Warm up to De Ronde - the route description

[editor's note, by chris] Our first insider's look at the Tour of Flanders course (thanks to our BeNeLux correspondent DZI)...

The official "National" holiday in Flanders is on the 11th of July. But on the day "De Ronde" is ridden it's one huge party in all of Flanders. Early in the morning hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators assemble in Brugge on the coach-parking lot and in the town centre. Here, all the riders come out to sign the startlist and give interviews, while the masses watch everything, usually after having had a couple of large beers as a warm up to the day. Enormous anticipation precedes this race, the only race according to the Flemish.

Huge crowds will cheer the peloton on while they set off through Brugge on their 256km journey at 09:45 hrs.. Fifteen minutes later, the official start is given in Sint Michiels. Today they won't go the traditional route towards Oostende and Belgian shoreline, but in the direction of Torhout. Yet the first ninety kilometers aren't too different from what we've grown used to in Vlaanderen. A long flat approach, then some cobbles on flat roads and finally those many steep hills in east-Vlaanderen.

Shortly after entering east-Vlaanderen the first cobbled patches arrive in Kruishoutem and quite soon after this first stretch, the lunchbags are handed out in Oudenaarde. Gavere is this years "Village of De Ronde" and is used as a through-road towards Zottegem, where we'll find the Paddestraat with two kilometers of cobbles. The peloton is only halfway into the race now, but the race really starts here. The Molenberg and Wolvenberg are the first two short climbs, but the cobbles on the Molenberg will get some of the riders in early troubles.

After passing the Wolvenberg climb there's twenty kilometers of flat roads, but then all hell breaks loose. One climb after the other, starting with the Kluisberg, then the Knokteberg and the Oude Kwaremont. Especially this last two-kilometer climb on cobbles and narrow street will split the peloton into pieces. A bad position here is very hard to make up in the following kilometers until the Paterberg where 400 meters at 12.5% (average) await the riders. Some parts here are even twenty percent uphill, not the terrain to make up much ground.

The next twenty kilometers see four more climbs. Apart from "feeling the mileage" after passing Brakel, the Leberg, Berendries and Valkenberg will see to further shifts in the peloton. The Valkenberg is the climb where the lead group really made the difference and shattered the remains of the peloton in the last two editions. Even when there's still a large lead group, the last part of the race knows climbs like Tenbosse, De Muur and the Bosberg. Yet, between Tenbosse and De Muur, the organisation has found another new climb: The Eikenmolen, a 600-meter asphalt climb at an average of six percent.

All said and done, The Muur van Geraardsbergen is still the most appealing climb in the Ronde. After a false flat approach it goes up for 500 meters, on cobbles, at a ten percent average and even a peak of nearly twenty percent exactly in front of the local chapel. This is where everyone wants to be when the exhausted riders pass through on their way to the finish. After the Muur and Bosberg only twelve kilometers remain to the finish in Ninove. Will it be one single rider or a select group of very strong men who decide this Ronde? We'll know at about four-thirty.

[editor's note, by chris] Hit entry link to take the winners' poll: