Stat Attack: How many teams have won all five Monuments?

The Monument Classics are the real currency of success in one-day racing. Which riders have won these races, and how many they have won, is something which is always discussed and tracked very closely over the course of careers. But which teams have managed to tick off some or all of these races is a more opaque topic.

So it got me thinking, which teams, if any, have managed to win all five of these races? And which teams, over the course of their years of existence, have the highest success rates?

Well, I’ve told you a lie straight away. This actually got Dan Lloyd thinking, not me. But he asked me if I knew the answers to this question, and I didn’t. So I’ve gone and figured out all the answers and stolen his idea for this Stat Attack.

Of all of the current men’s teams, the short answer to that first question is ‘yes’. There are two current teams who have won all five Monument Classics – Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy.

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It probably comes as no surprise that Soudal Quick-Step is one of them. They’ve existed for 21 years, but they have actually won four of the Monuments over the past five years thanks to Julian Alaphilippe (Milan-San Remo), Philippe Gilbert (Paris-Roubaix), Kasper Asgreen (Tour of Flanders) and Remco Evenepoel (Liège-Bastogne-Liège). It is only for the Tour of Lombardy that they have to dip further into their history to find a winner, to 2005 and 2006, when Paolo Bettini won the race back to back (the last time this race was won by the current world champion).

In total, Soudal Quick-Step have won 22 Monuments in 21 years, and with some quick maths I can confirm that this is just over one Monument Classic per year for Patrick Lefevere’s team.

There is one other current team that have won all five: Lotto Dstny. However, they are rather the opposite of Soudal Quick-Step because in this case, Lotto Dstny’s wins are all rather a long time ago now. Their last Monument victory was Gilbert’s masterful win at Liège in 2011.

Their one and only win at Milan-San Remo came last century thanks to Andrei Tchmil. Between Gilbert, Tchmil and Peter Van Petegem they covered all five Monuments. They have ‘only’ won eight altogether and because they’ve been around for nearly 40 years, their hit rate is way off that of Soudal Quick-Step – a paltry 0.21 Monument wins per year.

The current team with a hit rate closest to Soudal Quick-Step’s is actually Bahrain-Victorious, with 0.57 wins per year. Time is on their side here as they’ve only existed for seven years and have been successful on four occasions, all of which are rather memorable.

Vincenzo Nibali won the Tour of Lombardy for them in 2017, the first of his two consecutive Monument wins as he followed that up with a win at San Remo, the last big win of his career. Then came Sonny Colbrelli’s mud-caked win at the October Paris-Roubaix in 2021 (when he became the first debutant to win that race since Germain Derycke in 1953). And their fourth and most recent was Matej Mohorič’s outrageous descent down the Poggio to win Milan-San Remo in 2022.

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On the cusp of greatness

Lidl-Trek are the only other team with a hit rate above 0.4, with 0.46 wins per year. They have existed for 13 years and have won six Monuments thanks to Jasper Stuyven (Milan-San Remo), Fabian Cancellara (Flanders twice and Roubaix once) and Bauke Mollema and Oliver Zaugg (both Lombardy). When Zaugg won that race he was the first rider to win a Monument as his first ever professional win since 1953 when Bruno Landi won his first ever race at the Tour of Lombardy.

Lidl-Trek are actually as close as any team to completing the set of all five, only missing Liège-Bastogne-Liège. With Bauke Mollema, Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose, who have all had decent results there before, it is conceivable that they could do it this year.

There are two other teams who need one more win to nab all five. EF Education-EasyPost only need Milan-San Remo having won one each of the other four through Alberto Bettiol (Flanders), Johan Vansummeren (Roubaix) and Dan Martin (Liège and Lombardy). They have a very slight chance of completing the set this weekend where their best bet will probably be Bettiol again, or perhaps Neilson Powless, although I’m not sure I can imagine either of those scenarios actually happening.

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The third and final team on the cusp of greatness are Jayco AlUla. They have Milan-San Remo and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the bag thanks to Simon Gerrans, Roubaix was won by Mat Hayman and Lombardy was conquered by Esteban Chaves, the only Colombian Monument winner ever. So they just need a win in Flanders. Michael Matthews has finished sixth there before and is their most likely avenue for success there this year.

The worst hit rates

On the other end of the scale, there are three current WorldTour teams who have never won a Monument. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale are still Monument-less after 32 years, although they have achieved podiums in all but Lombardy.

Intermarché-Wanty aren’t quite as bad, having only existed for half of the years that Decathlon AG2R have. The closest Intermarché have come was a second place for Quinten Hermans at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2022, their only podium finish ever in these races, although nobody was really that close to Evenepoel that year.

That leaves Arkéa-B&B Hotels as the worst Monument Classics team in the WorldTour. Although, to be fair to them, they have existed since 2005 but only began riding Monuments in 2011 and even then it was as an invited team to just Paris-Roubaix every year. They have only been regulars in the Monuments for the past four years. Nevertheless they have no podium finishes and only two top-10s to speak of.

I hope that answers all of Dan Lloyd’s questions. Incidentally, his Cervélo Test Team had a Monument Classic hit rate of 0.0.