The 25 most memorable races of the last 25 years

(Image credit: Sirotti)

From Indurain and Luperini to Van der Poel and Van Vleuten, the past 25 years have served up more than their fair share of iconic moments, and today we're casting our eyes back over the best of the best.

With Cyclingnews turning 25 this year, we decided our series of celebratory features wouldn't be complete without a run-down of the best races of the past quarter of a century.

Van der Poel and the rest of the field were dead and buried; Julian Alaphilippe and Jakob Fuglsang had long disappeared up the road, and were running us through a repeat of Strade Bianche. And yet somehow, somehow, Van der Poel stitched the race back together. You could sense the shock in the home straight when they turned around and saw the advancing Dutchman. By then, he had a line of riders on his wheel – who he'd swept up on the way past – and was snaking across the road, baring down with menace and pushing us to the very edge of our seats, if not out of them. He hadn't even made the catch when, somehow, he found another vicious turn of pace, breezing past Alaphilippe in the final 50 metres, making the Milan-San Remo champion look like was he was sprinting through treacle.

The Giro d'Italia has produced a remarkable sequence of editions over the past decade, but the 2017 race was arguably the pick of the bunch, hitting just about all the notes one anticipates from the corsa rosa in 23 dizzying days of action. There was tension, with four riders still in the hunt on the final day. There were polemics, with Tom Dumoulin and Vincenzo Nibali engaging in a war of words. There was absurdity in the form of Dumoulin's toilet stop on the Stelvio. There was drama, from the controversial crash at the foot of the Blockhaus to Nibali's daredevil descending, to Mikel Landa's sparkling final-week cameo.

Above all, there was a remarkable depth of quality, best illustrated by how Nibali 'only' finished third in what was one of the outstanding Grand Tour displays of his career. It was like cycling's answer to the Euro 2000 football tournament, with an array of potential winners all operating at something close to their very best, as Nibali, Dumoulin, pre-race favourite Nairo Quintana and Thibaut Pinot pushed one another all the way to Milan. The eventual winner Dumoulin forged his triumph in the Montefalco time trial, but adorned it with a series of assured displays in the mountains against such august opposition. (BR)

Here was a rider near the end of his career who had no right to even be contesting the sprint for a Monument, let alone winning it. The fact that he was up against the four-time Roubaix winner in Tom Boonen, and beat the Belgian, made the moment even sweeter. Boonen, in his penultimate Paris-Roubaix appearance, looked set to claim a record-break fifth win as the escapees entered the velodrome, but instead the race ended with one of the most amazing upsets of all time.

A few years earlier, Hayman had missed the winning move by Johan Vansummeren due to poor tactics, and it looked as though the Australian would never have a better chance. Even the road to victory in 2016 was complicated by an injury that forced the GreenEdge rider to train indoors for most of March, but cycling has a way of providing upsets when you least expect them. Hayman's win was special because it proved that perseverance and determination could win through, even against the odds.

The Tour de France has always been a test for well-rounded riders, but when the 2014 Tour de France came upon the pavé for a rain-soaked stage from Ypres to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, it pushed the riders' skill, equipment and mettle to such an extent, it left everyone wondering if such a difficult stage was even fair.

Although the race organisers cut two of the nine planned sectors of pavé, the greasy roads quickly slashed into the ranks of the general classification contenders: defending Tour champion Chris Froome crashed before the race reached the first cobbles and abandoned after a second crash. Andrew Talansky and Tejay van Garderen also crashed, and Alberto Contador lost time to a mechanical.

It was on the vicious four-star sector, the Carrefour de l'Arbre, that yellow jersey holder Vincenzo Nibali, dodging crashes and floating over the rough-hewn stones with the best of the Classics men, began carving minutes out on his rivals. Lars Boom won the day, but thanks to luck, skill, and great teamwork from Astana teammate Lieuwe Westra, Nibali made the race. The stage might have made the race less exciting in the end, but on the day it was a scintillating performance from the Italian. (LW)

After two weeks of racing in the 2012 Vuelta a España, the overall classification looked all but settled. The race had been a ding-dong affair but, overall, by snatching handfuls of seconds here and there on steep uphill finishes, Joaquim Rodríguez looked set to finally take his first Grand Tour title. Chris Froome had started well but faded, due to exhaustion, in the third week, and Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador were never quite able to match Rodríguez on the climbs.

Coming in his first Grand Tour after his two-year suspension for doping, Fuente Dé showed Contador's ability to win a race when not the strongest physically – something he already demonstrated in the 2010 Tour (although he later lost the title anyway) – remained undiminished post-ban. But, most importantly of all, the 2012 Vuelta set Contador up as Sky's most unpredictable, charismatic and dangerous Grand Tour rival, all the way through to his retirement in 2017. (AF)

Fabian Cancellara's form in 2011 was ridiculously good, and by the time the Tour of Flanders rolled around, it wasn't a case of if he would win, but how much of a winning margin he would establish before the finish. His ride at the E3 Harelbeke a few weeks prior, when, despite a mechanical, he rode through every group on the road before winning solo, was one of the most dominant rides of his career.

In the closing kilometres, Cancellara was still among the favourites, and looking strong, but when the winning move formed, it was Chavanel and Nick Nuyens who went with the Swiss rider before Nuyens won a nail-biting sprint finish. The win was a pure demonstration of how tactical acumen, patience and precision-timing could win out over power and strength. Nuyens had barely been at the front throughout the day until the winning move formed, making his victory even sweeter. (DB)

Honourable mentions: The Tour de France featured Thomas Voeckler's stint in yellow, Alberto Contador’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to win at Alpe d’Huez, and Cadel Evans' last-minute toppling of Andy Schleck. Liège-Bastogne-Liège saw Philippe Gilbert complete the Ardennes triple by dispatching both Schlecks, and the Vuelta a España brought a ding-dong battle between surprise contenders Juan José Cobo and Chris Froome. Fabian Cancellara's astonishing exhibition at E3 Harelbeke.

Those that made it to the finish were clearly on a mission and determined to battle on, with Bobbie Traksel, Rick Flens and a young Ian Stannard forming the winning move. The race was nothing if not a war of attrition, with breaks and echelons a constant threat. Traksel went from miles out, first with teammate Vacansoleil Arnaud van Groen, before Stannard and Flens then made contact as the main favourites fell away. The site of Jeremy Hunt pulling out when fourth on the road was a reminder of just how brutal the conditions were.

He did, and took the armchair seat with a kilometre to go as George Hincapie led out the reduced peloton, but a major spanner was thrown in the works when Heinrich Haussler catapulted off the front from some 300 metres out. You can see Cavendish clock it, and he leaves the field for dead as he sets off in pursuit. Haussler weaves right, then left, then right, before the ever-advancing Cavendish emerges and somehow finds an extra kick in the final 50 metres. Still, it doesn't seem enough, and the commentators all call it for Haussler, but Cavendish celebrates and the photo finish backs him up.

It was a suspenseful finale as Cooke unexpectedly lost contact with her rivals through the last corner with just 500 metres to go. The TV crew then switched cameras to instead pan across the finish line as fans waiting for the sprint to emerge over the hill. The riders soon came into view over the crest of the climb, spread wide across the road, with Cooke in the lead. She surged again and crossed the line a bike length ahead of Johansson and Guderzo to secure the gold medal for Great Britain. (KF)

The women's 132.6km race blew up on the final two laps, with a lead group of 15 riders forming, which included high-profile Nicole Brändle (Switzerland), Nicole Cooke (Great Britain), Judith Arndt and Trixi Worrack (Germany), Noemi Cantele (Italy), Oenone Wood (Australia), Amber Neben (USA), Priska Doppmann and Annette Beutler (Switzerland), along with Dutch riders Chantal Beltman and the young Vos.

The enthusiastic Italian commentary that day crescendoed in the final few hundred metres as Alessandro Petacchi appeared to have been given the perfect lead-out by his Fassa Bortolo teammates – only for Zabel, clad in the German road race champion's jersey rather than his T-Mobile team's lurid pink, to pop off the back of the Italian sprinter's wheel with under 100 metres to go, after which it was clear that it was going to be a two-horse race between the German and Spain's Oscar Freire (Rabobank).

So when the domination of one rider sets in over a long period, that thrill and build-up dissipates. That was exactly the atmosphere ahead of the 2003 edition of the race, when the overwhelming favourite, Lance Armstrong, arrived in Paris seeking a fifth and record-equalling win. However, over three weeks in July, the American was made to look human for the first time since 1999, his walls of invincibility chipped away by an opposition that had grown weary and finally raised their game.

The German, who has riding free from the shackles at T-Mobile, was sick and almost quit during the first week, but his renaissance display in the blistering heat of the 47km time trial to Cap'Découverte gave Armstrong his first kicking in years. For the first time since 1999, fans had hope. The German took more time the next day, but by Luz Ardiden, the maillot jaune was sitting a little more comfortably on Armstrong's shoulders, despite a coming together with a fan on the side of the road.

