Le Pain du Muur

The Muur van Geraardsbergen, The Kapelmuur, The Muur. The best-known climb in all of Flanders. The one kilometer ascent begins as a wide street in the city of Geraardsbergen and whittles its way up to a roughly cobbled path averaging seven percent and pitching close to twenty percent at its steepest point. The Muur is not long enough to warrant steady-paced climbing with team strategy and planned attacks. It is about power, pain, and the possibility that the first to reach its Chapel-crested peak will be the first to finish the Ronde van Vlaanderen. The Muur knows no classification, no gender, no age; only the sacrifice its riders must give for the taste of victory.