(crowd cheering) (horns blaring)
- E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem,
the tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix.
These are the four most prestigious of the Cobbled Classics.
And this video looks at the five riders
who have made these unique races their own.
(instrumental music)
There's no real surprise to see the Cannibal on this list.
The Belgian legend ate cobbles for breakfast
as well as mountains,
and pretty much every other race he rode, for that matter.
Amassing 525 wins during his 18-year career as a pro.
Now aside from the sheer volume of wins,
the thing that differentiates Merckx
from the other riders in this video
is that he didn't specialise in the Classics like they did.
Because of his almost otherworldly physical abilities,
he specialised at everything.
His record of 11 Grand Tour wins still stands
and, in addition to his Cobbled wins,
he won every cycling Monument at least twice.
His first success at the Cobbled Classics
came as a fresh-faced 21-year-old
in they 1967 Gent-Wevelgem,
riding in the iconic black and white chequered kit of Persia
where he out-sprinted an eight-man breakaway.
The following season, Merckx switched to the Faema team
and landed his first Cobbled Monument
in the form of Paris-Roubaix.
Outsprinting his sole breakaway partner,
Herman Van Springel, in the Roubaix Velodrome,
whilst clad in the rainbow jersey of world champion,
only the second rider ever to do so at the time.
He then went on to win his first Grand Tour,
the Giro D'Italia, that very same year,
underlining his supreme versatility.
1969 saw a wet and extremely windy edition
of the Tour of Flanders,
a race in which he destroyed the opposition
with a typical show of strength,
attacking solo with 70 kilometres still to race,
to win alone, by five and a half minutes.
This form continued and saw him take that year's
Milan-San Remo, Liege-Bastogne-Liege,
and, yes and, the Tour de France.
1970 saw him take his second wins
in Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix,
en route to his first ever Giro-Tour de France double.
Was there anything he couldn't do?
He scored another Gent-Wevelgem,
Paris-Roubaix double in 1973,
and in 1975 soloed to his last-ever Cobbled Classics win
in the Tour of Flanders,
raising his arms in Meerbeke whilst in the rainbow jersey.
The final Cobbled total for Eddy?
Three Gent-Wevelgems, three Paris-Roubaix,
and two Tour de Flanders.
(upbeat music)
What makes Johan Museeuw one of the greatest ever
to have ridden across the pave of France
and over the hellingen of Belgium,
isn't solely his tally of wins,
although his Cobbled trophy cabinet is pretty impressive,
it was more the manner and the style in which he rode.
Throughout his career, he raced with all the attributes
of a true Flandrian, someone who,
no matter how tough the conditions, never gives up,
and who has the character of a fighter.
He constantly exemplified these qualities,
but none more particularly so
than following his terrible fall
in the 1998 edition of Paris-Roubaix
on the Forest of Arenberg,
where he broke his left kneecap
and the injury turned to gangrene,
leaving his leg perilously close to amputation.
However, he fought back and resumed cycling
after a long healing process,
finishing third in the Tour of Flanders in 1999
and ninth in Paris-Roubaix,
exactly a year after that awful crash.
Then in 2000 he won Paris-Roubaix for the second time,
after a 44-kilometer solo ride.
Upon crossing the finish line in victory,
he lifted his left leg, pointing to his knee
as a reminder of the injury
that had almost ended his career two years before.
De Zeemeeuw, or the Seagull, as he was also known,
turned professional in 1988,
but didn't open his Cobbled Classics account until 1992,
when he took the E3-Prijs Vlaanderen
and followed that up in 1993
by taking a famous victory in the Tour of Flanders,
wearing the black, yellow and red
of Belgian National Road Champion.
In 1995, his MG-GB team merged with Mapei-Clas,
form the Italian-Belgian Mapei team
that dominated the Classics throughout the 1990s.
That season,
following his second win in the Tour of Flanders,
the Flemish media gave him the nickname
the Lion of Flanders.
And the following year he won his first ever Paris-Roubaix,
ably backed up by his incredibly strong Mapei team,
who took all three podium spots
after breaking clear with around 85 kilometres to go.
In 1998, only weeks prior to that near career-ending crash,
he won GP E3, and followed that up
by taking the Tour of Flanders,
for a record-equaling third time.
And his final Classic victory came in 2002,
in the 100th edition of Paris-Roubaix,
a truly epic rain- and mud-soaked affair
that saw Museeuw crush the opposition,
riding away with 40 kilometres remaining,
and winning by just over three minutes.
Third place on that day
went to a 21-year-old Belgian named Tom Boonen.
Museeuw's final Cobbled tally then?
Two GP E3s, and three each in Flanders and Roubaix.
