10 of the best cycling races in cycling history - 2016 Paris-Roubaix, Tour de France history and more!
CyclingTuesday, 19 November 2024 at 20:00
Cycling has a dense and extensive history. Over the years, we have seen incredible races that have lifted us all off the couch and made us vibrate like kids. If we add to that the importance of the Grand Tours or the Monuments, we have more than enough races to build a small list of some of the most memorable moments in cycling history.
This is of course a subjective choice, in collaboration with CiclismoAlDia. Obviously, the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España occupy several places in this ranking. The most legendary classics such as Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix or Liège-Bastogne-Liège also have their place, although with certainty there are plenty historic moments of the sport which are not in the list.
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1. Tour de France 1989 stage 21
Perhaps the most dramatic end to the Tour de France ever. In 1989, French beloved Laurent Fignon and American wonderkid Greg Lemond entered the final time-trial in Paris separated by 50 seconds. Lemond was the favourite to win it and he did, but it was the incredibly tense finale that made it's way into history, as the two were separated by 58 seconds which meant that Lemond took the win of the Tour in it's very last meters by what was a painfully low margin. A day for the history books.
2. Paris-Roubaix 2016
One of the best races in modern times, but also in the history of the sport. Mathew Hayman won the 'Hell of the North' after spending the day in the breakaway and then resisting the attacks from the favourites in the end. He beat Tom Boonen, legend of the sport in a race where the stakes were as high as ever as he looked to make history to be the first rider to win the race five times. It was an incredible race with attacks for hours on end
- Mathew Hayman - 5:51:53
- Tom Boonen - +0:00 (sprint finish)
- Ian Stannard - +0:02
- Sep Vanmarcke - +0:04
- Edvald Boasson Hagen - +0:15
- Heinrich Haussler - +
- Marcel Sieberg - +
- Aleksejs Saramotins - +
- Imanol Erviti - +
- Adrien Petit - +
3. 1949 Giro d'Italia (Cuneo-Pinerolo)
In 1949 there was a battle for the history books at the Giro d'Italia featuring Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali, the two leading figures of the post-war cycling world in the mountainous nation. On stage 17 of that year, over 254 kilometers of mountains, the two clashed and in this deadly day with thousands and thousands of climbing meters, Coppi won almost 12 minutes over Bartali - the closest contender - which propelled him to overall victory.
4. 2024 World Championships Zurich
The 2024 World Championships in Zurich saw a masterful performance by Tadej Pogacar who was the man to beat and in everyone's eyes, but still managed to take the victory in a hilly circuit with an attack coming with over 100 kiloemters to go. After a superb tactic move he managed to hold off the peloton, and take his first world title.
However the battle behind for the medals was truly astonishing where for 80 kilometers, dozens of riders slaughtered each other in a hilly circuit where the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel simultaneously worked to try and bring Pogacar back; worked to defend themselves of an unlikely group of rivals they faced; and equally attacked each other constantly in search of the medals. A true day for the ages with a glorious winner.
5. 2024 Tour de France Femmes stage 8
The Tour de France Femmes' masterpiece perhaps. The final day of this year's race proved to be just as dramatic as the 1989 men's Tour de France. Here, after an unlucky crash earlier in the week, Demi Vollering attacked Katarzyna Niewiadoma and dropped her in the brutal Col du Glandon halfway through the stage and then what followed was virtually a one-on-one time-trial up the famous Alpe d'Huez where the two were virtually tied the entire way up the climb. In the end Vollering won the stage but Niewiadoma secured yellow by a mere 4 seconds which saw her score an iconic triumph.
- Demi Vollering - +4:34:14
- Pauliena Rooijakkers -+0:04
- Évita Muzic -+1:01
- Katarzyna Niewiadoma -+,,
- Gaia Realini -+1:31
- Cédrine Kerbaol -+3:15
- Valentina Cavaallar -+3:34
- Sarah Gigante - +5:10
- Niamh Fisher-Black - +5:14
- Lucinda Brand - +7:06
6. Tour of Flanders 2010
The images of the Fabian Cancellara-Tom Boonen battles of the 2010's were one of the marking moments of the modern classics history. Two goliaths, who occasionally faced each other with no-one else involved. On this day Cancellara took the win, dropping Boonen with a memorable attack on the cobbled Muur de Geraardsbergen.
7. 2020 Tour de France stage 20
Tadej Pogacar wins the final time-trial of the Tour de France at La Planche des Belles Filles and takes a shocking win over supposed time-trial specialist and favourite for the day Primoz Roglic, who started the day in the yellow jersey and was expected to seal the deal. Pogacar, as an extremely young rider, with very little team and in his first Tour, was never expected to win it when the race started. At the time Jumbo-Visma controlled the race to perfection for Roglic who never put a foot wrong for three weeks. But in this key day he had bad legs and the rising start had a career-defining moment, as he took almost two minutes from his rival and put on the yellow jersey only hours before reaching Paris.
