“For me, Roubaix is closer to the city of Liège, in Belgium, than to Tours or Orléans, and I think Paris-Roubaix is a more Flemish race than French! » This assertion by a passionate and very good connoisseur of cycling will make some cyclists cringe. But Laurent Galinon, author of a book released at the end of February (1) devoted to the “classics”, these great one-day cycling races, takes on this pleasant provocation.
“Ask Bernard Hinault for his opinion, he said that Paris-Roubaix was rubbish even after winning it. Other French winners like Marc Madiot or Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle could not find any compatriot to accompany them on the cobblestones…”, advances the author. “It’s a sign, isn’t it? In France, as everyone knows, only the Tour de France counts, the rest doesn’t interest many people, except in the North. »
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All the classics are more or less from local fairs, where cycling races were added at the end of the 19th century, often on the initiative of owners at a time when the bicycle had become the means of transport to come to work. in the factories. “At the beginning, it was a question of occupying the workers on Sunday afternoon to divert them from the taverns and communism, which means that the Church, rather opposed to the festivities at the start, ended up understanding the interest “says Laurent Galinon, who details in his book the Vatican’s adherence to the two great Italian classics, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Lombardy.
“The Tour of Flanders, Everest in one day”
Although it starts at the end of February, the classics season really takes off in Belgium at the end of March, with the two so-called “Flandrian” races. Ghent-Wevelgem, won on Sunday March 27 to everyone’s surprise by the Eritrean Biniam Girmay, followed by “Through Flanders”, won on Wednesday March 30 by the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel. Which intends to win for the second time on Sunday April 3 on the biggest of all, the Tour of Flanders.
“It’s for this kind of racing that we love this job”, explains Marc Madiot, boss of the Française des Jeux, former winner of Paris-Roubaix, who is well aware that the Tour of Flanders has always or almost always been the preserve of Belgians, Dutch or Italians (the last French victory dates back to 1992 with Jacky Durand). “It is undoubtedly the most important of the classics today, but that has not always been the case, all the classics have had their ups and downs in their long history”, adds Laurent Galinon.
A sixth monument?
If Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders are today at the top of the pile, the palm has long been awarded to the Ardennes Liège-Bastogne-Liège, from which we can never withdraw its title of dean, from the top of its 130 years (it was created in 1892). This notion of longevity is also mandatory to deserve the term classic in the bicycle dictionary. “It takes years to install a myth, to tell stories”, continues this author, who is also a specialist in… Italian cinema.
→ PORTRAIT. Tour of Flanders: Wout Van Aert, a cycling champion from afar
“For a classic to be great, there must be good guys, bad guys, traitors, injustices, twists, surprises and a decor commensurate with the event”, continues this cinephile in love with the dramatic comedies of Dino Risi. The greatest classics merge with crossing points that have entered into mythology: Milan-San Remo has its Poggio (a climb just before the finish), the Tour of Flanders the climb of Grammont, the Flèche wallonne the wall of Huy, Paris-Roubaix the (paved) gap at Arenberg, Liège-Bastogne-Liège the Côte de la Redoute. And the tour of Lombardy, the Ghisallo pass, where a young priest in love with the little queen had convinced Pius XII to dedicate a chapel to cyclists.
The world of cycling commentators has adopted for fifteen years a new term to evoke the five great races. Today we speak of “monuments”, but this term leaves purists like Laurent Galinon thinking, who leave it up to each amateur to determine which of the great one-day races is most dear to his heart. « Moi, c’est le circuit Het Nieuwsblad (Ardennes) in February, because it is still very cold, others like Milan-San Remo because it is the beginning of spring in Italy. » In a recent poll conducted by the newspaper The Team, professional runners have acclaimed the Strade Bianche (“white route”), a race created in 2007 which takes place mainly on gravel paths in Italy. According to them, it will soon be the sixth monument.
