https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/montreal-1974-world-championships-how-merckx-completed-cyclings-rarest-feat.html Montreal 1974 World Championships | How Merckx completed cycling's rarest feat Montreal, August 25, 1974. The World Championships leave Europe for the very first time. 262.5 kilometers, 21 laps up and over Mount Royal, crushing heat. Of the 70 riders who start, only 18 reach the finish.One man has a mission: win the Giro, the Tour and the Worlds, all in the same season. A strong French contingent stands in his way — Raymond Poulidor, Bernard Thevenet, Mariano Martinez. Thevenet attacks solo with 100 kilometers to go and builds a lead of over two minutes. Behind him, a five-man chase forms around Eddy Merckx. Lap after lap up Mount Royal, the gap comes down. On the final climb, with seven kilometers left, Merckx catches Thevenet and attacks immediately. Only 38-year-old Poulidor can hold his wheel. Merckx wins the sprint, takes the rainbow jersey, and becomes only the third rider in history — and the first ever in a single season — to complete cycling's Triple Crown. https://img.youtube.com/vi/Cx-hDemSj3g/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cx-hDemSj3g 2026-09-25 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/the-crash-that-nearly-killed-merckx.html The CRASH that nearly killed MERCKX September 9, 1969. Just weeks after his first Tour de France win, Eddy Merckx lines up for a demonstration race behind derny bikes on the track in Blois, France. A pedal snaps off one of the pacing bikes. His derny rider, Fernand Wambst, can't avoid it. Merckx is found unconscious more than 10 meters away, with a gaping head wound. Wambst doesn't survive. Merckx returns to racing weeks later — but he's never quite the same again. Lasting tension in his hips, a shifted pelvis, chronic back pain on climbs. From 1970 onward he carries a wrench in his back pocket to adjust his saddle mid-race. After Blois, it was only half a Merckx. And he still went on to win 525 times. https://img.youtube.com/vi/PVf3vynjMcM/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/PVf3vynjMcM 2026-08-28 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/the-apocalyptic-1985-tour-of-flanders.html The APOCALYPTIC 1985 Tour of Flanders The 1985 Tour of Flanders was one of the most brutal editions in history. Biblical rain turns the Koppenberg into a sheet of ice. Of the 173 riders who start, only 24 reach the finish. Eric Vanderaerden, a 23-year-old sprinter in the Belgian champion’s jersey, punctures just two kilometers before the Koppenberg and is forced to chase back into the chaos. Around him the storm takes rider after rider: Laurent Fignon crashes out, Jan Raas is dropped, Sean Kelly slides into the ditch.Vanderaerden fights his way back. 36-year-old Hennie Kuiper launches a dangerous solo move. Vanderaerden refuses to let it go and bridges across with teammate Phil Anderson. The three of them reach the base of the Muur van Geraardsbergen as the last men with a chance of winning. On that final wall, Vanderaerden simply rides away. Kuiper, hampered by a bent pedal, can't respond. The sprinter who wasn’t supposed to survive the day becomes the solo winner of the Ronde. https://img.youtube.com/vi/Qc83p0WEuGg/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qc83p0WEuGg 2026-09-18 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/the-day-even-the-cannibal-had-to-walk-koppenberg-1976.html The day even the CANNIBAL had to walk: Koppenberg 1976 In 1976, the Koppenberg entered the Tour of Flanders for the first time and broke the peloton. This footage captures the very first ascent of what would become one of Belgium's most feared cobbled climbs. Steep, narrow, and paved with brutally uneven cobblestones, the Koppenberg turned that year's race into chaos. Even Eddy Merckx — The Cannibal, five-time winner of the Tour de France — was forced off his bike and had to walk. The Koppenberg would go on to feature in the race until 1987, when a crash involving Danish rider Jesper Skibby led to its temporary removal. It returned in 2002 after the road was fully rebuilt, and remains one of the most iconic — and hated — climbs in the sport today. https://img.youtube.com/vi/TCzR1-9NYKY/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/TCzR1-9NYKY 2026-07-05 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/world-champion-for-a-second.html WORLD CHAMPION for a SECOND The 1988 World Championship in Ronse, deep in the Flemish Ardennes, is remembered as one of the most controversial finishes in the sport's history. After 270 grueling kilometers over the Kruisberg and the Hotond, local hero Claude Criquielion is on the verge of becoming world champion for the second time — fifteen kilometers from his own front door. Riding alongside him is Maurizio Fondriest, the young Italian tipped as the next big star of the sport, and Canadian challenger Steve Bauer. With 200 meters to go, Bauer launches the sprint. Criquielion moves to come around him, but Bauer closes the door, and Criquielion crashes just meters from the line. Fondriest rides through to an unexpected world title, barely realizing what has just happened. Bauer is disqualified on the spot for the maneuver. Furious, Criquielion takes Bauer to court, determined to prove the crash on the Kruisberg was no accident. The case drags on for years, through appeal after appeal — until the courts ultimately side with Bauer, ruling that intent was not proven. Despite everything, Criquielion and Bauer would go on to race each other again, but the rainbow jersey that