Ronde van Vlaanderen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ronde van Vlaanderen | |
|---|---|
| English name: | Tour of Flanders |
| Region: | Flanders, Belgium |
| Date: | Early April |
| Type: | One-day race |
| History | |
| First Edition: | 1913 |
| Number of Editions: | 90 |
| First Winner: | Paul Deman, ( Belgium) |
| Most Recent: | Tom Boonen, ( Belgium) |
| Most Wins: | Achiel Buysse, ( Belgium), Fiorenzo Magni (  Italy),Eric Leman, ( Belgium) and Johan Museeuw ( Belgium),3 times |
The Ronde van Vlaanderen (English: Tour of Flanders) is a road cycling race held in Flanders, Belgium. It is held every spring, exactly one week before Paris-Roubaix, and it used to be part of the UCI World Cup. It is now part of the UCI ProTour and is regarded as one of the 'Monuments' of the European professional cycling calendar.
Contents |
[edit] History
The race was initiated in 1913 by Karel Van Wijnendaele, a former cyclist. Initially not a big success, the race was interrupted by World War I, but continued in 1919. In the 1920s and 1930s, the race became more popular, and is currently considered to be the most important race in Flanders, where road cycling is very popular. The nickname of the race is Vlaanderens mooiste, or "Flanders's most beautiful". The town of Oudenaarde, through which the Ronde habitually passes, has a museum - the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen - dedicated to the race.
[edit] Course
The course of the race contains many steep hills, often paved with cobblestones. While it is often compared to the Paris-Roubaix race in that both contain many cobbled sections, de Ronde's inclusion of many steep, and often cobbled, short hills make racing very different compared to the flat Paris-Roubaix.
The exact route of the race does not change much from year-to-year. The last major change was the inclusion of the steep Koppenberg climb in 2003, having been refurbished from its previous state of disrepair. Spectators make a sport called couperen out of trying to watch de Ronde pass by in as many points as possible [1].
[edit] Comments
- "Only those who are in top condition can say that the Ronde is not hard. For everyone else, it's the Way of the Cross." -Andrea Tafi
Riders who win both races (Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix) in the same year are guaranteed eternal fame:
- 1923 Heiri Suter
Switzerland - 1932 Romain Gijssels Belgium
- 1934 Gaston Rebry Belgium
- 1954 Raymond Impanis Belgium
- 1957 Fred De Bruyne Belgium
- 1962 Rik Van Looy Belgium
- 1977 Roger De Vlaeminck Belgium
- 2003 Peter Van Petegem Belgium
- 2005 Tom Boonen Belgium
The day before the actual race sees the cyclosportif (open) race version of de Ronde where amateur cyclists regularly participate in large numbers.
