Flanders: riding the cobbles and bergs of the Tour of Flanders

The Tour of Flanders is decided on hills that would not register in the Alps: a few hundred metres long, cobbled, and steep enough that at the wrong moment you simply stop. Riding them yourself is the closest an amateur can get to understanding a professional race, because the roads are public, the climbs are signposted, and the organiser's sportive puts you on the exact course the day before the pros.

This is what the bergs are, why cobbles are a technique problem rather than a fitness one, and how to ride the region without a support car.

The race, briefly

In 2026 the men's race runs on Sunday 5 April from Antwerp to Oudenaarde over roughly 270 km, and the women's over 164 km from and to Oudenaarde. Flanders Classics, the organiser, lists the finale's climbs and cobbled sectors: Oude Kwaremont three times, Koppenberg, Mariaborrestraat, Taaienberg, Oude Kruisberg and Hotond, Paterberg, and the flat cobbled stretches of Lippenhovestraat, Paddestraat and Lange Munte. The decisive pair is the Oude Kwaremont followed by the Paterberg, the last time over the Paterberg coming with about 13 km to the finish.

The sportive, We Ride Flanders, runs the day before, Saturday 4 April in 2026, with 79, 133, 163 and 247 km options. The 247 km starts in Antwerp and the rest start and finish in Oudenaarde. It is the busiest single day of amateur cycling in Belgium and the climbs are shoulder to shoulder; you will walk at least one of them.

The bergs, with numbers

Toerisme Oost-Vlaanderen, the East Flanders tourist board, signposts a set of permanent loops from Oudenaarde and publishes figures for the climbs on them. Its numbers:

The Oude Kwaremont is long by Flemish standards and gentle on average, but the cobbled section through the village is rough and the gradient concentrates in its middle. It is the climb where the race is thinned out rather than decided, and for an amateur it is the one to start with because you can find a rhythm on it.

The Koppenberg is the opposite. It is narrow, it is 22% at its steepest, and the cobbles are worse than anywhere else on the course. In the race it is where riders are forced off and walk; in the sportive it is where everyone walks. On your own, on a dry day, it is rideable with the right gear and the right line, and it is over in three minutes.

The Paterberg is short, cobbled and steep from the first metre, and comes almost immediately after the Kwaremont. It is the race's finishing move. The tourist board does not publish a figure for it, but in our experience it is steeper on average than anything else in the finale.

The Muur van Geraardsbergen, the Kapelmuur, is the famous one, 1,075 m at 9.2% with a 19.8% ramp around the chapel at the top. It is no longer in the finale but it is on the red signposted loop and it is the best of them to ride as a visitor, because the town and the chapel make it feel like an event even on a Tuesday.

The Bosberg has cobbles protected as a monument. The Berendries, at 98 m, is the highest point of the Zwalm region and is no longer cobbled at all. Nothing on the loops is much above 150 m. The whole race happens within a vertical range that a single Alpine hairpin would cover.

Cobbles are a technique problem

The reason a 600 m hill can stop a professional is not the gradient; it is that on wet cobbles at 20% the rear wheel spins the moment you stand up, and if you sit down without enough gear you stall. The technique is the same one used on the cobbled hairpins of Vršič: stay seated, keep the weight over the rear wheel, use a gear that lets you keep pedalling smoothly at 60 rpm, and do not brake. On the flat cobbled sectors the advice inverts: bigger gear, hands on the tops, elbows loose, let the bike move underneath you and hold your speed, because slowing down makes it worse.

Equipment matters more here than anywhere else in this series. Wider tyres at lower pressure, 28 mm or more, make the difference between a controlled ride and a fight; our tyre-pressure guide has the numbers. Bottle cages need to actually hold bottles. Anything loose on the bike will not be on it at the top.

Gearing: a 34×32 is not too easy for the Koppenberg. It is about the minimum.

The signposted loops from Oudenaarde

You do not need a GPS file to ride Flanders. The East Flanders tourist board maintains four signposted Tour of Flanders routes, three of them starting from the Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen in Oudenaarde, which is a museum, a café and a bike-hire point in one building:

• Blue loop, 80.4 km. Oude Kwaremont, Koppenberg, Taaienberg and the Hotond. The finale of the modern race, in a morning.
• Red loop, 115.8 km. East to Geraardsbergen for the Muur and the Bosberg, back via the Berendries. The finale of the old race.
• Yellow loop, 102 km. North of the town, flatter, with the 2.4 km cobbled Paddestraat.
• Bidon route, 40.4 km. From Geraardsbergen around the Muur and the Valkenberg for a short day.

Every cobbled sector and climb on the loops has a sign giving its length and gradient. The loops are part of the wider Flemish cycle-node network, where junctions are numbered and you navigate by writing a sequence of numbers on your stem; it is the simplest routing system in Europe and worth learning for the flat kilometres between the bergs. If you would rather build your own, the Route Builder will show you where the climbs cluster, and any saved loop can be ridden in Moveee Indoor from a smart trainer, which is useful for the profile if not for the cobbles.

Rules and etiquette

The Belgian highway code, as published by Vias with the federal transport ministry, is specific about cyclists. Where a cycle path exists on the right of your direction of travel, you must use it. You may ride two abreast on the road where oncoming traffic can still pass, but outside built-up areas you must go single file when a vehicle approaches from behind. Organised groups of 15 to 50 riders are exempt from the cycle-path rule if they stay together, which is why club rides here look the way they do. Lights are compulsory at night and when visibility is under 200 m. Helmets are not legally required; wear one on cobbles regardless.

The unwritten rule is simpler: this is farmland, the roads are narrow and the tractors have right of way in practice.

Weather and when to go

The race is in early April because that is when Flanders is cold, wet and windy, and the sportive is the same. The Royal Meteorological Institute's current normals for Uccle show the climate has warmed, with about 13 fewer frost days a year than in 1961–90, but spring here is still changeable and the wind is the constant. In our experience it blows from the south-west most days and there is nothing between you and the sea to slow it; a 40 km flat leg into it is harder than any berg.

Go in April if you want the race atmosphere and are prepared to be cold. Go in May, June or September if you want the roads to yourself and dry cobbles, which are a different and much more enjoyable surface. Avoid the sportive weekend unless you are riding the sportive. And bring the kit for rain in any month.

Flanders is not beautiful in the way the Dolomites are beautiful. It is beautiful the way a cathedral town is: because of what has happened there. Ride the Kwaremont on a wet Wednesday and you will understand the race better than any commentary.