Muur van Geraardsbergen cycling climb map

by Sidney van den Boogaard

In Flanders it is simply 'the Muur'. You start at the bridge over the Dender in Geraardsbergen, cross the Markt and climb the Oudebergstraat, and then comes the mythical part: some 475 metres of cobbles to the top of the Oudenberg. The steepest pitch approaches twenty percent, and just when you think it is over, the road curls around the chapel of Our Lady of Oudenberg – hence the name Kapelmuur. For decades this was the stage for the great battles of the spring classics. The cobbles have been a protected monument since 1995. For every fan who knows exactly which wall you mean by 'the Wall'.

This work is part of the Legendary Climbs collection: the most famous climbs in road cycling, from the Alps and the Pyrenees to the short, steep hills of Flanders and Limburg. Each climb is drawn from the real road, with the elevation profile coloured per kilometre and, along the bottom, the length, elevation gain, average and maximum gradient and the summit.

The road is drawn from OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors) and the profile from Copernicus elevation data (EU-DEM). A great gift for any cyclist, to hang next to the bike or as a goal for next season.