What are the most important races in cycling?

Cycling might be best known for the Tour de France, but there is far more to the sport than simply the yellow jersey. The professional season is shaped around the three Grand Tours, the five historic Monuments, modern classics such as Strade Bianche, and the UCI Road World Championships. Together they form the spine of men’s road cycling and define the achievements that riders value most.

The Tour de France stands at the centre of that hierarchy. It is widely regarded as the biggest event in cycling and is often described as “the pinnacle of the UCI WorldTour and is the race every rider dreams of winning.” Held every July, the race lasts three weeks and typically covers 21 stages looping across France and occasionally into neighbouring nations.

Created in 1903 by the sports newspaper L’Auto to boost flagging sales, the Tour quickly captured public imagination and grew into what is often called the largest annual sporting event in the world. Millions watch by the roadside or on television each summer, following every sprint, mountain attack, and time trial.

What makes the Tour unique is the combination of distance, variety, and the symbolism of the yellow jersey. In fact, the yellow jersey is one of the most iconic sights in all of sports.

Riders must conquer high mountain stages in the Alps and Pyrenees, flat sprint days, and technical individual time trials across more than 3,000 kilometres in the three weeks. Winning even a single stage can define a rider’s career, while lifting the overall title places them among the select few icons of the sport.

Only legends such as Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault have managed to win the Tour five times, and even wearing the yellow jersey for just one day carries prestige. And since 2022 the Tour de France Femmes has given the women’s peloton its own multi-stage event on French roads, held each summer.

The Giro d’Italia, held each May, is the second of the three Grand Tours and the Tour’s closest rival in prestige. First ran in 1909 as a circulation booster for Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport, the Giro has maintained a strong link to its origins: the race leader wears the maglia rosa, the pink jersey, in tribute to the Gazzetta’s pink paper.

After the Tour, the Giro is generally seen as the next most important stage race, and its winners join an honour roll of cycling’s greatest talents. Some of them have completed the mythical double of winning both the Giro and the Tour in the same season, most recently Tadej Pogacar in 2024.

The Giro’s identity is shaped by Italy’s dramatic landscapes and unpredictable May weather. Its stages regularly climb into the Alps and Dolomites, tackling giants such as Passo dello Stelvio or Monte Zoncolan, and riders often face rain, snow, and cold at altitude.

These conditions create chaos and opportunity, the race is known for dramatic swings in the overall standings, daring solo attacks, and emotionally charged moments on snow-lined mountain roads. Just ask Simon Yates and Isaac del Toro about the conclusion of the 2025 race!

Italian fans bring an added intensity, lining coastal routes, ancient villages, and high passes. The women’s Giro d’Italia Donne mirrors this role in the women’s sport, using many of the same climbs on a shorter route.

The Vuelta a España rounds out the trio of Grand Tours. Held from late August into mid-September, it was first run in 1935 and, after sporadic early interruptions, has been raced annually since the 1950s. Inspired by the success of the Tour and the Giro, the Vuelta gradually became one of the sport’s three major three-week stage races. As the final Grand Tour of the season, it often becomes a chance for riders to rescue their year with a big result or to tune up for the World Championships in the weeks ahead.

The Vuelta is known for its extreme gradients and late-summer heat. Organisers frequently design steep summit finishes, including notorious climbs such as the brutal Angliru or Los Machucos. The overall leader wears a red jersey rather than the yellow or pink seen in France and Italy, giving the race a distinct visual identity.

The Spanish terrain forces aggressive racing: short, sharp climbs and undulating roads create opportunities for bold moves, but riders must survive the heat too. The Vuelta’s lower media profile compared to the Tour and Giro also means it often produces surprise winners and unexpected tactical battles. Since 2023, the women’s peloton has had its own multi-day equivalent, La Vuelta Femenina, elevating women’s stage racing in Spain to Grand Tour status.

Among cycling’s one-day races, the Monuments stand at the top. The first each year is Milano-Sanremo, run in March. First contested in 1907, it is the longest major one-day race at roughly 300 kilometers and is nicknamed “La Primavera” and “La Classicissima.”

For most of the race the peloton rides along the Ligurian coast on relatively easy terrain, but after nearly 280 kilometres, the Cipressa and Poggio climbs create a knife-edge finale. Puncheurs launch attacks in the hope of breaking the sprinters, while sprinters cling on, hoping to deliver a final burst on Via Roma.

Tactics, timing, and endurance all converge in the last few minutes. Victory here is career-defining, as Eddy Merckx’s seven wins attest. Van der Poel’s showdown with Pogacar on the Poggio was one of the highlights of the 2025 season.

