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Belgium: the real country of cycling
With the return of sunny days, it’s the start of the cycling season, with many classic races in Belgium.
(France 2)
With the return of sunny days, it’s the start of the cycling season, with many classic races in Belgium.
The cycling season has started, with great classics, these one-day races, like Paris-Roubaix, unlike a grand tour which lasts for three weeks. There are several great Flandrian and Ardennes classics: Ghent-Wevelgem (March 24), THE Tour of Flanders (March 31), Paris-Roubaix (April 7), there Flèche Wallonne (April 17) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège (April 21). Belgium, it is the country of cycling par excellence. The first victory of a Belgian on the Round of France dates back to 1912, with Odile Defraye. From there, Belgians will become passionate about cycling and cycling and Round from France particularly. “Running is a way for many poor people to escape poverty. It notably allowed the Flemish ‘dugs’, as the southerners called them, to promote themselves and take revenge on the Walloon industrialists”specified Pascal Sergent, cycling historian, in La Croix, in July 2019.
Eddy Merckx, the Belgian cycling star
Eddy Merckx is the star of Belgian cycling, with five victories At Tour de France between 1969 and 1974, and a very beautiful legacy: 50 years later, in 2023, Belgium was the world’s leading nation in the number of victories. The podium is completed by Italy and the Netherlands. The current stars are Jasper Philipsen, Remco Evenepoel, Wout van Aert. The public is also there to meet the champions, it’s incomparable.
