{"product_id":"monuments","title":"The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eAn awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary “classic” races in world cycling.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 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 tennis. Milan–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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTime has changed them to a degree, but they remain as brutally testing as they ever have been. They 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 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ehellingen\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ein the Tour of Flanders, each race is as unique as the riders who push themselves through extreme exhaustion to win them and enter their epic history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver the course of a century, only Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have won all five races. Yet victory in a single edition of a Monument guarantees a rider lasting fame. For some, that one victory has even more cachet than success in a grand tour. Each of the Monuments has a fascinating history, featuring tales of the finest and largest characters in the sport. In this updated edition of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Monuments\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePeter Cossins tells the tumultuous history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"A\u0026C BLACK","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40313179537506,"sku":"9781399407861","price":364.89,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1279\/5591\/files\/416Bysc6BiL._SY445_SX342_QL70_FMwebp.webp?v=1772619079","url":"https:\/\/elexacademicbookstore.co.za\/products\/monuments","provider":"Elex Academic Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}