100 years of race history with rideable bike exhibits, retro steeds and more
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The Tour of Flanders Centre in Oudenaarde is packed with memorabilia from the 100-year-old cobbled classic (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
The Tour of Flanders Centre has an adult and a kid's bike on ovalized rollers that replicates the rattling feeling of riding on cobbles (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
The original Rapha jersey… belonged to the Rapha-Gitane team. The bust is of Tom Simpson, who died of a drug overdose on the bike, but not before winning the 1961 Tour of Flanders(Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
After being created in 1913, the race was soon disrupted by World War I (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
The museum houses a controversial exhibit comparing a male rider to a female rider. Besides wattage appromxiation comparisons, the exhbiit also makes claims such as 'a woman's wider pelvis catches more wind', and that menstruation can 'reduce oxygen' and 'cause irritability and fatigue'. These are all listed as reasons why men are faster racers than women (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Of course Eddy Merckx won De Ronde (1975) (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Tires are a little wider now at the Tour of Flanders (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Having won three times, Fabian Cancellara is an adopted son of Oudenaarde, and gets his own corner of the museum (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Interestingly, two of Cancellara's three display bikes are time-trial machines (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Look's Ergo Stem allowed for aggressive positions on bikes without short head tubes (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
A bucolic rendition of the Tour of Flanders (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Being Belgium, the musem's gift shop offers multiple cycling-themed beers (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Many of the artifacts were provided to the museum in seemingly the same state they were in following the race (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Nasty crashes have always been part of the sport (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
The cobbled climbs were just as steep back in the ’70s as they are today — and the gearing was even bigger (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Like many races, the Tour of Flanders was conceived as a newspaper promotion, and the event continues to generate media coverage today (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Videos of recent editions of the race run in loops inside the museum (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Think getting up a steep hill in your little ring and big cog is hard? Try climbing on a 13.5kg/30lb singlespeed (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Tom Simpson's 1962 Gitane boasted a 52/42 crank with a 13-17 cassette. Weight was 11kg/24.3lb (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
This Freddy Maertens Flandria is a tough-guy bike: one bottle cage (no rivets for a second), and 52/42 x 12-18 gearing (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Shimano Dura-Ace brake calipers have certainly gained in mechanical efficiency over the years, but the barrel adjuster and quick release are nothing new (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
In 2015, Team Sky rode the Tour of Flanders on an elastomer-suspended road bike, the Pinarello Dogma K8-S. But it certainly wasn't the first. This Discovery Channel Trek borrowed the elastomer suspension design from then-sister brand Klein (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Mavic calipers were a bit of a flash in the pan. This set was on Johan Museeuw's 2004 Time bike (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
The basic components are the same, but the designs have certainly changed over the years (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Goggles, 'hair net' helmets and toe clips look downright antique by today's standards (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
And being Belgium, the museum has an adjoining cycling-themed bar, where patrons watched the 2015 Tour of Flanders on the big screen (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Team Sky and Pinarello made waves at the 2015 Tour of Flanders with an elastomer-suspended road bike, but a little museum just steps from the race finish contains proof that the Dogma K8-S certainly isn't the first of its kind. The Tour of Flanders Centre hosts, among hundreds of other relics, a 2005 Discovery Channel edition Trek Madone equipped with an elastomer rear suspension, a design borrowed from Trek's then-sister brand Klein.
The Tour of Flanders Centre chronicles the race, its gear and its stars from its inception in 1903 on through the 2014 edition. Numerous historic bikes add perspective to the modern day race. (Think climbing a steep, cobbled climb on a double-ring bike is tough? Try it on 13.5kg/30lb singlespeed.) And old newspaper clippings and looped race radio recordings take visitors back in time.
BikeRadar visited the museum during the 2015 Tour of Flanders, and the deep gallery above captures some of the more interesting parts, including a questionable exhibit that argues women are slower than men on bikes because menstruation causes a reduction in oxygen.
Click through the gallery above for a walk through the quirky museum.
Two demo bikes are mounted on ovalized rollers to simulate riding cobbles
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