Tour of Flanders (men)

This article is about the senior men's cycle race. For the women's event, see Tour of Flanders (Women). For the under-23 men's event, see Ronde Van Vlaanderen Beloften.

Tour of Flanders (Elite Men)
Race details
DateEarly April
RegionFlanders, Belgium
Local name(s)Ronde van Vlaanderen (Dutch)
Nickname(s)De Ronde (in Dutch)
Vlaanderens Mooiste (in Dutch)
Flanders' Most Beautiful (in English)
DisciplineRoad
CompetitionUCI World Tour
TypeOne-day Classic
OrganiserFlanders Classics
Race directorWim Van Herreweghe
Web sitewww.rvv.be/en Edit this at Wikidata
History
First edition1913 (1913)
Editions108 (as of 2024)
First winner Paul Deman (BEL)
Most wins Achiel Buysse (BEL)
 Fiorenzo Magni (ITA)
 Eric Leman (BEL)
 Johan Museeuw (BEL)
 Tom Boonen (BEL)
 Fabian Cancellara (SUI)
 Mathieu van der Poel (NED)
(3 wins each)
Most recent Mathieu van der Poel (NED)

The Tour of Flanders (Dutch: Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as De Ronde ("The Tour"), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organized by Flanders Classics. Its nickname is Vlaanderens Mooiste (Dutch for "Flanders' Finest"). First held in 1913, the Tour of Flanders had its 100th edition in 2016.

Today it is one of the five monuments of cycling, together with Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Giro di Lombardia. It is one of the two major Cobbled classics, anticipating Paris–Roubaix, which is on the calendar one week after the Tour of Flanders. The event had its only interruptions during World War I and has been organized without hiatus since 1919, the longest uninterrupted streak of any cycling classic.[1]

Seven men hold the record of most victories, making the Tour of Flanders unique among the major classics. Belgians Achiel Buysse, Eric Leman, Johan Museeuw, and Tom Boonen, Italian Fiorenzo Magni, Dutch Mathieu van der Poel and Swiss Fabian Cancellara each have three victories.

Since 2004, a women's race has been organized on the same day as the men's over a shorter distance. Since 2021, the women's race shares the Tour of Flanders name with the men's race. To distinguish between them, they are now categorised as the 'Elite Men' and 'Elite Women' editions.[2]

  1. ^ "De droom van Koarle". Ronde van Vlaanderen (in Dutch). Flanders Classics. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  2. ^ "Elite Women". 10 March 2017.