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Date: Sunday, March 31, 2024
Begin: Antwerp, Belgium
End: Oudenaarde, Belgium
Complete distance: 270.8km (males), 163km (ladies)
Defending champion: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates), Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime)
The Tour of Flanders started in 1913, marking this yr because the race’s 111th anniversary. A race outlined by its tortuous twists, turns and slim cobbled climbs, the Tour of Flanders, or Ronde van Vlaanderen, is arguably the best of the Classics. The route could change barely every year, however the hellingen that pack the area and outline the race are a given, assured to provide worthy winners of a real Monument. Within the Ronde, solely the robust survive.
Based by a younger sports activities journalist named Karel Van Wijnendaele and founding member of the newspaper Sportwereld, Leon den Haute, they wished to create one thing which was greater than only a bike race.
Whereas there are 4 different Monument races – Il Lombardia, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Milan-Sanremo – which maintain such status and historical past within the WorldTour calendar, there is no such thing as a different race which defines a nation fairly just like the Tour of Flanders. Unsurprisingly, essentially the most victories come from Belgian riders, with a complete of 69 wins out of the 107 editions. The winner of the inaugural version was Belgian rider Paul Denman who rode for Automoto-Continental. A few years later, 104 to be precise, Philippe Gilbert grew to become the newest residence winner of De Ronde, driving solo to the end resplendent within the Belgian nationwide champion’s jersey.
In its lengthy historical past, solely a handful of riders have taken the title on a number of events. Riders together with Achiel Buysse, Fiorenzo Magni, Eric Leman, Johan Museeuw, Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara have crossed the end line first on three events. King of the cobbles, Boonen and Cancellara are the one riders to have achieved the cobbled Classics double (Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix), twice, making them legendary in each these races.
Final yr’s winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates) won’t be again to defend his title, leaving the highest step of the rostrum clear for one more winner. Nonetheless, 4 earlier winners of the race will likely be again this yr and there’s one two-time winner of this Monument who will likely be seeking to safe a 3rd title, and that’s Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). He seemed unstoppable at E3 Saxo Traditional, however was then overwhelmed by Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in Gent-Wevelgem a number of days later. He’ll additionally need to face rival Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), in addition to former winners Alberto Bettiol (EF Training-EasyPost) and Kasper Asgreen (Soudal–Fast-Step), in addition to different potential contenders like Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ).
Males’s Tour of Flanders 2024 groups:
- Alpecin-Deceuninck
- Intermarché-Wanty
- Soudal–Fast-Step
- Visma-Lease a Bike
- Arkéa-B&B Accommodations
- Astana Qazaqstan Workforce
- Bahrain-Victorious
- Bora-Hansgrohe
- Cofidis
- Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Workforce
- EF Training-EasyPost
- Groupama-FDJ
- Ineos Grenadiers
- Lidl-Trek
- Movistar
- Workforce dsm-firmenich PostNL
- Jayco Alula
- UAE Workforce Emirates
- Israel-Premier Tech
- Lotto Dstny
- Uno-X Mobility
- Bingoal WB
- Q36.5 Professional Biking Workforce
- Workforce Flanders-Baloise
- Tudor Professional Biking Workforce
Males’s Tour of Flanders 2024 route:
The Tour of Flanders returns to Antwerp after the course final yr started in Bruges, however has seen some vital adjustments resulting from considerations over security. So, this yr’s race options extra main roads and a special strategy to the Koppenberg climb, 45km from the end. Nonetheless, the race nonetheless includes 270.8km of racing and 17, principally cobbled, climbs.
Beginning in Antwerp, the primary half of the race is pretty undulating however it isn’t till they strategy the halfway level of the race that it begins to warmth up. After 136km of racing, they may strategy the long-lasting Oude Kwaremont for the primary time. Standing at 2.2km in size, the Oude Kwaremont is the longest climb in Flanders, and whereas its gradient is less complicated on the legs in comparison with different climbs, there’s an 11.6% punch within the center. After the midway mark, the route intensifies and each 10km the peloton will face one other cobbled problem, providing little probability in between to get well. The Kapelleberg, Wolvenberg, Molenberg, and Valkenberg all are available in fast succession and are an opportunity to skinny the principle peloton.
