It’s time.
Holy Week is upon us as the Tour of Flanders brings cobbled Classics season to the first weekend of its fever pitch finale.
The last month of Classics have been chock-full of surprises and storylines, starting with Søren Wærenskjold’s shock Omloop Nieuwsblad win, the expected Classics dominance of Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen’s timely emergence into top form, and THAT Dwars finish. Add to that the presence of one Tadej Pogačar and his thrilling decision to race next weekend’s Paris-Roubaix and, well, we’ve got ourselves the ingredients for a fantastic set of races.
That’s on the men’s side only; the women will also race Flanders on Sunday and Matt de Neef has the preview with all the contenders and questions. Here’s everything you need to know about the men’s race.
The favorites
We’ll break this down more in a moment, but let’s get right to it with our top favorites for De Ronde:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Mads Pedersen
⭐️⭐️⭐️: Wout van Aert
⭐️⭐️: Matteo Jorgenson, Neilson Powless
⭐️: Tiesj Benoot, Filippo Ganna, Biniam Girmay, Alexander Kristoff, Stefan Küng, Michael Matthews, Jasper Stuyven
How to watch
When: The men’s Tour of Flanders starts at 10:00 CET/04:00 EDT/19:00 AEST. The finish will be around 16:15 CET/10:15 EDT/01:00 AEST (Monday). You can expect post-race analysis from Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano on our live How The Race Was Won show shortly after the finish.
Streaming: The race will be on TNT Sports in the UK, FloBikes in the US and Canada, and SBS in Australia. Start times vary. You may also be able to watch with a VPN on Sporza. As always, our How to Watch guide has details for the full men's and women's WorldTour calendars.
Joe Lindsey
The route: The exact details of the Flanders route change slightly year to year, but in broad strokes it’s the same, familiar series of cobbles and climbs (or cobbled climbs) as recent years past (pour one out for fans of the Olde Course and the Kapelmuur). The 268.9 km course starts at the Markt in Bruge and meanders slowly southeast to Oudenaarde for the finish in the picturesque town square.
Outside of a brief section of cobbles at Doorn, there are no difficulties and almost no climbing at all for the first 125 km. Expect the early break and the usual nervous vigilance in the pack about crashes and potential crosswinds (which should be light).
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