We Ride Flanders, live.

The hellingen, the day before the Ronde

Sixteen thousand riders take on the Tour of Flanders course on the Saturday, cobbles, gradients and all.

We Ride Flanders is the cyclosportive of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, ridden the day before the professional race on the same roads and up the same walls. Four distances: 247 kilometres from Antwerp, and 163, 133 and 79 from Oudenaarde. All of them climb the hellingen of the Flemish Ardennes — the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg, the Taaienberg and the Koppenberg, whose cobbles hit 22 per cent and where a rider who loses momentum walks.

Belgian crowds turn out for the amateurs too, which means the Koppenberg on the Saturday looks a great deal like the Koppenberg on the Sunday. Livebib puts the whole route on the map with the rider on it, each climb drawn as it really is, distance covered and an arrival estimate for Oudenaarde that keeps updating — one link for whoever is waiting at the finish with a beer and a folding chair.