As Gilbert moves from Deceuninck Quick-Step, arguably the greatest one day cycling team of all time, to rival Belgium squad Lotto-Soudal there is one question remaining left in his long and victory laden career. Will he win Milan-San Remo and join the three other Belgians in achieving one of the greatest feats in cycling? Achieving victory in each of cycling’s five one day ‘monuments’; Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and Il Lombardia. Previously only Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck managed this feat but, at the risk of disregarding historical greatness, cycling has evolved and become more specialised than ever before.
For Gilbert though there is a major obstacle. Time. At 37 it is against him. At this point it’s worth taking a moment to understand why winning all 5 bike races is so difficult. Very broadly the 5 races can be split into three categories. Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders take place on cobblestones, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia both involve a large amount of climbing, and Milan-San Remo is wonderfully balanced course which can be won by a sprinter, a punchy climber, or a more classic one day specialist. Therefore, if someone was to plan an assault on all 5 monuments, they would likely focus on them as follows. When young riders they tend to be the quickest they will ever be in sprinting terms, so Milan-San Remo would likely be their first target, then this rider would likely focus on their climbing allowing them to tick of Liege and Lombardia, followed by a late career transition into a diesel engine capable of winning Flanders and Roubaix. Gilbert has followed this path perfectly with one problem, he missed San Remo at the start of his career and despite once being a very good sprinter on a hilly course he is physically further from that point than he has ever been since he turned professional. He may still win it in 2020, but assuming he does not, who is the most likely candidate to win all five monuments?
The obvious answer would appear to be Julian Alliphillipe. In 2019 he replaced Peter Sagan as probably the most celebrated cyclist in the sport and having already claimed Milan San-Remo and the King of the Mountains Jersey in the Tour de France he would appear well poised to make such a transition. But I question whether he will be distracted by a quest to win the Tour and if he is physically capable of winning Paris-Roubaix.
Instead I suggest there is one rider who would have the skillset which could lend itself to winning all 5 of these races, Gianni Moscon. There is a small caveat, he has never won a big race. At 25 he is no longer a young rider but as I said the skillset he has is genuinely exciting. This has been demonstrated by the fact that in 2017 he competed in all 5 of the monuments for Team Sky, which is not that common. He has demonstrated his climbing ability in the 2018 Innsbruck World Championships where he came 5th and by coming 3rd in Lombardia in 2017. That year he also came 5th in Paris-Roubaix that year and was seen being competitive in some sprints at the Vuelta a Espana. Moscon is a rider who has had numerous controversies throughout his career which at times have threatened to cost him the major victories that should be somewhat inevitable. The fact that Team Ineos/Sky have retained him throughout these controversies is a testament to the faith they retain in him as a rider.
Will Moscon win all 5 monuments? Unlikely, it remains one of the toughest achievements in the sport of cycling. Will he even win 1? Hopefully? But if anyone from this generation could win all 5 then I believe that it is Gianni Moscon.
Cycling Opinion and Analysis 