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0040/5251/6910/files/Screenshot_2024-03-25_at_16.51.09.png?v=1711460036)
With 55km remaining, the riders will tackle the long-lasting duo – Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg – for the primary time. The 2 climbs characteristic once more when the riders have simply 20km remaining, so that is the place we anticipate to see some decisive moments be made. Not like the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg is a brief however steep climb, with an eye-watering common gradient of 12.9%.
The Tour of Flanders this yr finishes with its traditional flat run-in to Oudenaarde. If no rider has managed to interrupt away from the principle peloton, right here is the place we see essentially the most dramatic racing because the riders all battle it out to the road for victory.
Tour of Flanders Girls
The Tour of Flanders held its first ladies’s version in 2004. The route was simply 94km lengthy – making it the shortest route within the race’s historical past. It was solely in 2016 that the ladies’s race was awarded UCI WorldTour standing and has since develop into some of the anticipated races within the ladies’s calendar. Its legendary standing in Belgium and notoriously difficult parcours make it a spectacle yr after yr.
The ladies’s race is held on the identical day as the lads’s and finishes one hour after the lads’s on the run-in to Oudenaarde. The route takes in a lot of the lads’s route, however has a special start line.
Final yr, Belgian rider Lotte Kopecky gained for a second yr operating after a solo assault 20km from the end, beating her teammate Demi Vollering by 36 seconds. This win noticed Kopecky be part of Mirjam Melchers-van Poppel, Judith Arndt, and Annemiek van Vleuten, who’ve all gained the race twice throughout their skilled careers. No rider is but to win the race for a 3rd time, nevertheless, Kopecky will likely be lining up for De Ronde as soon as once more and will look to make historical past by turning into not solely the lone feminine rider to have gained this Monument 3 times, however three years consecutively.
Girls’s Tour of Flanders 2024 staff:
- SD Worx-Protime
- AG Insurance coverage-Soudal Workforce
- Canyon//SRAM Racing
- Ceratizit-WNT Professional Biking Workforce
- FDJ-Suez
- Fenix-Deceuninck
- Human Powered Well being
- Lidl-Trek
- Liv Alula Jayco
- Movistar
- Roland
- Workforce dsm-firmenich PostNL
- Visma-Lease a Bike
- UAE Workforce ADQ
- Cofidis Girls Workforce
- Arkéa-B&B Accommodations Girls
- Chevalmeire
- EF Training-Cannondale
- Lifeplus Wahoo
- Lotto Dtsny Women
- Proximus-Cyclis CT
- Workforce Coop-Repsol
- VolkerWessels Girls’s Professional Biking Workforce
Girls’s Tour of Flanders 2024 route:
Not like the lads’s route, the ladies’s race will begin and finish in Oudenaarde and is 100km shorter at 163km. The course nonetheless packs a punch nevertheless, with 12 climbs and 7 cobbled sections included within the race’s parcours.
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0040/5251/6910/files/Screenshot_2024-03-25_at_16.50.53.png?v=1711460184)
The primary half of the race is pretty undulating they usually attain their first cobbled part fairly shortly at 9.2km, earlier than the Lippenhovestraat and Paddestraat 40km later. The ladies’s peloton attain their first climb, the Wolvenberg, at 72km after which the second half of the race is plagued by the punchy climbs that make this race so particular. Coming thick and quick, they’ll have to overcome the Molenberg, Marlboroughstraat, Valkenberg, Kapelleberg, Koppenberg, Steenbeekdries, Taaienberg, and Oude Kruisberg, all inside 80km of racing.
Then, with lower than 20km left to go, the ladies will tackle the race’s iconic duo, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg. After they’re up and over the Paterberg, the remaining 13km is a flat end again into Oudenaarde.
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