GCN Stat Attack: Is Il Lombardia the worst of cycling’s Monuments?

There are five Monuments in cycling, denoting the five most illustrious one-day races in the sport. Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the oldest, Tour of Flanders is the youngest and Paris-Roubaix is, perhaps, the most revered. But if Paris-Roubaix is the most beloved - by the fans, at least - which of the Monuments is the worst?

Now, baked into the words ‘best’ and ‘worst’ are oodles of opinion, subjectivity and bias, so it is often a subjective matter on ranking Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia.

But what if we were to ask ourselves which is the hardest, and which is the easiest? Indeed, the matter of opinion still rears its head on this score, however, we can at least begin to quantify some of the numbers behind the races.

Il Lombardia is the easiest Monument to win in cycling

If we are to take the last 60 years of Monument racing - because startlists are very hard to come by beyond this arbitrary figure - we can figure out an average for how many times a rider has to take part in each Monument before they win it. Which Monument takes the most years to learn? In other words, which of the five Monuments can you not just rock up and win without ever having ridden it before?

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

All three podium finishers at the 2021 Paris-Roubaix were riding on debut

Unsurprisingly, the answer to these questions is Paris-Roubaix, with L’Enfer du Nord (the Hell of the North) taking its winner, on average, 4.7 attempts before they eventually rise triumphant. Remarkably, Sonny Colbrelli bucked an almost 70-year-long trend since the last debutant won the men’s Paris-Roubaix when he took victory in 2021. Sadly, it would ultimately be his first and last ride on the cobbles of northern France.

Read more: How cycling broke Sonny Colbrelli's heart

Il Lombardia’s winners, on the other hand, only have to ride the race less than two and a half times, on average, before they taste success. Therefore, some might say it is the easiest of the five Monuments, with debutants offered the best chance at victory.

In fact, there have been several riders who have won the race of the falling leaves on their debut in the race.

Fons De Wolf did it in 1980, Raimondas Rumšas in 2000, Damiano Cunego in 2004 and most recently, Tadej Pogačar for UAE Team Emirates in 2021. The Slovenian remained undefeated in the race last year and will target a third successive title in this Saturday’s edition.

Read more: Il Lombardia 2023 race preview

Pogačar is an example of a serial winner at this level, but Il Lombardia does also offer opportunities to those with lesser palmarès than the two-time champ. Il Lombardia includes a rider on the recent winner’s list who can count it as his only-ever professional win - that was Oliver Zaugg in 2011. Once more, Il Lombardia is evidently the easiest of the five Monuments to win.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

In a 13-year career, Il Lombardia proved the only victory for Oliver Zaugg

Eddy Merckx or Sean Kelly, who do you trust?

As a barometer for greatness in cycling, Eddy Merckx is always a good yardstick, as the greatest male rider of all time. Despite winning 19 Monument races, Il Lombardia was actually the one he won the least - doing so only on two occasions - and the one he rode the least.

In his twelve-year career, the Belgian rode Paris-Roubaix every single season but only rode Il Lombardia - then known as the Giro di Lombardia - eight times. It leads me to wonder, if Merckx only cared about Il Lombardia 66% of the time, maybe the rest of us should only be 66% bothered with it too?

Now, before all the tifosi come down hard on me, we could also take this line of thinking the other way with Sean Kelly.

The legendary Irishman won nine Monument races, and it was Il Lombardia he won the most, doing so on three occasions. He also rode Lombardia twelve times, as opposed to his nine participations in Paris-Roubaix. If a race is good enough for ‘King Kelly,’ then it’s more than good enough for me.

Will Tadej Pogačar win a third successive title on Saturday and join the likes of Kelly and Gino Bartali on three Il Lombardia victories? I can’t wait to find out.

You can watch Il Lombardia live and ad-free (territory restrictions apply) on GCN+ this coming Saturday from 09:00 BST.

This week's World of Cycling episode is out now on GCN+, click here to watch!