2025 Danilith Nokere Koerse (1.Pro), Belgium

Nokere Koerse podium history | 2024 edition | Start list

Deinze - Nokere: 188.1 km, 23km of cobbles

Race map

Nils Eekhoff wins, his first race day after crashing in thge AlUla Tour.

Les Woodland's book Paris-Roubaix: The Inside Story - All the bumps of cycling's cobbled classic is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Weather at the finish city of Nokere at 1:00 PM, local time: 17C (62F), sunny, with the wind from the south at 14 km/hr (9 mph). No rain is forecast.

The course: Nokere Koerse will be 188.1 kilometres long in 2025. The start will remain on the Markt in cycling city Deinze. The arrival is new and will be on another flank of Nokereberg; via the Waregemsestraat.

First there is an 87.8 km approach that takes the riders past Nazareth, Gavere, Zwalm, Zottegem, Oudenaarde, Horebeke, Maarkedal, Anzegem and Wortegem-Petegem towards Nokere. After 22 kilometres the well-known Paddestraat is the first cobblestone section of the day, 18 kilometres later the Jagerij and Holleweg are the next obstacles. After a passage past Brouwerij Roman we head via the Kokkerellestraat to Oudenaarde and from there to Anzegem with the cobblestones of the Varent, the slopes of Hellestraat and Holstraat and in Wortegem-Petegem the lesser-known Petegemberg (500m at 7.6%), with a beautiful view of the Flemish Ardennes at the top.

It goes without saying that these obstacles will only serve as a warm-up. After the riders first take on Nokereberg (350 meters at 5.7%, maximum 7%), they will face 2 local laps of 31.3 km and a more extensive final lap of 37.8 km.

The local rounds are peppered with numerous cobblestone sections: the Herlegemstraat, the Lange Aststraat, Kloosterstraat, Doorn, Lededorp and the Huisepontweg, which follow each other very closely. That is where the differences have to be made. Otherwise we go to a treacherous sprint on the Waregemsestraat, a final km with an average gradient of 4%.

The race: Here's the race report race winner Nils Eekhoff's Team Picnic-PostNL:

Team Picnic PostNL secured a brilliant win on Wednesday afternoon, where a good team ride throughout the day saw Nils Eekhoff in position to put the power down on the uphill kick to the line.

A hectic day of racing over the twisting narrow roads, cobbles and punchy drags lay ahead of Team Picnic PostNL at Nokere Koerse. Riding well as a group throughout the race, good positioning work by the team ensured that Nils Eekhoff, Pavel Bittner and Patrick Eddy made the reduced peloton with around 30 kilometres to go. On the run in to the finish more attacks flew but Team Picnic PostNL remained calm and things regrouped, as the race charged towards the line.

Coming into the final kick up to the line, both Eekhoff and Bittner eased their way through the pack and moved forward. With the road rising and the finish gantry in sight, Eekhoff kicked hard and no one was able to come around him; where he could sit up and celebrate a magnificent win with Team Picnic PostNL. It’s a particularly poignant win as not only is it Eekhoff’s first road race win, but also the race marked his return to action by a lot of hard work from him and those at the team after his crash in AluLa Tour.

A delighted Eekhoff said: “It’s a pretty important win, it’s my first pro win in a stage that’s not just a TT. I’m really happy to finish it off today; we rode well as a team throughout I think. It was a couple of hard weeks after the crash in AluLa tour but we got through it and I’m pretty stoked to make this comeback. It was a long drag on the uphill and I was positioning Pavel. The guys in front of me went from far and then they started dying on the wheels a bit. I waited for a while and then just went for it and it didn’t look back. I’m really happy to take this win with the team, it means a lot.”