Muur van Geraardsbergen
Geraardsbergen, Belgium
The Muur van Geraardsbergen is a col with a length of 1.1 kilometer. This is a category 4 col. It is located in Geraardsbergen, Vlaams Gewest, Belgium. The average grade of this col is 8.1% with a maximum of 17.6%. The Muur van Geraardsbergen ascents from 19 meter at the start, to 104 meter at the top, with a total of 85 ascending meters.
Profile
Facts
| Distance | 1.1 km |
| Elevation gain | 85 m |
| Average grade | 8.1 % |
| Maximum grade | 17.6 % |
| Climb category | 4 |
| Minimum elevation | 19 m |
| Maximum elevation | 104 m |
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Description
It was Robert Pierard who pointed out to his friend Karel Van Wijnendaele the existence of a merciless wall in the centre of Geraardsbergen. This is how the Muur made its debut in 1950 in professional cycling.
The Omloop Het Volk was the first professional cyclist race that went on to the Muur van Geraardsbergen on Sunday, March 5, 1950. One month later, on Sunday 1 April 1950, the heroes of the Tour of Flanders also got the Wall of Geraardsberge on the program. Fiorenzo Magni wriggled up there but behind his back, there was complete chaos on the stones of Oudenberg, as the hill is officially called. The cobbles were slippery because of the abundant rain.
Due to carelessness on the part of the police commissioner, a lost driver with his American car ended up in the caravan. Just on the steepest part of the barely three and a half meter wide Muur his car failed due to lack of fuel. If helpful spectators hadn't helped him out quickly, the passage of the cyclists would have turned out to be a catastrophe.
The organizer of the Tour de France, Jacques Goddet, who had followed the first passage in 1950 and was so enthusiastic that he decided to include the Muur van Geraardsbergen in the next Tour de France. The first passage of the Tour took place on Thursday 5 July 1951: in order to avoid any difficulties on the narrow Muur, Goddet removed it from the course and opted for a detour along the Kloosterstraat - Oude Steenweg.
Because of the chaos in 1953, the climb was cut out of the route of the Tour de Flanders, and only the steep Kloosterstraat remained.
The actual Muur was restored to its former glory in 1970 and was extended to the Kapel Muur in 1981.
In the Binckback Tour of 2020, Mathieu van der Poel performed an impressive solo of almost 75 km in order to win the stage and also the final classification. He started this solo with an attack on the 2nd passage (of the 5) of Muur van Geraardsbergen. After a blistering final he had just enough seconds left to stay out of the grip of the other general classification riders.
- Tour de France 1957 stage 5
- Tour de France 1973 stage 2
- Tour de France 1981 stage 13
- Tour de France 2014 stage 3
- Tour de France 2019 stage 1
- Ronde van Vlaanderen: 1950-1952, 1970-1980, (+ Kapelmuur) 1981-2001, 2003-2011, 2017-2019
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: 1950-1959, 1967-1968, 1974, 1979-1982, 1984-1985, 1987-2003, 2005-2007, 2009-2010, 2014-2021
- Gent-Wevelgem: 1960
- E3 Harelbeke: 2012
- Eneco Tour 2012 - Stage 7
- Eneco Tour 2013 - Stage 7
- Eneco Tour 2015 - Stage 7
- Driedaagse De Panne - Koksijde 2017 - Stage 1
- Dwars door de Vlaamse Ardennen 2018
- BinckBank Tour 2018 - Stage 7
- Baloise Belgium Tour 2019 - Stage 2
- BinckBank Tour 2019 - Stage 7
- BinckBank Tour 2020 - Stage 4