The holes are plugged, the cobbles are back in place, and the hill has been reduced to a 15% gradient from its former 22% slope. OK, the last part I made up... but the bottom line is that the legendary Koppenberg is back in this year's Ronde van Vlaanderen. As if the crush of talented riders descending on this beautiful, historic race wasn't enough, as if the massive throngs of some of the world's great fans didn't energize the race sufficiently, they've gone and restored the epic route. So says CN. Add this to the Angliru, Motorola Mortirolo, Plan de Corones, Alpe d'Huez, and so forth, and this is going to be one barnburner of a season. Damn!
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