Monuments of Cycling (MoC)

Three grand ideas—necessity is the mother of invention, the child is father of the man, and absence makes the heart grow fonder—coalesce as the inspiration and raison d’etre for the Monuments of Cycling in the US.

  1. In North America, there is not a single race resembling a classic one-day cycling event, let alone a Monument. 

  2. As avid cyclists, we were exposed to the romance of these monumental feats of endurance, and, at MoC, in one weird way or another, these long events are best suited to both our physiology and psychology.

  3. The fact that there are no classic cycling events in the US only serves to make our American hearts grow in desire for them.

The five greatest one-day (classic) cycling events on the planet are known as the Monuments of Cycling. These races—Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and the Tour of Lombardy—carry the distinction of being called the Monuments. They are so named because they began prior to World War I; the youngest of the events, the Tour of Flanders, was first run in 1913. The roads they travel were used during the World Wars and now the courses are lined with memorials to the war dead.

The idea of the Monuments of Cycling in the US was conceived initially with the advent of “The most unique cycling event in the country,” the Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR). Don’t let the irreverent name fool you; the BWR is one of the most difficult bicycle races in the US at roughly 140 miles, half of which are unroad sectors. It also gleans from each of the five Monuments elements that make it truly a classic. Now approaching its 13th edition, the BWR has reached a level of notoriety that strongly suggests, begs actually, it’s time to roll out new and different Monuments all over North America, or at least bring the BWR to cycling-rich communities in Arizona, British Columbia, California, N. Carolina, Utah, Kansas and Queretaro, Mexico.

Oh, by the way, there are now five Monuments of Gravel, and the BWR CA is one of them.

Michael Marckx

FOUNDER

Michael Marckx likes Branding, Belgian Ale, Big Rings and Bad Alliteration (Bliteration). He created the first BWR a long time ago because he’s of Belgian heritage, loves cyclocross and really long bike races… and now he continues to challenge himself to make the BWR experience more interesting each year., but now he has partners and a community of bike-minded people to help. Everyone chips in now, and it’s for riders of all stripes. It is his belief that we cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more adept with pain. This is what the batter of the BWR is made from.

Monuments of Cycling (MoC) is an event production firm best known for its signature event, the Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR)… the most unique event of its kind and the single-greatest one-day bike race in America. Participants come from all over the world to compete in the BWR and the event pits riders against a Paris-Roubaix length course that is riddled with roughly 26 unroad sectors. The BWR is not only the premier cycling event of its kind in America, it is the most prestigious and revered event in San Diego. And today, MoC is the leading purveyor of gravel racing in North America, hosting over seven races per annum, plus numerous other events throughoout the year.

Phil Tinstman

Phil Tinstman is a long-time racer of anything with two wheels, co-conspirator of the Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR), father of two, lover of the yeast-fermented malt flavored alcoholic beverage made with hops and is always up for a good challenge. He’s a naitonal road race champion, RAAM record holder, X Games Gold Medalist and mulitple state champion of road, crit, ‘cross and TT. Whether he is riding bikes through the park with his kids in tow or tearing up the local group rides, his passion is bringing people together to ride bikes. Working with Monuments of Cycling as a platform to produce events like BWR started out as a dream discussed over beers. Now it is a growing reality… still discussed over beers.