Flanders: land of the UCI Worlds, land of cycling

Belgium is often described as the country of cycling and if its two lungs – Flanders and Wallonia, alongside the vibrant heart that is Brussels – breathe with passion for the bike, the balance naturally tilts towards the northern region. As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the UCI Road World Championships, it is a perfect occasion to embrace the Flemish passion for the bike. It will be happening from 19 to 26 September in Bruges and Leuven.

“It would be difficult to find a more fitting setting for this centenary edition than Belgium’s heart of cycling that is home of great names such as Eddy Merckx, Yvonne Reynders, Johan Museeuw and Tom Boonen,” says the President of the UCI David Lappartient. “Flanders has already hosted our UCI Road World Championships six times – in Moorslede in 1950, Waregem in 1957, Ronse in 1963 and 1988, and Zolder in 1969 and 2002 – and is also famous for its great Classics that see riders tackle the region’s challenging cobbles and demanding ‘monts’.”

After the birth of the Worlds in 1921, and the inception of the rainbow jersey in 1927, the event quickly travelled to Belgium, in Liège, where Italians, and most notably Alfredo Binda, reigned supreme (1930). The first edition held in Flanders, in 1950, left a typical Flemish mark in the history books. The participants faced a 284km-long gruelling route covered in almost eight hours by the winner. And it was not any winner: the “iron man” Briek Schotte took his second rainbow jersey in front of dozens of thousands of fans, two years after his first triumph in Valkenburg (Netherlands).

Flemish roads and Flandriens

Schotte was interviewed on the radio soon after and couldn’t conceal his joy: “Mama, mama, you hear me? I’m World Champion!” Also known as “the last Flandrien”, Schotte is a poster child of the athletes raised in these windy lands: rugged, resilient and relentless, an irrepressible strength whose powerful legs could grind any resistance. “We, the Flemish, are a chip off a special block,” he said before his death in 2004. Author Jaak Veltman, a witness of Schotte’s exploits, wrote: “A Flandrien is the son of the little people working the fields… He remains closely tied to nature. The Flandrien has an implacable physical and nervous resistance, an insensitivity to fatigue, an inexhaustible perseverance and a dark resolution against adversity.”

Belgian Women Elite victory in Flanders

Ronse 1963 saw victory in the Women Elite race go to Belgium’s own Yvonne Reynders, bringing some balance between the South and the North. Hailing from the region of Brussels, she won her first rainbow jersey (out of 4) in Wallonia (Liège, in 1959) followed by Berne (Switzerland) in 1961 and the third in East Flanders (Ronse, in 1963). Reynders had just turned 22 years old when she claimed her first UCI World Champion title, and she was 39 when she took the bronze medal in 1976. Today, she remains an icon in a country which is now waiting for a first gold since Nicole Vandenbroeck won in 1973.

UCI Bike Region

Flanders’ commitment to all things cycling, not least with a network of 2,650km of cycling roads, saw it receive the UCI Bike Region label. With the Flemish cycling plan adopted in 2016, investments in cycling infrastructure should increase to 300-million Euros a year by 2024. The Flanders road safety plan has the ambitious goal of zero cycling deaths by 2050. This support of ‘cycling for all’ runs alongside an impressive calendar of competitions, across disciplines (road, cyclo-cross, track…), ages and genders. At the end of the winter, the Belgian opening weekend is a grand celebration of cycling preceded by intense discussions about everyone’s winter’s preparation, in a land where everyone seems to know someone who knows someone…

“The first time I rode on the Flanders hills…”

Then, it’s a magnificent crescendo towards the Ronde van Vlaanderen – Tour des Flandres. “Everyone is here to watch Het Nieuwsblad, but they’re all thinking about the Ronde,” said Jacky Durand in times gone by. The Frenchman won the 1992 edition and, as a pundit for Eurosport, he shares every year his absolute love for Flanders and its cycling life. Philippe Gilbert grew up in Wallonia, at the bottom of the Côte de la Redoute, an iconic ascent of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. His legendary status was forged on the “bergs” after discovering them as a teenager, telling Eurosport a few years ago: “The first time I rode on the Flanders hills, I was 17 years old. I was part of a Flemish team and every Saturday I had to go there. I had to travel 160km in the car, leaving at 6am. Then we did a five-hour ride and then I went home.” These roads have seen generations of Flandriens develop a unique strength. Gilbert eventually won the Ronde, in 2017, but he’s only one of the champions from Wallonia to have done so, three decades after Claudy Criquielion. This September, the Belgians chasing the rainbow jerseys in the elite events in Flanders come from the region, apart from Kim De Baat who was born in Rotterdam and became Belgian in 2015. Tim Declercq and Jasper Stuyven hail from Leuven itself, where the road races will finish. And where they hope to celebrate a unique Flemish party.