If there really is a “highway to hell,” it probably feels like riding up the Koppenberg.
For one day of the year, the harrowingly steep cobbled lane becomes the nemesis of the best racers in the world as they pound through the Tour of Flanders.
With dizzying 21 percent slopes, chaotically laid cobblestones, and claustrophobically banked verges, the Koppenberg is rated by many as the hardest climb of De Ronde’s menu of mayhem.
“The Koppenberg is the quintessential Belgian ‘Hellingen.’ It’s steep, stupid steep. But what sets it apart are the stones, they are just so recklessly random,” Simon Warren, cycling writer and cataloger of climbs from around the world, told CyclingTips.
“This, combined with the tree cover that drips debris and moisture onto the toughest section makes it perilously slippery almost year round.”
The worn stones of the Koppenberg can be so slick in fact, that Tadej Pogačar was among the many WorldTour pros that had to unclip out of their bucking bikes during a soggy Tour of Flanders recon Friday.
“It has probably the worst stones and steepest gradient [of the Flanders climbs],” seven-time Ronde racer Silvan Dillier once told VeloNews. “You cannot stop pedaling or you have to unclip.”
Located some 45 km from the finish of both the men’s and women’s races, the Koppenberg is rarely decisive at De Ronde.
But it is the most iconic.
The notorious berg shoots immediately skyward at a grade in excess of 10 percent, nudges its way up to 20+ percent, and only eases for a leg-sapping false flat over the summit.
At 600m, it’s not long, but the gradient more than makes up for that. Even the fastest are forced into a two-minute slow rev, tiny gear grind to the top.
The nasty numbers of the Koppenberg:
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- Melden village, near Oudenaarde
- 63m ascent
- 600m distance
- 11.1% average gradient
- 20.8% maximum gradient
- 100% pain
Every year, images circulate of the peloton’s finest putting cleats to cobblestones on the savagely steep slope.
The narrow track bottlenecks the bunch, and it takes just one rider to falter. Once one loses momentum, the riders behind domino to a halt and are unable to restart on a slope of near-stupidity.
One infamous incident in 1987 saw Jesper Skibby nearly lose a foot when he weaved to a stop on the cruel stones. The following commissaire car piled in from behind, taking down the drained Dane, crushing his bike, and almost taking the rider’s foot for good measure.
Alongside the Oude Kwarement and Paterberg, the Koppenberg is one of the climbs most associated with the Tour of Flanders. But the Koppenberg is still a relative rookie in Flanders’ 106-edition history.
The notorious Hellingen only became a part of the monument in the 1970s when local resident Hubert Hoffman lobbied race organizers for its inclusion.
It was an instant hit, a nugget of Instagrammable clickbait from the black-and-white era.
Jesper Skibby and the Koppenberg – 1987 Ronde van Vlaanderen. pic.twitter.com/OAnjYZ1fkP
— CafeRoubaix (@CafeRoubaix) December 18, 2019
Saturday, the day before De Ronde van Vlaanderen, thousands of keen – and perhaps slightly crazed – amateurs take on the Tour of Flanders Fondo.
Any rider that hits the Koppenberg’s summit unscathed will take hero’s status.
“The Koppenberg is quite simply anarchy beneath your wheels,” Warren told CyclingTips.
“To get up with putting a foot down is always a triumph whether you are a weekend warrior or Wout van Aert.”
It would be a surprise to see Tour of Flanders top favorite Van Aert unload from his bike Sunday. But dozen behind him most likely will.
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