A roll of honor full of champions. A 105-year-long history, studded with great feats, unforgettable victories and an atmosphere in which you can breathe the scent of legend: the time has finally come for the Tour of Flanders .

On Sunday 3 April there are 272 km to go, dotted with 18 sectors of cobblestones and 18 walls. At km 136 the first passage on the Oude Kwaremont (2 km at 4.4%, peaking at 7.8%). Then Koppenberg, Steenbeekdries and Taaienberg followed by the Kruisberg, the third and last pass on the Kwaremont and the second pass on the Paterberg. From the last wall there will be 13.8 km to go to the finish. The race will be very tough as always: and if the temperatures are low with the risk of rain (and some snowflakes) it will become epic.

What makes noise are the many absences, by choice (like Alaphilippe) or due to illness (like Van Aert). Participation, however, is of a high standard. The number favorite is Mathieu Van der Poel (52 million), winner of the Dwars last Wednesday and back from a first and second place in the last two editions.

Then there are the "battleships", that is those teams that can count on at least two options to try to finish first in Oudenaarde: Jumbo Visma will rely on Tiesj Benoot (18) and Christophe Laporte (27), who appeared in great shape in the last few exits. The Ineos Grenadiers can count on a Thomas Pidcock (31) in great shape and on the paper Dylan Van Baarle (25). But also pay attention to the very young and perky Ben Turner who costs 2.

The Trek Segafredo lines up at the start the expert Jasper Stuyven (31) and Mads Pedersen (20), capable of exalting himself with the prohibitive weather conditions (see World 2019), the Quick Step awaited for redemption will have Kasper Asgreen (30) as captain and colonels Yves Lampaert (23), Florian Senechal (24) and Zdenek Stybar (13), the Groupama - Fdj focuses on Stefan Kung (29) and Valentin Madouas (11). Two steps below are Ag2R with experts Greg Van Avermaet (21) and Oliver Naesen (17) and Movistar with Alex Aranburu (19) and Ivan Garcia Cortina (13).

Then at the start here are the "loose mines", that is, those riders capable of anything: we would like to name Matej Mohoric (37) of Bahrain Victorius, Anthony Turgis (20) of TotalEnergies, Michael Matthews (31) of Bike Exchange-Jayco, Nils Politt (19) from Bora, Soren Kragh Andersen (17) from DSM and Victor Campenaerts (18) from Lotto Soudal. There is curiosity in seeing the Norwegian talent of Uno X, Tobias Johannessen (4) at work.

Obviously we have not forgotten Tadej Pogacar (64) : the Slovenian runs his first Flanders and there is a lot of anticipation to find out what he will do. Considering him among the favorites, or as he says among the outsiders, is obvious.

Few Italians at the start: the winner in 2019, Alberto Bettiol (22), and Gianni Moscon (16) are late in condition while there is some more hope for a good result from Matteo Trentin (26) . Pogacar permitting.

Don't miss the live broadcast on Sunday evening, April 3, on our Youtube and Twitch channels with the comments and analyzes (as well as the top & flops) of the legendary Ronde van Vlaanderen.

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