The story behind this spring classic - Tour of Flanders : Ronde van Vlaanderen : Le Ronde Europe is steeped in cycling history, and the spring cobblestone classics typify the beginning of the cycling season. The most famous of these being: 1. Tour of Flanders (Belgium) cobbles + steep climbs 2. Paris Roubaix (France-Belguim) Both are one-day races that cover roughly 140 miles - much of which are on historic, cobbled roads. Personally, I think that Le Ronde, with it’s multiple climbs at 12% to 24% grades makes it the more challenging of the two. But that’s debatable. For both races, cold spring temps + possiblilty of rain + slick cobbles, make for a NASCAR-like event with some scary crashes. Cyclist refer to these races as ‘bone-shakers.’ I designed this poster to celebrate some of the steepest climbs that typically occur in this race - using the international symbol for mountain grades. The race typically starts in Brugge and finishes in Oudenaarde - with most of the courses climbing occuring in the last 58-miles. Le Ronde will be celebrating it’s 100th anniversary this year, 1913 representing the first race. I wanted to show the most famous point in the course, where massive crowds cheer on the riders at they approach the Muur van Geraardsbergen.