slipped away on the Kruisberg never came back. https://img.youtube.com/vi/NRYPLuZgAQo/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/NRYPLuZgAQo 2026-07-31 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/what-the-1975-paris-roubaix-really-did-to-the-riders.html What the 1975 Paris-Roubaix REALLY did to the riders In 1975, cameras captured what Paris-Roubaix put riders and teams through from start to finish. Rain in the days before the race turned the cobbled sectors into a mudbath, even though race day itself was dry. The race came down to a dramatic final stretch. With 8 kilometers to go, Eddy Merckx punctured and had to chase back to the lead group. He closed the gap so fast that he shot straight past the riders, leaving him with nothing left for the sprint. Roger De Vlaeminck came around him to win his third Paris-Roubaix. André Dierickx completing the podium in third. But the real story is everything around the race itself: mechanics preparing bikes before the start and fighting a losing battle against mud once the race was underway, riders scraping the dirt off in makeshift showers after the finish, and men left with nothing more to give after 280 kilometers of cobblestones. This is the side of Paris-Roubaix few ever saw. https://img.youtube.com/vi/djj39-2Fyps/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/djj39-2Fyps 2026-09-05 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/inside-the-controversial-1977-tour-of-flanders.html Inside the CONTROVERSIAL 1977 Tour of Flanders In 1977, a camera crew rode along in the broom wagon during the Tour of Flanders and captured something no one expected. Only 26 of the 167 starters finished. As the race unfolds toward Meerbeke, rider after rider abandons and climbs aboard, including Tour de France winner Bernard Thevenet. The footage from inside the wagon shows the human cost of one of cycling's hardest one-day races. The 1977 edition started for the first time in Sint-Niklaas, covering 260 km to Meerbeke. Eddy Merckx attacked on the Oude Kwaremont and led alone for much of the race, but was eventually caught and passed by Roger De Vlaeminck and Freddy Maertens, the latter riding a bike borrowed from a spectator after a crash. De Vlaeminck won the sprint, but the finish was overshadowed by controversy, and the podium turned tense when a Maertens fan confronted the winner. https://img.youtube.com/vi/g2YCpx_WXgY/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/g2YCpx_WXgY 2026-07-11 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/the-controversial-1977-tour-of-flanders.html The CONTROVERSIAL 1977 Tour of Flanders The 1977 Tour of Flanders is remembered as one of the most turbulent editions in the race's history. Midway through, Eddy Merckx launches the decisive attack, but on the Koppenberg chaos erupts: Roger De Vlaeminck is forced off his bike and is furious, while world champion Freddy Maertens swaps to a new bike. Both riders rejoin Merckx shortly after — until Maertens is disqualified forty kilometers later for an illegal bike change. Despite the disqualification, Maertens keeps riding and pulls De Vlaeminck to the finish, doing nearly all the work himself. Merckx is forced to let his two rivals go. What really happened between them remains hotly disputed to this day: Maertens claims De Vlaeminck offered him money mid-race to keep working, and that he later found an envelope at the hotel with half the agreed sum. De Vlaeminck flatly denies it, calling the accusation an outright lie. In the closing kilometers, race officials abruptly reverse their ruling and reinstate Maertens as a contender. But having spared his legs the entire chase in Maertens' slipstream, De Vlaeminck wins the sprint and the race. The crowd's fury is instant. De Vlaeminck is booed relentlessly for his passive tactics, a moment immortalized by a fan who loses his composure on TV, screaming at him on the podium. It later turned out that the fan himself played a leading role... https://img.youtube.com/vi/7MVl3BSjEo4/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/7MVl3BSjEo4 2026-07-18 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/what-could-possibly-go-wrong-the-1987-tour-of-flanders.html What could possibly go WRONG? The 1987 Tour of Flanders The 1987 Tour of Flanders is remembered for one of the strangest incidents in the race's history. On the Koppenberg, a young Danish rider named Jesper Skibby is riding the race of his life — alone in the lead for over 180 kilometers, with the peloton closing in behind him. As Skibby fights his way up the steep, cobbled climb, exhausted and losing his line, the race director's car moves to pass him and clear the road for the approaching pack. The car clips his wheel, then drives straight over his bike — destroying it completely. Skibby is left sitting on the cobbles, his race over, as the very officials running the event become the story. The incident is broadcast live and replayed for weeks. Race director Jacques Martens later explains his decision: years earlier, stopping his car in a similar moment had put him directly in Eddy Merckx's path — and he'd vowed never to stop again, whatever the cost. Claude Criquielion goes on to win the race solo over the Bosberg. But it's Skibby's crash that everyone remembers. The Koppenberg itself would be pulled from the Tour of Flanders for years afterward, only returning once the climb was rebuilt. A year later, Skibby and Martens meet again at a team presentation. Martens apologizes. Skibby's response is simple: what's done is done. https://img.youtube.com/vi/Y1XWqhOxAew/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1XWqhOxAew 