Ronde Van Vlaanderen preview

This weekend is to the Belgian people what Super Bowl Sunday is to the Americans or what FA Cup Final day to the English. Their entire cycling year revolves around the Tour of Flanders and just by winning it you can write your name into legend, regardless of what you do the rest of the season. And especially if you're a Belgian because winning this race is akin to winning the Tour de France in the eyes of the Flandrians.

It's an epic race that really needs no introduction here. We've all heard the stories. Merckx riding solo for 73km to win by more than five and a half minutes in '69; Vanderaerden in that storm of '85 in which only 24 riders finished; or Jesper Sibby falling on the famous Koppenberg and being run over by an officials car in '87, the same year Claude Criquielion became the only French-speaking Belgian to win the Ronde. Indeed, following that Skibby incident, the Koppenberg was kept off the race route for 15 years, but thankfully is a part of the spectacle once more.

If you're reading this you've probably been following the build up over the past few days, or indeed watching the recent races that by comparison can only be described as warm up events on many of the same roads. You're probably also wishing right about now that you weren't reading this, but rather in Belgium, in a pub or cafe perhaps, soaking up the atmosphere and getting ready to go stand at the side of the road and watch the race on one of its famous cobbled climbs.

So, who is going to win? Will it be a Belgian? Will Sagan finally break his Monument duct? Will Cancellara or Boonen go out in style with a 4th win for most ever? The sentimental pick must surely be Boonen and I'd be alright with that, though I also would like to see Sagan finally do it, or even see Michal Kwiatkowski build on last weeks win in an attempt to then go to the Ardennes classics and become the first man to do the Flanders-Liège same-year double since Eddy Merckx in 1975 (and 1969). And he stands a chance for five of the last ten Tour of Flanders winners have won the E3 Harelbeke.

But there are no certainties in bike racing and even fewer in the Tour of Flanders. The only guarantee is that it will make for thrilling viewing so make sure you find a way to tune in, if you're not one of the lucky ones, like my brother, to be on the side of Muur cheering the race past, and enjoy.