Tour of Flanders

The Tour of Flanders is a Flanders Classics road cycling race. It is held in Belgium every spring. It is a week before the Paris–Roubaix road race. The Tour of Flanders is part of the UCI World Tour. It is one of the monuments of the European professional calendar. It is the most important cycling race in Flanders. Its nickname is "Vlaanderens mooiste" which is Dutch for "Flanders' finest".
When the race began in 1913 the starting city was Ghent with the end of the race in Mariakerke. It has changed twelve times since then. In 2012 the race starts in Bruges and ends in Oudenaarde.
The race has a number of short, sharp hills. The race gives prizes to the first cyclist to go up 17 of these hills. These hills make the race very challenging.
"Looking back, you get a bit nostalgic, but from a competitive point of view, Flanders was one of the most horrible races to ride but one of the greatest races to win." - Sean Kelly