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Spring Classics 2015: Tour of Flanders preview, live blog

Netherland's Niki Terpstra is looking to defend his title at Paris-Roubaix. AFP PHOTO / ERIC FEFERBERG
Expert
5th April, 2015
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The 2015 Spring Classics season is well underway and tonight we shift our attention to the Tour of Flanders (Ronde Van Vlaanderen), a 264.9 kilometre race through the west of Belgium. Join The Roar for live coverage from 9:15pm (AEDT).

Last year’s edition saw Fabian Cancellara (Trek) take out this monument, his only win for the 2014 season, ahead of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto – Jumbo).

This year Cancellara has injured himself and will have to sit out the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix next weekend. Another key injury is Tom Boonen (Quickstep).

The race starts from the town of Bruges in the north west of Belgium before travelling south, where all the day’s action will be played out.

The riders will head past Kortrijk and then head into the hills and cobbled sections. The biggest thing about the Tour of Flanders is that many of the cobbled sections are uphill on rather large gradients. On this year’s Tour there will be 19 climbs instead of the 17 that greeted the riders last year.

The peloton continues to the east and have the finishing line right on their shoulders as they ride through the outskirts of Oudenaarde.

They then follow a circuit style of race out to Zottegem before turning around and riding a whole different series of hills south east. By this point the riders will have completed 210 kilometres and they will join a new circuit with a tighter loop near Ounenaarde. This will feature a total of seven climbs in just 41 kilometres, which will go a long way to deciding this year’s winner.

The Paterberg is the final climb on course, just 14 kilometres from the finish, and it will be climbed twice. The climb is short only a couple of hundred in metres in length but is cobbled and has an average gradient of 12.9 per cent.

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The climb that will decide the race however is the Oude Kwaremont, which comes three kilometres before the final ascent of the Paterberg. This is a 2200-meter climb at an average gradient of 5 per cent. Normally that doesn’t sound hard, but put it on cobbles and watch it decide the race.

Looking at the start list for this year’s Tour and without Cancellara and Boonen we are in for one of the most open races recent times. Niki Terpstra (Quickstep), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto – Jumbo), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Heinrich Haussler (IAM), Geraint Thomas (Sky) and Peter Sagan (Saxoff) all have very good credentials on the cobbles and the teams to back them up.

However cobble classics are won by the leaders who stand up for themselves and know how to climb.

Other riders who could jump away and cause a surprise (think Johan Van Summeren at Paris–Roubaix in 2011) include Johan Vansummeren (AG2R) himself, Lars Boom (Astana), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM), Fillipo Pozatto (Lampre), Lars Bak and Jurgen Roelandts (both Lotto – Soudal), Francisco Ventoso (Movistar), Matthew Hayman (Orica), Sebastien Langeveld (Garmin), Bernard Eisel (Sky) and Edvald Boasan Hagen (MTN).

While these riders don’t have the same killer punch on the cobbles as the riders listed above, they are good enough to punch away on certain parts of the course, get into a breakaway, or catch a moment’s hesitation.

My tip would have to be Niki Terpstra. He has been building quite nicely and had a second placed finish at Gent–Wevelgem during the week, only losing out to a solo break away. His form seems good and with a solid team behind him, plus the confidence of winning Paris–Roubaix last year, I can’t go past him.

Either way, it promises to be another fascinating Tour of Flanders, so join The Roar for all the action in our live blog from 9:15pm (AEDT), and be sure to leave your comments and thoughts throughout the race.

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