Tour through Flanders complete
No less than 106 teams take the start of the 1 on Saturday 14 February in Menen in West Flanderse Tour through Flanders, the opening leg of the Belgian (historic) regularity calendar. 82 teams compete against each other in the Classic class, while 24 specialists of the discipline compete in the notorious Marathon class.
From the Cultural Center De Steiger in Menen, it immediately crosses the French border from 11: 00 hours. The Classic teams start first and are followed by the Marathon teams from 12: 20 hours. Their roadbook, consisting of sphere-arrow situations and map reading fragments, takes them to Méteren (near Bailleul) for a first short stopover. Stage 2 goes further north and takes the participants back across the Belgian border on beautiful, unknown rally roads. Herberg De Kippe in Merkem offers shelter for a well-deserved break. At the start of the third stage it will be pitch dark in the meantime, which considerably increases the difficulty. After 280 km (Classic) and 372 km (Marathon) the participants will return to Menen from 20: 30 hours.
Classic car enthusiasts will again see beautiful and often unique cars at work. The most sporty models from Ford, Volvo, BMW, MG, Porsche, Opel, Fiat,… are at the start. Various ex-rally drivers, who drove this kind of competition in the 60s or 70s in real rally competition, are trying to bring home a trophy again. Just think of Arnel Calcoen, Daniel Verschaeve, Donald Verhaeghe,… Weather work comes from a number of renowned foreign teams, who previously came to gain experience in the Tour of Flanders. Strooper-Guliker and father and son De Rooij can be expected at the front of the standings. Of course, the Belgian specialists in the discipline are also at the appointment. D'Hoe-Vanoverschelde on an MG B GT, Demuynck-Bersipont on a Alfa Romeo, Picry-Picry in a BMW 2002, Stephenne-Demortier in an Opel Ascona or Dupan-Dupan, also in an MG B – just to name a few. Candidates enough for the final victory.
Although the Tour through Flanders is not a speed rally, the teams will compete every second until the end. After all, the winners are those who can drive the route as correctly and especially as regularly as possible. And in the Tour of Flanders that is absolutely no mean feat! Snow will probably not do it, but Autostal Hemicuda, organizer of the event, already assures that it will rain for seconds.
Starting list, timing and public points can be found at www.hemicuda.be