The first Belgian classics already took place and now we're early April, it's time for Flanders beauty, one of the nicknames of the Ronde van Vlaanderen/Tour of Flanders. Organised for the first time in 1913 and interrupted only during the First World War makes the Tour of Flanders a real monument among the Belgian classics.

With the trio Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) being present, this edition promises to be a nice spectacle!

The race has been won by a foreign rider for 5 years in a row, but Belgium still is the country with the biggest number of race wins, 69 out of 106. For the first time since 2017 this 107th edition starts in van start in Bruges (Brugge), but the finish sitll is in Oudenaarde of course, after a total distance of 273.4 kilometer. Let's no longer wait to have a look in detail at the Tour of Flanders 2023 race route, which you can find below in Open Street Maps and download in Google Earth.

The Tour of Flanders 2023 race route on Open Street Maps

The Tour of Flanders race route is characterized by a succession of mountains that make the course tough, as well as cobbled sections and often even a combination of the two.

After starting in class="purple">Bruges, the riders first follow a flat course towards Oudenaarde for just over 110 kilometres in which they will find only one cobbled section in Wannegem on the Huisepontweg, and a first hill, the Korte Ast. When they arrive in Oudenaarde and pass not far from the Centre of the Tour of Flanders they are then in the hill country and the race then starts to get really interesting.

After Oudenaarde, the first two hills are the Oude Kwaremont (2200 m of which 1500 m are cobblestones, 4% (max 11.6%)) and Kortekeer (1000 m - 6.2% (max 11%)). This first part of the course is marked in yellow on the map.

We then move on to the orange section on the map and after a section heading north until just before Leupegem near Oudenaarde, this section takes riders over several cobbled lanes but more importantly over 10 hills, firstly the Eikenberg, the Wolvenberg (645 m - 7.9% (max 17.3%)), the Molenberg (463 m of which 300 m are cobblestones - 7% (max 14.2%)), Marlboroughstraat (2040 m - 3% (max 7%), the Berendries (940 m - 7% (max 12.3%)), the Valkenberg (540 m - 8.1% (max 12.8%)), the Berg Ten Houte (1100 m of cobbles - 6% (max 21%)) and the Kanarieberg (1000 m - 7.7% (max 14%)). After passing through the Ronde van Vlaanderstraat and past the Monument of Karel van Wijnendaele (a sports journalist who contributed a lot to the fame of the race) and then via Berchem almost back to the starting point of this section, after having passed the Oude Kwaremont (2200m of which 1500m are cobbled, 4% (max 11.6%)), they will continue on the Paterberg (360m cobbled - 12.9% (max 20.3%)) before this second part concludes.

The final section full of hills is the pink section which runs via the Koppenberg (600 m cobblestones - 11.6% (max 22%)) before turning east towards a cobbled section and the climb of the Steenbeekdries (1100m cobbles - 3.1% (max 7.6%)), followed by the Taaienberg (530m of which 500m cobbles - 6.6% (max 15.8%)). On the way back, the course deviates slightly from the previous crossing to head towards Ronse, before returning to the usual course, with the climb of the Kruisberg / Hotond (2500 m of which 450 m are cobblestones - 5% (max 9%) and then back via the Ronde van Vlaanderenstraat, Berchem and again the sequence of Oude Kwaremont (2200 m of which 1500 m are cobblestones, 4% (max 11.6%)) and the Paterberg (360 m cobblestones - 12.9% (max 20.3%)) after which they ride past Berchem, over the Scheldt river and up to Kerkhove, after which the riders turn right to then ride in an almost straight line to the finish in Oudenaarde, in the Minderbroedersstraat.

Below is the time and route schedule and the course of the 2023 Tour of Flanders on Open Street Maps. Click on the images to open them. The icon at the top right allows you to toggle the display of the three different parts of the course on and off.

The participants list of the Tour of Flanders 2023

Want to know who will appear at the start of this 107th edition of the Flemish High Mass, another nickname of the Tour of Flanders 2023?

175 riders will start, as indicated above with the star trio, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). We also find Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) on the participants list, winner of Ghent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaandren in this year's Belgian classics campaign. This time, the French rider is likely to ride in the service of his Belgian leader! Other names we could mention are Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) or Tom Pidcock (INEOS Grenadiers)!

>> Download the list of participants of the Tour of Flanders 2023

The course of the Tour of Flanders 2023 in Google Earth

Do you prefer to see the course of this Belgian classic in Google Earth in order to, for example, get a virtual bird's eye view of the race? You can do so by downloading the KML file below:

>> Download the course of the Tour of Flanders 2023 in Google Earth

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Classics | OpenStreetMap/Google Maps/Google Earth

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