Profile Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne 2022

Second round of the opening weekend, after today Omloop Het Nieuwsblad delivered an exciting start to the cobbled classics season. In Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, the route is much more sprinter friendly, however there is a habit of seeing solo winners in these roads, as the course allows for a very open race.

195 make for a slightly shorter race, however one that doesn’t feature much of a flat start. From the 30 kilometer mark riders will start to go up and down and will ride by two of the main towns in Flandres, Oudenaarde and Ronse. It will be between these two towns that the race will blow up. It’s a race that isn’t as much focused on cobbled sectors but rather in a sequence of hills, and the place where attacks will come is towards their end.

In the profile above you see Hameau des Papins (1.2Km at 6.4%, 93Km to go), Le Bourliquet (1.3Km at 6.3%, 84.5Km to go), Mont Saint Laurent (1.3Km at 7%, 79.5Km to go), Oude Kruisberg (1.3Km at 5%, 70Km to go) and Côte du Trieu (1.2Km at 7.2%, 61.5Km to go). This is the section where differences have to be made, albeit a few more pitches later on allowing attacks. The final of these climbs finished with over 60 kilometers to go but for those who can’t afford taking the race into a sprint they have to not only make differences but split the groups completely so as to have better chances of avoiding a peloton coming from behind.

For those eyeing a sprint, they will have over an hour to reacess, organize a chase and catch whoever will be at the head of the race. The last cobbled sector comes with 35Km to go at the Beerbosstraat but going solo at this point is very much suicide, in most races that is! Here in Kuurne everything is possible.

The peloton rolls along pan-flat roads for the final 25 kilometers, riding through the finish line once before emerging into the town center for the final time, these roads are fast but they are easy to make for an organized chase, so it should be as always a close balance between the attackers and the sprinter’s teams.