In the middle of the classics season, the Tour of Flanders this weekend is a real monument among the Belgian classics. Created in 1913 and only interrupted during the First World War, it celebrates a particular edition this year, the 100th, and the race saw all the big classics names win it, from Henri Suter to Alexander Kristoff via Walter Godefroot, Eddy Merckx, Roger de Vlaeminck and Johan Museeuw or Fabian Cancellara.

With 68 victories out of 99, Belgium is the record holder of the number of victories in the Tour of Flanders but we'll see this Sunday whether the Tour of Flanders 2016 race route which you'll find below on Google Maps/Google Earth will again deliver a Belgian winner or not.

The Tour of Flanders 2016 race route on Google Maps

With the changes compared to 2015, mainly in the first part of the race route which will bring the riders from the start in Bruges to Oudenaarde and the hilly area, the race route now has a total distance of 255 kilometers compared to 264.2 in 2015, 259.8 in 2014 and 256.2 in 2013. We thus see a shorter distance again, after having seen it go up year on year, without however ever getting to the longest distance in the history of the race because the first edition in 1913 was 324 kilometers long.

The finish will as usual be in Oudenaarde.

The 18 hills which are on the programme of the 2016 edition of the Tour of Flanders are:

1/ Oude Kwaremont (Vieux Quaremont) - 2200 m @ 4% (max 11.6%) - of which 1500 m cobble stones
2/ Kortekeer
3/ Eikenberg - 1200 m @ 5.2% (max 10%) - completely cobble stones
4/ Wolvenberg - 645 m @ 7.9% (max 17.3%)
5/ Molenberg - 463 m @ 7% (max 14.2%) - of which 300 m cobble stones
6/ Leberg - 950 m @ 4.2% (max 13.8%)
7/ Berendries - 940 m @ 7% (max 12.3%)
8/ Valkenberg - 540 m @ 8.1% (max 12.8%)
9/ Kaperij - 1000 m @ 5.5% (max 9%)
10/ Kanarieberg - 1000 m @ 7.7% (max 14%)
11/ Oude Kwaremont (Vieux Quaremont) - 2200 m @ 4% (max 11.6%) - of which 1500 m cobble stones
12/ Paterberg - 360 m @ 12.9% (max 20.3%) - completely cobble stones
13/ Koppenberg - 600 m @ 11.6% (max 22%) - completely cobble stones
14/ Steenbeekdries - 700 m @ 5.3% (max 6.7%)
15/ Taaienberg - 530 m @ 6.6% (max 15.8%) - of which 500 m cobble stones
16/ Kruisberg / Hotond - 2500 m @ 5% (max 9%) - of which 450 m cobble stones
17/ Oude Kwaremont (Vieux Quaremont) - 2200 m @ 4% (max 11.6%) - of which 1500 m cobble stones
18/ Paterberg - 380 m @ 12.9% (max 20.3%) - of which 360 m cobble stones

A funny fact is that the Paterberg, which the riders now climb 2 times in the race since a few years, is part of the Tour of Flanders only since 1986. Indeed, that year, a farmer who was a big fan of the race invited the organiser to come visit a track which he paved himself across one of his fields and after this visit, this new mount was integrated in the race route of the Belgian classic.


Hereunder you'll find the time- and route schedule and the Tour of Flanders 2016 race route on Google Maps. Click on the images to open them. In order to make it easier to understand the map, the race route is broken up in 3 parts on the map (after the connection between the fictive start and the km 0 which is shown in black): the approach of Oudenaarde and the first visit of the mounts area in green, the second visit of the mounts area in blue and finally the third visit of the mounts area and the road towards the finish in red.

The Tour of Flanders 2016 race route in Google Earth

Do you prefer to see the race route of this Belgian classic in Google Earth, for example to do a virtual fly-over of the race? That's possible by downloading the following KML file:

>> Download the Tour of Flanders 2016 race route 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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