The 97th Tour of Flanders, or Ronde van Vlaanderen, rolls out of Brugge, Belgium, on Sunday morning.
The peloton, headed by a single five-star favorite in Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard), will face a route of 256 kilometers with 17 climbs in the Flemish Ardennes and seven cobbled sectors.
The final battle of the true contenders should come on the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg climbs, which each feature three times in the race’s hectic finishing circuits.
Cancellara heads the names we expect to see at the head of affairs late Sunday afternoon.
Though he’s only won De Ronde once — while Tom Boonen has won it three times and Stijn Devolder twice — Cancellara will take the start in Brugge as the overwhelming pre-race favorite.
Why? Because prior wins matter less than current form and the form of one’s opponents. In this context, Cancellara appears to have no rival.
When the RadioShack rider attacked on the Oude Kwaremont during the E3 Harelbeke last Friday, the rest of the peloton was powerless to do anything.
Even an on-form Peter Sagan (Cannondale) could only drop his head and stare down at his front wheel as the rider known as “Spartacus” powered away and gained time over the subsequent 35 kilometers.
Boonen, who has struggled after a turbulent off-season, dropped back into a second chase group, later saying he’d simply bonked.
Either way, it was an attack reminiscent of Cancellara’s superhuman strength that saw him sweep Harelbeke, Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in 2010, and a reminder that, while the Swiss star is often faulted for trying to win on brute strength alone, it’s a winning tactic when he has the legs to back it up. – velonews