Next comes the Tour of Flanders, Belgium’s most beloved race. First run in 1913 and held on the first Sunday of April, it stretches over 270 kilometres through Flanders and centres on its famous short, steep cobbled climbs known as hellingen.

The Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, and Koppenberg are legendary for their rough surfaces and punishing gradients. Constant climbing, narrow roads, crosswinds, and high tension make the race an elimination contest as riders are dropped one by one. The atmosphere is exceptional: thousands of Belgian fans gather on the cobbled slopes, creating a carnival-like environment. A win in Flanders elevates a rider into the region’s sporting mythology.

A week later the peloton faces Paris–Roubaix, arguably the hardest one-day race of all. First held in 1896, it is known as “The Hell of the North” and “The Queen of the Classics.” Though it now starts in Compiègne rather than Paris, the defining feature remains the trek across northern France’s ancient cobbled farm roads.

Around 50 kilometres of pavé are spread across nearly 30 sectors, including the infamous Trouée d’Arenberg. These brutal stones shake bikes and bodies to the limit. In dry weather dust clouds rise across the fields; in wet weather the cobbles become treacherously slick. It is often said that “Paris–Roubaix is not won, it is survived.”

Riders who reach the velodrome in Roubaix are usually coated in mud or dust, their exhaustion etched into their faces. The winner’s trophy, a mounted cobblestone, is among the most distinctive prizes in sport. Since 2021, Paris–Roubaix Femmes has allowed the women’s peloton to battle the pavé, quickly becoming one of their most important races.

Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the oldest of the Monuments, follows later in April. First run in 1892 and nicknamed “La Doyenne,” it traces a hilly route through Belgium’s Ardennes region. Covering around 250 kilometres, the race sends riders from Liège to Bastogne and back over a series of steep côtes.

Climbs such as the Côte de La Redoute and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons are short but relentless, and the repeated efforts turn the final hour into a grind for only the strongest. Grand Tour contenders often excel here, making the race a unique crossover between climbers and one-day specialists.

The outcome is typically shaped by attacks in the last 50 kilometres, leading to selective small-group finishes. Winning “La Doyenne” aligns a rider with history, echoing multiple victories by greats like Eddy Merckx, as well as Pogacar and Evenepoel in recent years.

Il Lombardia closes the Monument season in autumn. First raced in 1905 and known as, “the Race of the Falling Leaves,” it takes place in late September or early October. The course winds through the Lombardy region, often around Lake Como, on a hilly route suited to climbers.

The Madonna del Ghisallo, which passes a chapel revered by cyclists, is a signature ascent, and the mix of long climbs and technical descents creates a demanding test, especially late in the season when fatigue is high. Il Lombardia often produces dramatic solo victories, and for Italian riders in particular it carries immense pride. As of 2025 it remains the only Monument without a women’s equivalent.

Strade Bianche, though not officially a Monument, has become one of cycling’s most admired one-day races, and an unofficial sixth monument. Created in 2007 in Tuscany and held in early March, it is defined by the strade bianche, white gravel roads that make up around a third of the race.

The gravel sectors, rolling hills, and constant surface changes make for unpredictable and selective racing. It starts and finishes in Siena, with a spectacular finale up narrow cobbled streets into the Piazza del Campo. The race has quickly gained prestige thanks to its beauty and difficulty.

Multiple-time winners such as Fabian Cancellara and Tadej Pogacar have praised it, and French rider Thibaut Pinot even called it “the sixth Monument.” Many fans now argue there is no longer any debate that Strade Bianche is cycling’s sixth Monument reflecting how cherished it has become.

The UCI Road World Championships complete the picture. Unlike ´´commercial races, the Worlds are contested by national teams rather than trade teams and award the second most prestigious jersey in cycling: the rainbow jersey. These are often different with a varying amount of riders per team, no

Held annually, usually in late September or sometimes August, the Championships rotate countries each year, creating varied courses. Some editions favour climbers with hilly circuits, others sprinters on flatter loops.

The winner wears the white jersey with rainbow stripes for a full year and retains rainbow trim for life, and the race normally lasts six to seven hours over multiple laps, with tactics reshaped by national alliances.

From the three-week intensity of the Grand Tours to the cobbles of Roubaix, the coastal drama of Milano-Sanremo, the hills of Liège, the gravel of Tuscany, and the coveted rainbow jersey, these races form the heart of professional cycling. They are the events that riders plan their seasons around, the milestones that define careers, and the spectacles that fans return to year after year. So yes, whilst the race for yellow in July is the most famous part of cycling, there is so much more to this sport than the Tour de France.