An awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary “classic” races in world cycling.The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling''s one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called ''Monuments'', the five legendary races that are the sport''s equivalent of golf''s majors or the grand slams in tennisMilan–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris­–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Lombardy date back more than a century, and each of them is an anomaly in modern-day sport, the cycling equivalent of the Monaco Grand Prix. Time has changed them to a degree, but they remain as brutally testing as they ever have beenThey provide the sport''s outstanding one-day performers with a chance to measure themselves against each other and their predecessors in the most challenging tests in world cycling. From the bone-shattering bowler-hat cobbles of the Paris–Roubaix to the insanely steep hell