FIRST FLIGHT IN FLANDERS

Both dripping in history, we compare the viciously steep chaos of the Muur van Geraardsbergen with the arduous torture of Oude Kwaremont. Muur van Geraardsbergen vs ure of Oude Kwaremont

First included on the route of the Tour of Flanders in 1950, it wasn’t until 1981 with the addition of the Kapelmuur at its summit that this climb took the form cycling fans to know today. From 1981 through to 2011, the Muur was the penultimate climb on the race route and where the champions would almost always deliver their fatal blow. In 2010, when the then two giants of the peloton, Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara, arrived in tandem at the base, it was left to the Muur to separate them like only it could. Starting in the center of Geraardsbergen, the cobbles begin as the road rises past the church, but here the slope is shallow and the stones neatly packed.

“The mayor staged a mock funeral”