Monumental Bergs: Tour of Flanders

A show-stopping mythic, the 600m long cobbled Koppenberg is one of the only climbs on earth where you’ll see pros dismounting and pushing their bikes, cloppity cleats and all. The combination of terror-inducing gradients up to 22% and the roughest, bounciest cobbles of the entire route have led to many calling the Koppenberg unraceable – and it has been banished from the route several times before. What’s more, whilst wonderful to watch, the climb is too far from the finish to have much strategic importance as most of the dropped riders regain contact on the flat section afterwards. The Koppenberg’s most infamous moment came in the 1987 edition of De Ronde: the last survivor of the day’s breakaway Jesper Skibby was hit halfway up the climb by the Race Director’s car, which then mangled his bike (and almost his leg) trying to get past and away from the fast-arriving peloton. A volley of abuse, stones and mud from fans awaited the car as it arrived at the finish line.

The cyclists will actually have climbed the unremarkable Steenbeekdries 2km before reaching the Taaienberg, which is 800m long and with an average gradient of 7%, topping out at 18%. If an elite selection hasn’t been made by now, it will do on the ‘Boonenberg’, so-called because it is where Tornado Tom traditionally likes to test his legs – and his rivals. We won’t get to see the Belgian in Flanders this year, after he dislocated his shoulder in March at Paris-Nice, something that Lars Boom will no doubt be happy about. In 2012 during the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Boom made the foolish mistake of trying to pass pacesetter Boonen on the inside as the riders hit the climb. The Belgian held his ground and Boom crashed into a heap in the gutter. Boonen, meanwhile, rode to the top without so much as a glance behind.

A long serving staple of De Ronde, the Kruisberg is 9% up a 1.8km carpet of cobbles. Whilst perhaps not one of the best known climbs in Flanders, the Kruisberg was the finish line for the 1983 Belgian National Championships as well as for the 1988 World Championships, won by Italy’s Maurizio Fondriest after Canadian Steve Bauer had forced Claude Criquielion into a fence, denying the Belgian victory. This will be the 47th time the riders have to cruise up the Kruisberg in the 85 years since it was first included in the Tour of Flanders route.

While not as steep as the others, with only a 3% average, the cobbled Oude Kwaremont berg compensates with its length: 2,200m. Imagine having to ride up it for a third time, after nearly 250km of ups and downs all day. That’s what faces the riders this year. De Oude was the launch pad for one of Eddy Merckx’s greatest ever rides, as he attacked on its slopes in 1975, with over 100km to the finish. The Cannibal dragged poor Frans Verbeeck with him up and over the remaining bergs, finally dropping him with 5km to go. Verbeeck’s verdict on Merckx, as he was helped off his bike at the finish? – “He’s from another world.”