Tour of Flanders Cyclo

The perfect primer to the big show of the pro race

Date: Saturday 3 April Website: werideflanders.com

When Cycling Plus rode the Tour of Flanders sportive back in 2012, it was combined with the launch of one of the then new-fangled aero bikes, complete with wind-tunnel-friendly bare handlebars and roadkill-stiff carbon tubes. After eight hours riding up Flanders’s famous cobbled bergs, we were jangling for days afterwards.

It was the least fun aspect of what is the most fun of the four rides associated with the Monuments. This is very much an inclusive ride; it’s a grand day out for all ages and you’ll see plenty of kids on oversized bikes strutting their stuff. You may be one of the battle-hardened sorts who leave Antwerp at the crack of dawn to ride the full 229km route, but the vast majority will begin in the tour’s spiritual home of Oudenaarde for a choice of three routes (174km, 139km, 74km).

The middle distance route, 139km, is the sweet spot – all killer, no filler. The ‘bergs’ – short, sharp cobbled roads that are a feature of the region – come thick and fast, and it includes notable race highlights, such as the unreasonably vertical Koppenberg and Oude Kwaremont (climbed three times in the race but just once here). Come the finish back in Oudenaarde, the usual array of massage tables and food tents of your typical mass participation sportive await, but we’re in Belgium, so expect the bars to have the biggest queue. The same will be true the day after, when you stick around to see how the professionals do it.