De Ronde Sun shines on day of hell It was snowing on the summit of the Koppenberg and before that we had a shortlived but spectacular blizzard of white hail the size of peas, but in the end the sun shone on the black, yellow and red jersey of Stijn Devolder (Quick Step) as he soloed to victory in Sunday's Tour of Flanders. The forecast on Saturday predicted a Flanders of epic suffering, with snow and rain due to hit the 264km race as it wound its way around the Flemish Ardennes, taking in 17 climbs, many cobbled and all thronged with baying crowds of locals. An estimated 700,000 Flemish came out to support the race and that was evident to those lucky enough, like us, to follow the whole route by motorbike. Through each town a wall of noise greeted us as bands struck up a rousing tune and church bells rang out. I now have a pretty good idea of what it must have been like sitting on the turret of a Sherman tank when these towns were liberated after WW2. Not a kilometre of the whole route was without a spectator and the climbs were something else. Barriers and high fencing is now the only way to prevent race fans completely blocking the narrow cobbled and metalled climbs. The atmosphere was never remotely threatening. I did hear some boos when the the Dutch rider Langeveld attempted to catch Devolder going over the Bosberg though, but the Flemish have always had a healthy rivarly with their neighbours, especially those in Rabobank jerseys. So the weather was not as biblical as expected, but that should not detract from Devolder's win which was straight out of the top drawer. Attacking with 25 kilometres to go he never had a big gap - it came down to nine seconds with five K's to go when Flecha was chasing - but like his great Flemish predecessor Johan Museeuw, Devolder might have folded a bit, but he never cracked.
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