Holiday days lend themselves like few others to games with family and friends. In our small way, we also want to propose one: who is the Italian rider with the greatest number of victories in the monument classics? In the opinion of the writer, a pleasant pastime to refresh the memory, broaden the cycling culture and – above all – escape the temptation to evoke the inevitable both after the first number drawn in the tombola.
Girardengo and Coppi the runners Italians with the most victories in the classical monument
Modern-day globalized cycling makes comparisons between cycling rather difficult eras and generations. However, one thing is certain: until the early years Two-thousandthe tricolor movement steadily occupied the monument scene before slipping dangerously into the rear – as is known, the last Italian victory dates back to 2021, when Sonny Colbrelli he won an unforgettable one Parigi-Roubaix dressed in autumn.
Naturally, this is not the place to delve into the now chronic misfortunes that afflict the Italian cycling environment. Here the numbers count. And the statistics they tell us that the multiple winners come from the same province: the Costante people from Alessandria Girardengo and Fausto Coppi are at the top of the rankings with 9 successes each. However, theHeron of Castellania can boast at least one victory in three different classics: 5 centers per Tour of Lombardy (four of them consecutive) between 1946 and 1954, 3 triumphs at the Milan-Sanremo (1946-19548-1949) and the Paris-Roubaix 1950. On the contrary, the champion of New Ligure he ground 6 Classicissime from 1918 to 1928 and 3 Lombardy (1919-1921-1922). Behind them, two other legends of our cycling: 7 monument for Gino Bartali (4 Sanremo, 3 Lombardy), 6 each for Alfredo Bind (2 victories in the Riviera, four in the classic dead leaves) and Moreno Argentin, who boasts 4 editions of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1985-1986-1987-1991), the Tour of Flanders 1990 and the Tour of Lombardy 1987.
The runner Treviso he also belongs to the small club of Italian athletes with success in three of the five monuments: Michele is also part of it Bartoli (5 victories between Flanders, Liège and Lombardy from 1996 to 2001) Paolo Bettini (5 laurels: one Sanremo, two Liège, two Lombardy between 2000 and 2006), Francesco Moser (5 victories between Sanremo, Lombardia and Roubaix from 1975 to 1984), Felice Gimondi (4 successes: the Tours of Lombardy 1966 and 1973, the Milan-Sanremo 1974, the Paris-Roubaix 1966), Andrea Go – which conquered Lombardy between 1996 and 1999, Ronde and Roubaix – and the Very champion par excellence.
Bettini leads the list of multiple winners in the 21st century
Having closed this parenthesis, let’s go back to scrolling through the ranking of multiple winners: Bartoli, Bettini and Moser share fifth place with 5 triumphs, one more than Gimondi and Gaetano Belloniwho won two Sanremos and as many Tours of Lombardy between the 1910s and the 1920s. At 3, however, the quartet formed by Fiorenzo Magni – who won the highest podium in the championship for three consecutive years (1949-1950-1951) Tour of Flanders – Vincenzo Nibali (Lombardy champion in 2015 and 2017, to which he added Sanremo 2018), Damiano Cunego (three times winner of Lombardy between 2004 and 2008) and Tafi. Finally, two victories for Gianbattista Baronchelli (Lombardy 1977 and 1986), Franco Bitossi (victorious at Lombardia in 1967 and 1970), Giovanni Brunero (two consecutive Lombardias in 1923 and 1924), Gianni fight (Sanremo 1990 and Flanders 1994), Danilo Di Luca (Giro di Lombardia 2001, Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2007), Learco Guerra – scored in the 1930s in both of our home classics – Loretto Petrucci (champion in the Riviera in 1952 and 1953) and Giuseppe Elmtriumphant in Sanremo in the interwar period.
Liège has not flown the Italian flag since 2007
If you want to enrich yours game Christmas, you can insert a bonus question: what is the classic monument in which the Italian victory has been missing the longest? Fans know well that Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the most hostile to our colours: after the close victories of Bartoli (1997-1998), Bettini (2000-2002) and Davide Rebellin – victorious in 2004 at the end of a magical week on Ardennes – the last Italian success dates back to 2007 thanks to Danilo By Luca. By a coincidence that is not at all random, Vincenzo Nibali he is the last Italian to have his name entered in the golden book of the Giro di Lombardia (2017) and Milan-Sanremo (2018). Finally, Alberto’s victories are just more recent Bettiol at the Giro delle (2019) and Colbrelli at velodrome of Roubaix (2021). Moments of gloria all in all still close to us. With the hope that they will not remain without follow-up.
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