Making Strade Bianche a Monument would be 'big error' says former winner Gilbert

Calls for Strade Bianche to be granted Monument status have been met with opposition from one of the race’s former winners and one of cycling most decorated Monument men.

Philippe Gilbert, who won the Italian race famous for its white gravel tracks back in 2011, says it would be a “big error” to add it to the exclusive club of the sport’s five biggest one-day races.

During a glittering career that ended in 2022, Gilbert became the ninth rider in history to win four separate Monuments, taking out Il Lombardia twice in 2009 and 2010, Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2011, Tour of Flanders in 2017, and Paris-Roubaix in 2019, to leave just Milan-San Remo, where he was twice on the podium.

Making Strade Bianche a Monument might be seen to retroactively grant Gilbert a fifth crown in his late-career ‘Strive for Five’ quest but, despite joking about the appeal of that prospect, he is very much against the idea.

“This will not happen!” he wrote on X before ridiculing the notion of a '180km' race counting as a Monument.

Read more: Strade Bianche route adds two new gravel sectors and increases men's distance to 215km

The distance of Strade Bianche, however, will increase significantly in 2024, rising to 215km. That’s still short of the 250km ballpark most of the others occupy – and 300km in the case of Milan-San Remo – but it has nevertheless been seen as a new layer of prestige added to the groundswell of fan popularity since its inception in 2007.

For Gilbert, though, other races remain more deserving of Monument status.

“Even so, the Clásica San Sebastián and Amstel [Gold Race] are historically much bigger races,” he argued.

San Sebastián in Spain, which Gilbert won in 2011, is itself relatively young, only introduced in 1981, while Amstel in the Netherlands, which he won four times, dates back to 1966.

Another aspect of Gilbert's argument is that both of those races take place in countries that don't currently host Monuments, which are taken by Belgium (Flanders and Liège), France (Paris-Roubaix), and Strade Bianche's homeland of Italy (Milan-San Remo and Il Lombardia).

Read more: Day-tripping Il Lombardia: Can we get to Bergamo and back in 24 hours?

“It would be a big error to have three Monuments in one and the same country when the UCI has talked about internationalisation and globalisation for years," Gilbert said.

Do you think Strade Bianche should be a Monument? Do you even believe in the concept of the five Monuments? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Strade Bianche

• Dates 2 Mar
• Race Length 215 kms
• Start Siena
• Finish Siena
• Race Category Elite Men