The Tour Of Flanders

This 267km berg-mottled behemoth gets the Classics in full swing.

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Apotent mix of cobbles, bergs, frites and raucous Belgian fans, the Tour of Flanders kicks the Northern Classics season into overdrive as the second Monument of the season. At 267km the men’s race is also one of the longest Classics, while the 157km women’s edition, run off on the same day as the men’s, has established itself as one of the major dates of the women’s season.

It is the spiky, cobbled bergs of Flanders that lie at the heart of these races, of which the modern route features 17. These include iconic rendezvous like the Muur van Geraardsbergen alongside relative newcomers such as the Paterberg — first included in 1986 but no less decisive for its callowness. In both the men’s and women’s races the Paterberg is the final climb, leaving only a 13-kilometre dig to the finish at Oudenaarde.