Molenberg
Climb · Flanders
Checked
part of: The cobbled bergs of Flanders
Molenberg is a 0.3 km cycling climb averaging 6.5% (+17 m), rising from 27 m to 44 m in Flanders.
For years the first pivot point of the Ronde, with 39 appearances since 1983: a road so narrow that Peter Van Petegem reckoned missing the first ten onto the cobbles cost half an hour of chasing. Cancellara went clear here in 2010 with only Boonen able to follow, and won by 1:14.
0.3 km · +17 m · 6.5% avg · ~11.1% max · 27 → 44 m
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
Download GPX ↓Navigate to the foot ↗
Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 100 m: 12.5% (km 0.1–0.2).
Road: cobbled throughout
| section | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 0–100 m | 33 m | 6.2% |
| 100–200 m | 42 m | 9.3% |
What it’s like to ride
The Molenberg leaves the flat, well-surfaced Smaare road at a sharp right angle and turns instantly into a narrow lane of rough cobbles that climbs from the first pedal stroke. Your marker for the turn is the water mill at the foot, the 13th-century Moldergemmolen, which is where the hill gets its name. The paving is roughly laid and protected as a landscape monument, so it stays exactly as bad as it is, and the steepest pitch of around 14% arrives in the middle of the climb in a right-hand bend, precisely where the surface gives you least to push against. It is only a few hundred metres up to the top of the valley at 56 m, but the width is the real problem: this was for years the first pivot point of the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and Peter Van Petegem's line was that if you are not in the first ten onto the Molenberg it takes half an hour to get back to the front. Boonen and Cancellara went clear here in 2010.
History
The Molenberg is a sunken lane worn down between Moldergem and the Moldergembeek and later surfaced with cobbles to stop the erosion that had cut it, and the Flemish heritage inventory lists it as one of the last surviving examples of that kind of paved road surface; the cobbled stretch was protected as a monument in 1995. Its name comes from the Moldergemmolen, the water mill at the foot of the hill. The Ronde van Vlaanderen took it in for the first time in 1983, the year Jan Raas won, and it has been climbed 39 times in the race, every edition from 1983 to 2016 and again from 2021 to 2025, with a standing place in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Dwars door de Vlaamse Ardennen as well. The road is too narrow to move up on, which makes the approach the real fight: two-time Ronde winner Peter Van Petegem put it at half an hour to get back to the front if you are not in the first ten onto the cobbles. In 2010 Fabian Cancellara went clear here with more than 40 kilometres left to ride and only Tom Boonen could hold him, and Cancellara then dropped Boonen on the Muur van Geraardsbergen to win by 1:14.
Worth stopping near the climb
More climbs in Flanders
Common questions
- How long and steep is Molenberg?
- Molenberg is a 0.3 km cycling climb averaging 6.5% (+17 m), rising from 27 m to 44 m in Flanders.
- Where is Molenberg steepest?
- The steepest 100 m averages 12.5%, between km 0.1 and km 0.2 of the climb.
- Is Molenberg cobbled, and for how far?
- Yes. 0.3 km of Molenberg's 0.3 km are laid in sett or cobblestone (cobbled throughout), measured from OpenStreetMap surface tags along the climb.