Ullrich's decision to attack before the final climb that day, and instead go clear on the Tourmalet when Armstrong still had so many teammates, remains one of Ullrich's most inexplicable tactical blunders, and by the final time trial in Nantes, the race was over. Ullrich would eventually have to settle for second place after a crash in the rain, but, for the first time in five years, fans had a Tour that kept them gripped and on the edge of their seats. (DB)

The race itself, played out on a Belgian motor-racing circuit on a damp, grey Sunday that could have been lifted from a Jacques Brel song, was hardly much of a spectacle, but the context was fascinating. Mario Cipollini had enjoyed a remarkable renaissance to put together a career-year in 2002, winning Milan-San Remo on his 35th birthday, as well as Gent-Wevelgem, six stages of the Giro and three more at the Vuelta. After his Acqua e Sapone team was overlooked for the Tour, Cipollini had briefly retired from cycling to devote himself full-time to attention-seeking, but he returned to lead the squadra azzurra in Zolder.

Cipollini was scarcely 10 pedal strokes into his sprint when Paolo Bettini and lead-out man Giovanni Lombardi began to raise their arms in celebration. An exhibition. It was the crowning moment of Cipollini's career, but the triumph was tainted a decade later when La Gazzetta dello Sport outlined the grim nature of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes' contribution to his annus mirabilis. The self-styled Lion King, as ever, vehemently denied all wrongdoing. (BR)

But there was so much more to the 1999 Vuelta: the spectacular defeat of ONCE, losing both leaders Laurent Jalabert and Abraham Olano in the same day; the stunning brace of stage wins for Frank Vandenbroucke; the emergence of Roberto Laiseka and Euskaltel-Euskadi with a brilliant debut mountain-top win at Abantos; the riders' go-slow in the farcical, rainsoaked stage in Barcelona; the terrible crash for Fernando Escartin just before the first-ever ascent of the Angliru and Jose Mariá Jimenez's win, swooping past Pavel Tonkov, in the mist; and, last but not least, the first-ever Vuelta podium finish for Roberto Heras – who would dominate the race for the next six years. (AF)

When handlebar extensions were first introduced to the peloton in the mid-1990s, they seemed like garish accoutrements – witness the unsightly upright angle on early-adopter Claudio Chiappucci's Spinaci bars – but Michele Bartoli could make anything look elegant. He was tucked tastefully on his extensions as he sped towards Liège in the company of ONCE duo Laurent Jalabert and Alex Zülle, then the world number one and two, respectively. MG-Technogym directeur sportif Giancarolo Ferretti's instructions were simple: "Work as hard as them, but no harder."

As the gradient stiffened towards the finish at Ans, Bartoli hit the front, Jalabert on his wheel. With one arm on the bars, the Tuscan took a long, almost nonchalant look back to scan for sight of the chasers, who included Marco Pantani and Johan Museeuw. Then, beneath the flamme rouge, Bartoli turned to the task in hand, burning Jalabert off his wheel with an acceleration that was as smooth as it was overwhelming.

The 1990s were a decade of experimentation for cycling as new technology and materials allowed builders to twist the traditional two-triangle bicycle into unrecognisable shapes.

Francesco Moser, Graeme Obree, Miguel Indurain and Tony Rominger crouched into impossible positions, using disc wheels, skinsuits and special helmets to progress the Hour Record from Eddy Merckx's 49.431km to over 55km in the decade.

Boardman's 1996 mark set at sea level in the Manchester Velodrome atop the Lotus 110 – 56.375km – was such a huge leap from Rominger's previous mark of 55.291km that it shocked even his coach, Peter Keen. It still stands today as the 'best human effort' for the Hour – the UCI's term a massive understatement for Boardman's accomplishment.

"This is my personal limit," Boardman said afterwards. "I don't want to ever do it again, and these figures will make other contenders think twice."

When the UCI changed the rules in 1997, Boardman got on a Merckx-style machine and set another record, going just 10 metres further than 'The Cannibal'. After that, the Hour Record faded in popularity until the UCI revised its rules in 2014, but Victor Campenaerts' record, 55.089km, is still more than a full kilometre behind Boardman's 1996 mark. (LW)

The 1995 edition of the race was a rare mountainous edition, and Luperini remembers racing up the Madeleine, the Glandon and the Tourmalet, and it reportedly also included Alpe d'Huez. What also made the race a spectacle was the expected showdown between the up-and-coming Luperini and the veteran Jeannie Longo on her home grounds. In the end, it wasn't quite the contest everyone had envisioned because Luperini put eight minutes into Longo on the Madeleine stage, and subsequently won her first overall title at the Tour Cycliste Féminin.

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Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.