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The Tour of Flanders route has been overhauled for 2024 as race organisers transfer the beginning location again to Antwerp after beginning the annual alternation with Bruges final season. An emphasis on security has led Flanders Classics to shift the path to extra main roads on the run out to the ending circuits round Oudenaarde and a brand new method to the Koppenberg.
The elite males’s race, which is able to happen on March 31, 2024, will begin with a staff presentation on the Grote Markt in Antwerp however riders will head via town neutralised for 5km earlier than the flag drops for the beginning of racing.
“From Steenplein, we head to the Oudaen [a former police headquarters designed by modernist architect Renaat Braem] after which cycle alongside the Meir [the main shopping district in Antwerp. The latter will undoubtedly produce some exceptional footage,” said Flanders Classics CEO Tomas Van Den Spiegel.
“At Operaplein, we ride towards Italiëlei and then on to the Waasland tunnel. With this altered course, the official start is still on Antwerp territory. At the Galgenweel [a brackish lake] on the Linkeroever [the left bank of the Schelde], the flag goes up.”
Additionally new is the method to the circuits that embody the important moments on the Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont climbs.
“The adjustments within the first 100 km are safety-related decisions,” Race Director Scott Sunderland mentioned. “Now we have been trying even additional for huge roads in order that the peloton has more room through which to construct up velocity.
“The version from Bruges, the place we carried out the same train for the opening hours of the race, confirmed how these huge roads led to excessive averages within the opening hours. That velocity in the end helped to find out the form of the race and the strategic decisions of the groups.”
The Tour of Flanders will go via Sint-Niklaas, Hamme, Haaltert, Herzele and Zottegem en path to the Flemish Ardennes the place they’ll begin the identical circuits which were used since 2012 with some small adjustments on the method to the Koppenberg 45km earlier than the end.
“Now we have opted to vary the method for the lads and to make it the identical because the one for the ladies. A alternative for equality, however above all for causes of security,” Sunderland mentioned.
“This modification signifies that after the primary climb of the Paterberg, the riders will cycle on roads the place it’s simpler to maintain observe of issues. We’re making the method to the Koppenberg extra easy and are taking out the descent and sharp bend simply earlier than the climb.”
The change permits the ladies’s convoy to comply with the identical detour as the lads’s and permits staff automotive assist via to the bottom of the Koppenberg and removes a choke level on the course for staff automobiles and riders.
“These conditions have been changing into too harmful and security is our highest precedence. Moreover, we additionally wish to adapt our course to the way in which through which the peloton races,” Sunderland mentioned. “Each the Kortekeer and the Kanarieberg won’t be included within the course this 12 months. However we’re including the Kapelleberg.”
From the Koppenberg onwards, the course will stay the identical because the previous 12 years with the cobbled sections on the Mariaborrestraat, Steenbeekdries and Stationsberg resulting in the climbs of the Taaienberg, Oude Kruisberg/Hotond and the ultimate, decisive ascents of the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg with 13km earlier than the end on Minderbroedersstraat in Oudenaarde.
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