1st Ronde van Vlaanderen 1913 / Tour of Flanders (Belgium)

A Belgian Monument is Born

The first ever Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) was the last of cycling's 5 Monuments to start. Léon van den Haute, co-founder of the sports newspaper Sportwereld, was the architect and promoter of the first Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1913. The legendary Karel Van Wijnendaele (Vine-en-doll), a Sports Journalist for the Sportwereld, was the first race director.

In order to promote their newly founded newspaper developed a “Flemish” race on a model of Paris-Roubaix. February 17, 1913 Van den Haute andVan Wijnendaele announced in Sportwereld the creation of the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders).

The race started in the middle of Gent and headed out in a big loop, ending in Meerbeke 370 km later. In an effort to keep the historic and cultural identity, Van Wijnendaele took special note to include most of the major cities of Flanders on the race route. The prize list of 1,600 Francs was large by the standards of the times, where a teacher was paid 1,200 Francs for a year's work.

The start was from the Korenmarkt Square in the center of Gent. 370 km and over 12 hours later a seven rider breakaway entered the velodrome in Mariakerke (a suburb of Gent).

In the transition to the track Jan van Ingelghem (Peugeot-Wolber) and Achille Depauw (Liberator-Hutchinson) collided and fell to the track. Five riders avoided the mishap and jumped down the track to contest the sprint.

Automoto’s Paul Deman led out the sprint and won the epic battle for the victory. The Belgian becomes the first winner of the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

RVV 1914

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