Les Woodland's book Tour of Flanders: The Inside Story - The rocky roads of the Ronde van Vlaanderen is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
The Tour de l'Eurométropole was a professional stage race (2014) held late in the season on the Belgian-France frontier. Recent editions have had four stages held over four days. In 2016 ir became a single-day race.
First run in 1924 (that edition was won by Julien Perrain), it has been held continuously with the exception of the years 1940-1954 and 1968.
It was an amateur race from 1980 through 1995
The race's original name was Circuit Franco-Belge, but in 2011 it was renamed Tour de Wallonie-Picardie. That didn't last long and in 2012 it was given the title Tour de l'Eurométropole.
In 2005 the UCI classed it a 2.1 race and made it part of the UCI Europe Tour.
In 2016 it became a single-day race and was classed 1.1 and in 2017 it was upgraded to "HC"
Complete modern professional podium history:
Year | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place | Distance | Average Speed km/hr |
1996 | Koos Moerenhout | Mac Streel | Frank Høj | ||
1997 | Mario Aerts 12hr 41min 14sec |
Hans de Clercq @ 1min 23sec |
Geert van Bondt @ 1min 26sec |
534 km | 42.090 |
1998 | Frank Høj 12hr 48min 27sec |
Koen Beeckman @ 32sec |
Gzregorz Gwiazdowski @ 1min 40sec |
520 km | 41.382 |
1999 | Tayeb Braikia 11hr 55min 23sec |
Bert Roesems @ 18sec |
Andreas Klier @ 41sec |
513.9 km | 43.101 |
2000 | Daniele Nardello 12hr 12min 48sec |
Thierry Marichal @ 37sec |
Sylvain Chavanel @ 3min 23sec |
526.6 km | 43.116 |
2001 | Chris Peers 17hr 0min 13sec |
Jacky Durand @ 16sec |
Remco Van der Ven @ 2min 55sec |
718 km | 42.226 |
2002 | Robbie McEwen 16hr 59min 29sec |
Tom Boonen @ 2sec |
Christoph Von Kleinsorgen @ 14sec |
736 km | 43.316 |
2003 | Gerben Löwik 16hr 39min 48sec |
Nico Mattan @ 24sec |
Dave Bruylandts @ 34sec |
734.2 km | 44.061 |
2004 | Jimmy Casper 17hr 19min 22sec |
Steven de Jongh @ 4sec |
Nico Mattan @ 15sec |
713.4 km | 41.183 |
2005 | Marco Zanotti 17hr 17min 26sec |
Jimmy Casper @ 3sec |
Sébastien Hinault @ 4sec |
724 km | 41.873 |
2006 | Kevin van Impe 16hr 24min 53sec |
Danilo Hondo @ 13sec |
Olivier Kaisen @ 15sec |
690.8 km | 42.084 |
2007 | Gert Steegmans 16hr 58min 0sec |
Mark Cavendish @ 4sec |
Philippe Gilbert @ 14sec |
738.8 km | 43.544 |
2008 | Juan Antonio Flecha 16hr 50min 49sec |
Sébastien Rosseler @ 12sec |
Jürgen Roelandts @ 18sec |
736.4 km | 43.711 |
2009 | Tyler Farrar 18hr 27min 33sec |
Tom Boonen @ 8sec |
Roger Hammond @ 14sec |
764.4 |
41.410 |
2010 | Adam Blythe 15hr 37min 19sec |
Sep Vanmarcke @ 6sec |
Jakob Fuglsang @ 7sec |
687.5 km | 44.009 |
2011 | Robbie McEwen 14hr 43min 44sec |
Tom Veelers @ 5sec |
Christopher Sutton @ s.t. |
661.1 km | 44.885 |
2012 | Jurgen Roelandts 15hr 31min 48sec |
Juan Antonio Flecha @ 17sec |
Guillaume van Keirsbulck @ 19sec |
671.8 km | 43.258 |
2013 | Jens Debusschere 15hr 39min 4sec |
John Degenkolb @ s.t. |
Tyler Farrar @ 9sec |
683.3 km | 43.786 |
2014 | Arnaud Demare 15hr 5min 41sec |
Jens Debusschere @ 16sec |
Theo Bos @ s.t. |
688.3 km | 45.559 |
2015 | Alexis Gougeard 15hr 31min 19sec |
Martijn Keizer @ 7sec |
Jurgen Roelandts @ 11sec |
695 km | 44.775 |
2016 | Dylan Groenewegen 4hr 12min 55sec |
Oliver Naesen @ s.t. |
Tom Boonen @ s.t. |
195.6 km | 46.403 km/hr |
2017 | Daniel McLay 4hr 20min 20sec |
Kenny Dehaes @ s.t. |
Anthony Turgis @ s.t. |
188.6 km | 43.467 km/hr |
2018 | Mads Pedersen 4hr 57min 8sec |
Jean-Pierre Drucker @ s.t. |
Oliver Naesen @ s.t. |
206 km | 41.597 km/hr |
2019 | Piet Allegaert 3hr 47min 50sec |
Florian Sénéchal @ s.t. |
Jasper Stuyven @ s.t. |
176.7 km | 46.534 km/hr |
2020 | Race not run because of Covid-19 | ||||
2021 | Fabio Jakobsen 4hr 8min 32sec |
Jordi Meeus @ s.t. |
Mads Pedersen @ s.t. |
177.6 km | 42.876 km/hr |
2022 | Alexander Kristoff 4hr 12min 13sec |
Dries Van Gestel @ s.t. |
Victor Campenaerts @ s.t. |
175.2 km | 41.678 km/hr |
2023 | Arnaud De Lie 4hr 27min 52sec |
Rasmus Tiller @ s.t. |
Corbin Strong @ s.t. |
190.6 km | 42.693 km/hr |
2024 | Biniam Girmay 4hr 37min 52sec |
Axel Zingle @ s.t. |
Marc Hirschi @ s.t. |
190.6 km | 41.156 km/hr |