2026-08-08 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/how-merckx-became-the-fastest-man-on-earth.html How MERCKX became the FASTEST man on earth On October 25, 1972, in the thin air of Mexico City, Eddy Merckx attempted cycling's purest and most brutal test: the Hour Record. Using rare archival color footage, this is the story of the ride that pushed the greatest cyclist alive to his absolute limit. Merckx covered 49.431 km in sixty minutes — obliterating the previous record by nearly a kilometer. He later said the effort cost him more than any race he'd ever ridden, and that he would never attempt it again. His record would stand unbroken for twelve years, until Francesco Moser finally surpassed it in 1984. Even today, Merckx's 1972 ride is remembered as one of the most punishing individual efforts in the history of the sport. https://img.youtube.com/vi/PcquABjancU/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/PcquABjancU 2026-08-16 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/heroic-or-reckless-the-2015-gent-wevelgem.html HEROIC or RECKLESS? The 2015 Gent-Wevelgem Gent-Wevelgem 2015 is remembered as one of the most brutal editions in the race's history. Force 8 winds tear through the peloton before the riders even reach the first climb, blowing men clean off their bikes and into the ditches lining the course. Of the 200 starters, only 39 will make it to the finish. On the first ascent of the Kemmelberg, Belgian rider Jürgen Roelandts attacks alone. With over 70 kilometers still to race, he pushes into the wind and rain on his own, building a lead of nearly two minutes over the scattered group of favorites behind him — among them Sep Vanmarcke, Niki Terpstra, Geraint Thomas, and 38-year-old Luca Paolini. Roelandts holds his advantage through the first half of his escape, but after the second climb of the Kemmelberg — 50 kilometers into his solo effort — the gap finally closes. His fairytale ends within sight of the finish. I was running on empty, he would say afterward. Behind him, the chase regroups. Niki Terpstra attacks first, but only Paolini can follow. Five kilometers from the line, the Italian plays his final card — and no one can answer. Luca Paolini, a rider many had written off in the twilight of his career, crosses the line for what he would call the greatest victory of his life. This was real cycling, he said. The line between heroism and recklessness runs through every kilometer of this race — through the riders who kept going, the ones who didn't, and the one who finally won it. https://img.youtube.com/vi/oAuhGWNW1gg/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/oAuhGWNW1gg 2026-08-22 yes https://www.cobblesclimbs.com/stories/giro-di-lombardia-1987-one-last-hope-to-save-italys-disastrous-season.html Giro di Lombardia 1987 | One last hope to save Italy's disastrous season Milan, October 17, 1987. The last Monument of the season: 265 kilometers from Como to the Piazza Duomo. For Italian cycling, it has been a season to forget. Stephen Roche wins the Giro d'Italia on an all-foreign podium, only the second in the race's history without a single Italian. His own teammate, defending champion Roberto Visentini, feuds with him in public and never reaches the finish. Roche then takes the Tour and the Worlds too, with Moreno Argentin second, one second behind. Argentin had won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April, but the big prizes have gone abroad. Seventy kilometers from the finish, ten riders break away. Argentin is Italy's last hope. Against him: three Système U riders, including French champion Marc Madiot, plus Belgians Eric Van Lancker and Claude Criquielion, and Flavio Giupponi, the best Italian of that Giro. With 2 kilometers to go, Argentin and Madiot catch Van Lancker. Nobody wants to work with the fastest man in the group. Madiot launches the sprint under the last kilometer. Argentin comes from behind on the left and wins, with Van Lancker second and Madiot third.Gent-Wevelgem 2015 is remembered as one of the most brutal editions in the race's history. Force 8 winds tear through the peloton before the riders even reach the first climb, blowing men clean off their bikes and into the ditches lining the course. Of the 200 starters, only 39 will make it to the finish. On the first ascent of the Kemmelberg, Belgian rider Jürgen Roelandts attacks alone. With over 70 kilometers still to race, he pushes into the wind and rain on his own, building a lead of nearly two minutes over the scattered group of favorites behind him — among them Sep Vanmarcke, Niki Terpstra, Geraint Thomas, and 38-year-old Luca Paolini. Roelandts holds his advantage through the first half of his escape, but after the second climb of the Kemmelberg — 50 kilometers into his solo effort — the gap finally closes. His fairytale ends within sight of the finish. I was running on empty, he would say afterward. Behind him, the chase regroups. Niki Terpstra attacks first, but only Paolini can follow. Five kilometers from the line, the Italian plays his final card — and no one can answer. Luca Paolini, a rider many had written off in the twilight of his career, crosses the line for what he would call the greatest victory of his life. This was real cycling, he said. The line between heroism and recklessness runs through every kilometer of this race — through the riders who kept going, the ones who didn't, and the one who finally won it. https://img.youtube.com/vi/o8I_lZWOlwo/maxresdefault.jpg https://www.youtube.com/embed/o8I_lZWOlwo 2026-10-09 yes