8. 2015 Tour de France stage 20
Thibaut Pinot was one of the most iconic riders of the 21st century and his victory atop Alpe d'Huez in 2015 was perhaps the most memorable in his palmarès. It was a spectacular battle with Ryder Hesjedal in the final mountain stage of the 2015 Tour, one that exploded after the Col de la Croix de Fer where the GC riders were also put on the limit.
Here Nairo Quintana attacked Chris Froome, dropping the yellow jersey and seemed like he was about the break the famous 'Sky Train'. Initially he was then reeled back in, but the Colombian put another monster attack up the Alpe d'Huez that threatened the victory of Froome in the final opportunity. Gains were huge, but ultimately Froome managed to hang on to the lead for just over a minute.
- Thibaut Pinot 3:17:21
- Nairo Quintana - +0:18
- Ryder Hesjedal - +0:41
- Alejandro Valverde - +1:38
- Chris Froome - +,,
- Pierre Rolland - +1:41
- Richie Porte - +2:11
- Winner Anacona - +2:32
- Wout Poels - +2:50
- Rubén Plaza - +,,
9. Giro d'Italia 2018 stage 19
Froome and Team Sky were almost synonymous with pacing and conservative racing, but this was far from the case in 2018 where at the Giro d'Italia, Froome struggled throughout many stages and in the first two weeks lost significant time to his rivals. It looked like he would be unable to win the Giro on his first serious attempt, but everything changed on the penultimat 'competitive' day, in which he started in fourth place, three minutes away from Simon Yates and Tom Dumoulin.
With a specific plan and pacing strategy, Sky cracked Yates who had dominated the race until then and completely fell off the GC battle on stage 19 whilst wearing pink. Froome attacked in the mythical Colle delle Finestre with over 80 kilometers to go in a final attempt to win the Giro and... he succeeded. He took over three minutes on his closest competitors with a daring solo move including the brutal summit finish in Jafferau, but it was all worth it as he forced his way into the pink jersey.
- Chris Froome 5:12:26
- Richard Carapaz - +3:00
- Thibau Pinot - +3:07
- Miguel Ángel López - +3:12
- Tom Dumoulin - +3:23
- Sébastien Reichenbach - +6:13
- Davide Formolo - +8:22
- Sam Oomen - +8:23
- Patrick Konrad - +,,
- Pello Bilbao - +,,
10. Tour de France 2011 stage 18
However the year before the emergence of Team Sky as a Grand Tour dominator, Andy Schleck and Leopard Trek put together one of the most beautiful performances of the 21st century. After two weeks of very exciting battles over the mountains, the Schleeck brothers had failed to gain time on time-trial specialist Cadel Evans, whilst crowd favourite Thomas Voeckler continued to impressive every single day with daring and heart-felt performances that gave the French huge dreams of winning the Tour for the first time in decades.
One of the best Tours in memory, and on stage 18 Andy Schleck attacked the Col de l'Izoard with over 60 kilometers to go, dropping his rivals, linking up with two teammates and then soloing to a brilliant stage win that put him in yellow. Thomas Voeckler battled for the yellow jersey as if his life depended on it, whilst Schleck gained meaningful time on Evans. However, the Luxembourger then lost the lead to Evans on the final time-trial as even his impressive ride was not enough to make the winning difference.
- Andy Schleck
- Fränk Schleck - +2:07
- Cadel Evans - +2:15
- Ivan Basso - +2:18
- Thomas Voeckler - +2:21
- Pierre Rolland - +2:27
- Damiano Cunego - +2:33
- Rein Taaramäe - +3:22
- Tom Danielson - +3:25
- Ryder Hesjedal - +3:31
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- We never compare oranges to apples. It's always apples to oranges. Order is important. Not sure why. :)Sweep19-11-2024
- True. But sometime the top 2 or 3 riders don't finish.Sweep19-11-2024
- Hayman's logic makes absolutely no sense to me. You don't lose more UCI points by trying to win and ending up 3rd than you if you just went for placing third.Sweep19-11-2024
- :-)Sweep19-11-2024
- A lot of people just want to keep it swept under the rug, but sooner or later that big lump under the rug is going to trip someone up.
santiagobenites19-11-2024 - When MVDP or Wout shows up, they literally destroy the field. Its awesome, lol. That's the only time I watch cross..
ScottG19-11-2024 - It will be just a waste of time to finish out of the podium. Giro Vuelta makes a better choiceabstractengineer19-11-2024
- I would agree, top 3 with Remco improving and snapping at his heels. I just wish he wouldn't keep crashing in the TDF.Pedalmasher19-11-2024
- Backstedt and Schreiber are not juniors they are under 23. There were I think about 7 or 8 juniors in this race. Under the current rules a race that has juniors in can't go over 45 minutes. The winning time was 43.53 so the timing was correct. The organisers are in the wrong because they should be putting on a juniors race and then we wouldn't be in this situation as the timings for the elite race would be 50 minutes, not 45.NorrisHippocampe19-11-2024
- It's everywhere. Just like it was before. But we can just pretend it isn't. Just like we did before.Sweep19-11-2024