The Ronde van Vlaanderen (English: Tour of Flanders) is a road cycling race held in Flanders, Belgium. It is held every spring, a week before Paris-Roubaix. It is known for its cobbled climbs and the importance it holds for Belgian riders. It began as a symbol of Flemish regionalism[1] and is often a forest of yellow flags displaying the rampant lion that is symbol of the Flemish north. It is part of the UCI ProTour and one of the so-called monuments of the European professional calendar. It is the most important cycling race in Flanders. Its nickname is Vlaanderens mooiste (Dutch for "Flanders' finest").It looks like this:
Mmm coblestones.
Better blogs could go on about the tradition and the romance of the classics - I'll just say that if cycling is about suffering, then flanders is as close as a cyclist gets to crucifiction.
As I am a beer geek sort of person, I hope to sit down Sunday at 5PM with some Belgian beer - a map I found online shows 6 Flanders breweries - Westvleteren, Sint Benediktus, Nazareth, Westmalle, Marienhof, and Klaarland. The route starts in Brugge (the city, not the Indiana brewery) and then moves south and west, touching only the western third of the Flanders region, and going closest to Westvletern and Sint Benediktus.
I know that Westvletern (known as Westy) beer makes it here, but Sint Benediktus is a mystery to me. One I'll look into.
Hmm.
(this is probably a research post for hoosier beer geek. anyone read both sites? other than people in indy?)
list
westvleteren, sint-sixtus
sint benediktus, bornem
nazareth, brecht
westmalle, malle
marienhof, kerniel-borglom
klaarland, bochott
http://www.visitflanders.us/index.php?page=beer-lovers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanders
http://www.rvv.be/en/tourism/routes/rvv-bicycleroutes/rvvparcours2008
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