(upbeat music)
Spartacus is only one of two riders in history
to complete the Cobbled Classic double-double,
in winning both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix
in the same year, twice, occupying a rarefied place
in the pantheon of Classics legends, alongside Tom Boonen.
Cancellara's maiden Classics success
came in 2006 whilst riding for CSC
on the biggest stage of all, Paris-Roubaix.
He'd already shown excellent form
with sixth in both Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders,
but it was the dominant manner of his victory in Roubaix
that showed the world he was going to be
a force to be reckoned with.
On the Carrefour de l'Arbre,
he thundered away from a select group of riders,
and powered into the Roubaix Velodrome solo,
just under two minutes in front of Tom Boonen.
A Classics star was born.
In the 2010 edition of the Tour of Flanders,
after already netting the GP E3,
he famously rode Tom Boonen off his wheel
on the iconic climb of the Muur de Geraardsbergen
with a Herculean show of strength
that propelled him to his first win at De Ronde.
The Swiss champion then finished off his Cobbled campaign
by winning Paris-Roubaix for the second time,
and completing his first double.
A feat he went on the repeat again in 2013.
In fact, you could actually call this achievement
a double-triple, as he won GP E3 in 2013 as well.
In 2014, the double Olympic time trial champion
won his final Cobbled Classic, the Tour of Flanders,
for the third time.
His seventh Monument win in a glittering career,
and placing him third on the all-time list
of Cobbled Classics riders.
(upbeat music)
Born in 1933, in Grobbendonk in Belgium,
Rik Van Looy dominated the post-World War II era
of the Cobbled Classics.
So much so, that he earned the nickname
the King of the Classics.
Now aside from his prowess on the pave,
he was one of the most accomplished all-rounders
of all time, and in 1961 became the first rider in history
to have won all five of the cycling Monuments,
Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix,
Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and the Tour of Lombardy.
Armed with a blistering sprint,
he won an astounding 42 races in 1965, for example,
and the ability to absorb the punishment delivered
by the cobbles in the rugged, often bleak,
terrain of Flanders and Northern France.
He was a force of nature.
It was as if these Classics were designed
specifically for him.
The 1956 edition of Gent-Wevelgem
was his first win in a Cobbled Classic
whilst riding for Faema-Guerra,
opening the door to an eventual haul of 12 Cobbled Classics
over his 18-year professional career.
His last win came in his penultimate season as a pro.
In 1969 in the GP E3, his fourth in that race.
Now 83, the Emperor of Herentals,
another nickname given to him
after the Belgian town where he lived,
he sits second on the list
of the greatest cobbled riders of all time.
And here's why.
In addition to the four wins of the GP E3,
he won Gent-Wevelgem three times,
the Tour of Flanders twice,
and took a hat trick of wins in Paris-Roubaix.
(upbeat music)
Tornado Tom burst onto the professional scene
at the tender age of 21, as a neo-pro,
with an incredible ride to third place
in the queen of the Classics, Paris-Roubaix,
whilst riding for the U.S. Postal team.
This standout ride saw him sign,
controversially at the time, as he was still under contract,
for Patrick Lefevere's Quick-Step-Davitamon team,
the squad he was to spend
his entire professional career riding for.
And what a career it was.
After a difficult 2003, where he was beset with injury,
2004 saw the young Belgian
quickly become a feared and respected force.
He could ride the cobbles as if it was second nature,
had incredibly depth of endurance,
and was ridiculously fast in the sprints.
And his maiden win in a Cobbled Classic
came in the 2004 E3 Harelbeke.
And only a week or so later,
he added Gent-Wevelgem to his rapidly-growing palmares.
2005 saw Boonen take his first Cobbled triple,
With GP E3, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix,
and he capped off this stellar season
by making a bit of history,
in winning the World Road Race Championships as well,
the only rider to have won Flanders, Roubaix,
and the Worlds in the same season.
From then on, he kept winning and winning,
taking his second Flanders-Roubaix double in 2012
and hoovering up a quite incredible tally
of 15 Cobbled Classics throughout his 16-year career,
making him the greatest Cobbled Classics rider ever,
three wins ahead of Rik Van Looy,
and six in front of Fabian Cancellara.
So, five wins in the GP E3, three editions of Gent-Wevelgem,
three Tour of Flanders, and four Paris-Roubaix,
a record total he shares with fellow Belgian,
Roger De Vlaeminck.
And had it not been for Matt Haymans' powerful intervention
in the 2026 edition of Paris-Roubaix,
where he finished an agonising, yet heroic, second,
Boonen would be alone on five wins.
Well I hope you enjoyed our look
at the kings of the cobbles.
Now for some more cobbled action,
check out How to Ride Cobbled Climbs
with the legend himself, Johan Museeuw.