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.
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