics (excluding Dwars, which he skipped) over three weekends. [Note, again, the Holy Week Trinity was no longer an option.] Note, Cancellara crashed out in Flanders, though Boonen earned two wins over his rival directly. He also one-upped Cancellara’s famous 50km escape from 2010 by taking off with 56km to go for his Hell of the North win. Also, each of these wins tied or set the career marks for most wins. Boonen never won a major cobbled classic again.

2017: The ever so slightly overlooked Greg Van Avermaet Golden Rampage! Van Avermaet’s early career was spent riding in Gilbert’s shadow, and included a lot of impressive almost-wins, but he turned the tide with his Olympic gold medal in Brazil in 2016. The following winter/spring he won the Omloop, took second in Strade Bianche, then matched Boonen’s E3-Gent-Wevelgem weekend double. From there he took second in Flanders, interrupting a perfect run, which he then capped off by winning Paris-Roubaix. Except for the Omloop, which he’d won already the previous year, these were his first and last victories in each of the cobbled classics. On, and the guy who took Flanders off his plate? Philippe Gilbert. Van Avermaet settled for second, but only after his pursuit got derailed when Peter Sagan’s bars tangled with a spectator’s coat. Gilbert had taken off from like 75km out, on a flier. That’s how close Gouden Greg came from history… one fucking coat away.

Who Can Join The All Time Ranks?

If this is how you become great, who among the current generation looks like they can join the conversation? The candidates are obvious so let’s jump right in.

1. Mathieu van der Poel

The Dutch star has few limitations, and unlike anyone else here, you can see him achieving breadth, win totals, and even a legendary one-season run. He has three Monuments to his name already plus a world title, and is looking at an Olympics road race that suits him pretty well. He’s winning lesser cobbled classics, took a Strade Bianche in 2021, and we will all collectively never forget his lone Ardennes win, the 2019 Amstel drama, which he won right after a breakthrough rookie-year victory in Brabantse Pijl. He’s a heavy favorite to tie the career record at Flanders this weekend, and probably break it before long, though Boonen’s other career marks look safe for now.

The single knock on him is that he is highly unlikely to ever challenge for Liege or Lombardia, both of which he rode in 2010, taking sixth and tenth. Lombardia seems fundamentally out of reach for him, and I will guess that he never turns uo there again. Liège, less so? But his sixth happened in the weirdness of 2020, and before he was the singular figure he is now. If he tried for that again, he would be well marked and have very little hope, but I wouldn’t completely dismiss the idea.

I don’t know if I would predict a huge heater for him, though. This year could have been one, with him being near the front at MSR and a bike length away from doubling E3 and G-W, but he seems to enjoy sharing the spoils in his team more than Boonen or Cancellara or Gilbert ever did.

107th Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres 2023 - Men’s Elite

2. Tadej Pogačar

The Venn Diagram with van der Poel might make you see their careers in very different lights, but in terms of their classics greatness cases, they have a lot of similarities. Pogačar, of course, has different skills, and already has LBL and Lombardia (x3) in his pocket, along with his glorious Flanders win last year. He also has the other Ardennes covered, and almost made the treble last year, had he not crashed out of LBL. Tack on two Strade and a few other smaller races and you have a nicely broadening resume. Trying new things is his hallmark.

For career records, Lombardia is in his sights, as he’s now two away from Coppi’s record, before turning 26 years old. He is also one off Cancellara’s Strade record, and if he wanted to, he could tear up the rest of the Ardennes records. TBD. He is almost certain to go on a legendary heater one year where he triples up the Ardennes… right? Is that too aggressive a thing to say? Other riders do exist. But when he’s at his best, it doesn’t really feel like they do.

The real questions are two things: will his Tour de France legacy eventually pull him away from chasing classics? Is his thirst for new forms of excitement something he will slake and put aside as he ages, focusing on chasing Yellow? Maybe. Also his two missing Monuments are the trickiest ones for him, with MSR being the enigma — open to all but easy for none — and Paris-Roubaix being a sort of final frontier as far as his classics dalliances are concerned. He says he will ride it someday. Nobody has a better chance to get all five Monuments. But he trails vdP in world titles, and only one of them can win Gold in Paris, at most.

3. Wout Van Aert

As I write this, the Belgian superstar is laid up in a hospital with seven cracked ribs and a broken collarbone. He will be fine before too long and be Wout again, I have no doubt. So I feel like his inclusion here is completely fair. We are talking about a guy who has won the Omloop, KBK, Strade, Milano-Sanremo, E3, Gent-Wevelgem and Amstel. Everyone who watches these races can envision him winning both Flanders and Roubaix, having already run second in both, and he was probably going to be favored in the latter had he not turned up at stupid Dwars today.

At age 29, with van der Poel forever in his way, we can probably forget about him breaking any of Boonen’s or Merckx’s records. He could best his rival by bagging LBL, where he’s taken third and where the climbs are more to his liking, though Lombardia is probably out of reach (emphasis on probably). With Wout, you never say never. Worlds and Olympics, same thing. He probably breaks through at some point.

Most credible is him achieving greatness through a Gilbertesque hot streak. If van der Poel ever had some issue in spring, as almost every classics star does eventually, it could open the door to Wout ripping off multiple major wins in a short time. At the moment, his team is so strong that he is wont to share the spoils, but a streak where he takes second in one of the big races because he let his teammate go around for the win is plausible. Van Aert is certainly due some better luck. The talent and drive are very certainly there.

109th Liege - Bastogne - Liege 2023 - Men’s Elite

4. Remco Evenepoel

OK, now I am getting into rampant speculation… but the kid is 24 and has two monuments checked off, Lombardia and a pair of LBLs, along with a rainbow jersey and a pair of San Sebastian wins. Evenepoel is not a cobbles guy at the moment, though being Belgian he dabbled in them in juniors, winning KBK once. What if his grand tour dreams get put firmly on the shelf, with both older and younger riders coming past him in that category? Does he branch out more in the classics? TBD. If nothing else, he could claim the all-time LBL record, with a decade-plus to match or surpass Merckx (5).

5. Anyone Else?

Obviously it’s way too early to say much about riders who are just coming into their own. But I am all ears.

6. How About the Women?

Because Women’s Cycling has a much shorter history, with many of the top classics just coming into existence, and far fewer athletes historically, I will just point out a few standards that have been set, and invite you to guess which of the current stars might match them.

Anna van der Breggen is the all time leader in breadth of wins, with a sweep of the Ardennes, Flanders, Plouay, Strade Bianche, an Olympic gold and two world championships. She is only missing Drenthe, Binda, Gent-Wevelgem, and the newly-created Paris-Roubaix.
Marianne Vos is, of course, the other rider to note here, having just notched win #250, and hands-down the greatest woman cyclist in history. She surpasses even van der Breggen in total classics wins, with wins stacked upon wins at almost every event. But she has only one monument to her name, so far, a Flanders win in 2013, so this spring she can put herself clearly above the retired van der Breggen with a breakthrough in Liege and/or Roubaix.

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